Plenary Speakers
Plenary Date:
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Opening Plenary
During the Opening Plenary session selected political leaders will address the fine balance of users, producers and the ephemeral stardust needed to make an undertaking like INSPIRE work ... !
Represented by
Mr Andrus Ansip
Andrus Ansip was appointed Vice-President of the European Commission with responsibility for the Digital Single Market in November 2014. Before moving to Brussels, he was a member of both the Estonian and European Parliaments. This followed almost nine years in Tallinn spent as Estonia's longest-serving Prime Minister, when Ansip worked with both centre-right and centre-left parties to lead three different coalition governments. During his time as Prime Minister, he also acted as chairman of Estonia's liberal Reform Party.
Ansip first entered national politics in September 2004 when he became Minister of the Economy. Up to this point, his career was spent in Estonia's second largest city of Tartu where he was born in 1956. Ansip was Mayor of Tartu for six years after working in banking and business."
Represented by
Mr Daniel Calleja
Mr Calleja is Director General of DG Environment from the 1st of September 2015.
Mr Daniel Calleja was Director General of DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs from the 1st January 2015 until the 31th of August 2015.
Mr Daniel Calleja was Director General of DG Enterprise and Industry, Special Envoy for SMEs from 1st February 2012 to January 2015.
Daniel Calleja was Deputy Director General of DG Enterprise and Industry, from February 2011 to January 2012, in charge of internal markets for goods, competitiveness and innovation, SMEs and entrepreneurship, international negotiations and tourism. He is the Special Envoy for SMEs.
Mr Calleja was Director for Air Transport at the European Commission from November 2004 to February 2011, in charge of the single European aviation market and its external dimension. He has successfully negotiated, on behalf of the E.U., the EU-US Open Skies Agreement. He was the Chairman of the Air Safety and the Single Sky Committees and Chairman of the Board of the SESAR Joint Undertaking.
Between 1999 and 2004, he was Head of Cabinet of the Vice-president of the European Commission, Mrs. Loyola de Palacio, responsible for Transport, Energy and relations with the European Parliament. During this period, he participated actively in the elaboration of the EU transport policy, notably in the launching of the Transport White Book, the Single European Sky, the creation of the European Air Safety Agency (EASA) and the Galileo program.
Between 1995 and 1999, Mr. Calleja was the Head of Cabinet for Commissioner Marcelino Oreja, responsible for institutional affairs, and for the Amsterdam Treaty negotiations. In 1995, he was the legal adviser in the Cabinet of the President of the European Commission, responsible for Transport, Competition, State Aids and the control of the application of Community Law.
Between 1993 and 1994, he advised the Transport Commissioner in the area of liberalisation of air transport, State aid cases concerning the restructuring of airlines, the first directive on groundhandling, the implementation of the third air package and the CRS regulation.
Between 1986 and 1993, he was Member of the Legal Service of the Commission and he represented the institution in numerous cases before the European Court of Justice.
Mr Calleja is the author of several publications. He has lectured in European Law in several universities and institutes of various Member States.
Mr Calleja has a degree in Law and in Business Administration from the University of Comillas, Madrid.
Piero Bruni
Piero Bruni, currently President of the "Associazione Lago di Bolsena" is an engineer specialized in underground geophysical measurements. He worked many years in various parts of the world. He has always been involved in the protection of the Bolsena lake by participating in several voluntary associations. Being born in 1927, he can relate the many environmental events, sometimes positive and others less, that have affected the lake evolution since a very long time. During the last 18 years he monitored the chemical and physical status of the lake in cooperation with the Institute for the Study of the Ecosystems of Lake Maggiore.
Mrs. Dorine Burmanje
Dorine Burmanje is Chair of the Executive Board of the Netherlands' Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency, in short: Kadaster. Her main focus is to position Kadaster at national and international level as partner in land registration and geographic information facilitating society; executed in close cooperation with relevant multi-stakeholders.
Her main areas of responsibility include the general management of the organisation, the positioning of Kadaster as a non-departmental public body, the promotion of Kadaster as a partner in the GEO sector as well as further development of innovation. Mrs Burmanje is co-Chair of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management. She is a Board Member of the Dutch Centre of Geodesy and Geo-Informatics. Prior to her current position at Kadaster, she was the Director of the Rijn and IJssel Waterboard.
Steven Vandeput
Steven H.M. Vandeput, born March 30, 1967 in Hasselt is a Belgian politician, member of the N-VA (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie). He is currently federal Minister of Defence, in charge of the Civil Service.
Personal life
Born on the 30th March 1967 in Hasselt (Belgium)
Married to Saskia Mussels
Father of Kaat and Kobe
Professional expertise
Military service in medical Service (1993)
Independent contractor (since 1993)
Managing director of the construction firm “Engineering Interieur en Bouwprojecten”
Training/manager of Trenisto (organisation for training, coaching and consultancy)
Member of Parliament , member of the commission Finance and Budget, and the commission Infrastructure, Traffic and Public Enterprises (2010-2014)
Member of Parliament (2014-…)
Minister of Defence, in charge of Civil Service (since 11 October 2014)
Political career
Chairman of the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie Limburg (2008-2010)
Member of the Bureau of the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie Party
Member of the Council of the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie Party
Leader of the members of the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie at the City Council of Hasselt (since 2013)
Social commitment
Chairman of the “Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudenten Verbond” (1988-1989)
President of the Junior Chamber International Hasselt (1998)
President of the Junior Chamber International Vlaanderen (2004-2005)
President of the Junior Chamber International Belgium (2006)
Vice President of the Junior Chamber International (2007)
Member of several associations
Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea
Before taking up responsibilities for enforcement, cohesion and the European Semester, in the European Commission's Directorate General for Environment in January 2014, he was Director for Equality in the Directorate-General for Justice since April 2011, in charge of gender equality and of the fight against discrimination on grounds of sex, race or ethnicity, disability, religion or belief, age and sexual orientation. Prior to this appointment, he was Director for Fundamental Rights and EU Citizenship within the same DG and in DG Justice, Freedom and Security, where he was responsible for the general fundamental rights policy, the free movement of persons, electoral rights and other rights of EU citizens, and data protection.
He joined the European Commission in 2009, having worked beforehand in various capacities for the Romanian Government and public administration, for the Delegation of the European Commission in Bucharest, as well as for the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU. He also taught international law and EU law at the University of Bucharest Faculty of Law, his alma mater.
He holds an LL.M. from the University of Illinois (US) and a Ph.D. from the University of Bucharest (RO).
Maximilian Strotmann
Maximilian Strotmann is a Member of the Cabinet of Andrus Ansip, European Vice-President in charge of the Digital Single Market. Max's main areas of responsibility in Mr Ansip's team are e-government, interoperability and start-ups.
Working for the Commission since 1997, Max's career has spanned a broad range of portfolio topics including tourism and enterprise policies; audit and anti-fraud issues; communication and institutional IT issues as well as maritime transport and logistics and intelligent transport systems.
Max studied sociology, psychology and economic and social policies at Augsburg University (Germany). The 1989 fall of the Berlin wall was a unique opportunity to expand on his university studies with extensive trips around central and Eastern Europe and having the opportunity to learn more about Europe's political, historical, economic and cultural history. Jobs at a printer and a bookshop, among others, provided a useful understanding of different work realities
Plenary Date:
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
The transition to a Green Economy and INSPIRE
In the past, economic growth often seemed to depend on using up natural resources as though supplies were unlimited. Recognizing this unsustainable trend the EU is now moving towards a Green economy as major contributor to our overall growth and wellbeing without harming our environment. A Green economy empowered by innovative economic instruments and technologies allowing to better manage our resources more efficiently and where sustainable consumption and production go hand in hand with better policies for water and waste.
This plenary will reflect on the potential of geospatial information and technologies to further empower such a transition towards a Green economy and the relevancy of INSPIRE as geospatial legal framework for this purpose.
Claire Falzone
Born in 1983, Claire is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris and of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA, class of 2009).
She started her career in the Budget Department at the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, first in the Office of Research and Higher Education, then in the Social Affairs Office. She was appointed Financial advisor for the Education and Research Minister between 2012 and 2015.
In May 2015, Claire joined Veolia, world leader in environmental services, as Chief of Staff to the Chairman and CEO Antoine Frérot.
At the end of 2017, Claire was appointed CEO of Nova Veolia, a subsidiary of Veolia. Nova Veolia is the holding of 7 companies and start-ups, all dedicated to innovation and development of digital services
Arash Aazami
Arash (1977) is a purpose-driven entrepreneur and innovator. Born half Persian, half Dutch and raised in Niger, West Africa, he first pursued careers in music and online tech, until he became director of a Dutch energy supplier in 2006. In 2010 he founded the world’s first energy company that earns more as it sells less energy. Arash is now founder of Kamangir, a research and design agency developing strategies and digital solutions for the energy system of tomorrow. Their focal point is the development of an “Internet of Energy”, enabling users world-wide to “download as well as upload” energy from abundant renewable resources, democratizing access to clean, renewable energy. Besides Kamangir he founded Universalright.org, advocating for universal access to renewable energy. Arash is also a faculty member at Singularity University, and a mentor of social entrepreneurship at INSEAD Business School in Paris. Arash regularly advises the European Commission and the Dutch government on long term strategies for energy and digitalization and lives by the motto “Dream, Develop, Do”.
Janneke Hadders
Janneke Hadders is director of the company Dacom Farm intelligence. Dacom allows growers and agribusiness to optimize the quality of the crop with data driven software, sensor equipment and advisory services.
Since 2003, shortly after obtaining her Master's degree in Law and Business Administration at the University of Groningen, Janneke is active within Dacom. Dacom has grown into an international company with thousands of customers, including large multinationals in the Food & Agro industry. In 2012 Janneke became director of Dacom. In 2011, Dacom was voted the most innovative SME company in the Netherlands in the SME Innovation top 100. Since 2013 Janneke has been listed The Inspiring 50 list, a list with the top 50 most influential and inspiring tech-women in the Netherlands.
Mr Hans Bruyninckx
Hans Bruyninckx is the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, since 1 June, 2013.
In 1996 Dr Bruyninckx completed a PhD in international environmental politics at Colorado State University.
From 2010 until his appointment at the EEA, he was head of the HIVA Research Institute in Leuven, Belgium, a policy-oriented research institute associated with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, where he was also head of the Political Science department from 2007 to 2010.
Over the last 20 years, he has conducted research in more than a dozen countries, in areas including environmental politics, climate change, and sustainable development. He has taught on global environmental politics and global environmental governance in relation to the European Union (EU), publishing extensively on EU environmental policies and its role as an actor in global environmental governance.
Throughout his career Dr Bruyninckx has worked with governmental agencies, civil society and businesses, often in an advisory role.
Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea
Before taking up responsibilities for enforcement, cohesion and the European Semester, in the European Commission's Directorate General for Environment in January 2014, he was Director for Equality in the Directorate-General for Justice since April 2011, in charge of gender equality and of the fight against discrimination on grounds of sex, race or ethnicity, disability, religion or belief, age and sexual orientation. Prior to this appointment, he was Director for Fundamental Rights and EU Citizenship within the same DG and in DG Justice, Freedom and Security, where he was responsible for the general fundamental rights policy, the free movement of persons, electoral rights and other rights of EU citizens, and data protection.
He joined the European Commission in 2009, having worked beforehand in various capacities for the Romanian Government and public administration, for the Delegation of the European Commission in Bucharest, as well as for the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU. He also taught international law and EU law at the University of Bucharest Faculty of Law, his alma mater.
He holds an LL.M. from the University of Illinois (US) and a Ph.D. from the University of Bucharest (RO).
Maximilian Strotmann
Maximilian Strotmann is a Member of the Cabinet of Andrus Ansip, European Vice-President in charge of the Digital Single Market. Max's main areas of responsibility in Mr Ansip's team are e-government, interoperability and start-ups.
Working for the Commission since 1997, Max's career has spanned a broad range of portfolio topics including tourism and enterprise policies; audit and anti-fraud issues; communication and institutional IT issues as well as maritime transport and logistics and intelligent transport systems.
Max studied sociology, psychology and economic and social policies at Augsburg University (Germany). The 1989 fall of the Berlin wall was a unique opportunity to expand on his university studies with extensive trips around central and Eastern Europe and having the opportunity to learn more about Europe's political, historical, economic and cultural history. Jobs at a printer and a bookshop, among others, provided a useful understanding of different work realities
Plenary Date:
Thursday, September 20, 2018
Digital Transformation – INSPIRE – Digital Transition
The digital transformation of EU business and society presents enormous growth potential for Europe. Geospatial technologies and the management of geospatial information combined with the range of opportunities that technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data – including Earth observation, advanced manufacturing, blockchain technologies and artificial intelligence offer, can be a major contributor to such growth.
This will enable our industry to become a major player in the emerging markets for the products and services of the future while delivering the technologies needed for our society to realise our transition towards a Green economy. Within the partnership of the Urban Agenda for the EU on the digital transition, cities,
EU countries and the European Commission work together to provide more efficient public services and a better knowledge exchange. They focus on future health and social care services, eGovernment, 5G, urban planning, future learning and skills development This plenary will focus on the interplay between the digital transformation and its embedded innovation in technologies and the Green and Digital transition initiatives. It will look at geospatial information from a Big data and digital platforms perspective and reflect on the need for building up Digital Skills , on the importance of ICT standardization and interoperability and the role of Cities and regions as major players in the Digital and Green transition.
Ms Valrie Grant
Valrie is the founder and Managing Director of GeoTechVision and Executive Chairman of Marlie Technology Park Ltd. With over 15 years of experience as a Geospatial Analyst, GIS Manager, Technical Instructor, Spatial Technologies and Policy Consultant, Valrie is helping governments and corporate entities develop data driven geospatial solutions to address organizational challenges and meet corporate goals.
She is the immediate past president of the Caribbean Urban Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) Chapter, a former board member for URISA International, a member of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) Americas Caribbean Project Technical Committee. She is an accredited facilitator by the World Bank/ Infodev Women Innovators Network in the Caribbean (WINC) Accelerator Program. She is the immediate past president of Women Entrepreneurs Network (WENC) Guyana Chapter. She is the Chairperson of the Small Business Council, Guyana. Valrie sits on several other boards and committees.
As an Entrepreneur, Valrie has received several recognitions and awards including NCB, “Women in Business” Award for 2013, The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2014, The University of Technology Trailblazer award in 2015, The Commonwealth Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2015, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Young Business Executive Award (2016), the University of Technology World Class Women Entrepreneur Award (2017) and ROSA Distinguished Alumni Award (2017).
Her academic background includes: a BSc. Degree in Geology from the University of West Indies and a MSc. in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Environment from the Manchester Metropolitan University and post graduate studies in Entrepreneurship.
Bart De Lathouwer
Bart De Lathouwer is responsible for planning and managing interoperability initiatives such as testbeds, pilots and interoperability experiments with an emphasis on activities in Europe.
Since 2001, Mr. De Lathouwer has worked first as European liaison to the geospatial division of Autodesk and later as Autodesk's Product Manager for Server Technologies. In this role, he also served as member company representative to the OGC. As a company representative, he started the OGC CAD-GIS Interoperability Working Group (which evolved into the OGC 3DIM Domain Working Group) and managed the development of a core data access technology FDO (Feature Data Object) that later went open source in OSGeo. After returning to Europe, he worked as a geospatial expert for both private and government organizations focused on interoperability.
Previously, Mr. De Lathouwer was technical project manager at electric and water utilities as well as telecommunication companies. He holds a BS in Computer Science from the Karel de Grote-Hogeschool.
Alain De Taeye
Alain is trailblazer in the world of digital map making. He was the first to create a digital map on a PC in the early 80s, the first to use mobile mapping vans to capture an accurate picture of the real road network and the first to incorporate crowd sourced data to improve map quality. Alain is the original digital map maker. He headed up Tele Atlas, the global map making company, from 1990 until it was acquired by TomTom in 2008. Alain’s approach to map making paved the way for the modern, digital maps we have today. He laid the foundation for new, innovative ways to create real-time maps capable of powering the most demanding applications such as autonomous driving in the future. Alain’s career in the world of map making began almost by accident. While he was a research assistant in Operations Research at the Business School of Gent university, he was given an assignment to look for a more efficient way to distribute newspapers from printers to businesses across the country. Where most people looked to computing power alone to come up with the solution, Alain took a different approach. He was the first person to build a digital, map-based route planning system that allowed a person to interact with the algorithms through a digital map display. Alain graduated as an engineer-architect from the University of Gent
Celine Berggreen-Clausen
Celine Berggreen-Clausen is project manager for the City of Helsingborg in Sweden. Since 2017 she represents the City of Helsingborg in the Urban Agenda for the EU partnership on Digital Transition in which she holds the role of working group leader and action leader. The objective of the Digital Transition Action Plan is to provide improved public services to citizens, to support European cities in exploiting the possibilities of digitalisation, and assist European businesses to develop new innovations and create new business opportunities for global markets.
Celine has an academic background in economic geography and geographical information systems from the University of Copenhagen, Lund University and Gothenburg University School of Business, Economics and Law. In the role of project manager she is the driving force behind the City of Helsingborg’s work with open data, from technical solutions to policy development, value creation and innovation. This work has been rewarded with the Special Achievement in GIS Award (Esri Inc.), Open Knowledge Award (Open Knowledge Foundation) and others.
In October 2018 Celine will start working as strategic change leader within digitalisation for the City of Malmö.
Alessandro Annoni
Alessandro Annoni is working in European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) since 1997. He is the Head of the Digital Economy Unit that provides quantitative and qualitative socio-economic research in support to the Digital Economy, Digital Living and Digital Society including analysing data value chains and the conditions relating to their development. His Unit ensures the Technical Coordination of the INSPIRE Directive (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) that lays down general rules for the establishment of a European Spatial Data Infrastructure and advances research on multidisciplinary-interoperability.
Alessandro graduated in Physics from the University of Milan. Before joining the European Commission, he worked for several years in the private sector (1979-1996) and managed companies specialising in advanced studies in Remote Sensing, Earth Observation, Geomatics and Information Systems development.
Since 2006 Alessandro served as co-chair of the Architecture and Data Committee of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and is now co-chairing the GEO Infrastructure Implementation Board. He is a visionary member of the International Society for Digital Earth (ISDE) and has been awarded the 2013 Ian McHarg Medal of the European Geosciences Union reserved for distinguished research in Information Technology applied to Earth and space sciences.
Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea
Before taking up responsibilities for enforcement, cohesion and the European Semester, in the European Commission's Directorate General for Environment in January 2014, he was Director for Equality in the Directorate-General for Justice since April 2011, in charge of gender equality and of the fight against discrimination on grounds of sex, race or ethnicity, disability, religion or belief, age and sexual orientation. Prior to this appointment, he was Director for Fundamental Rights and EU Citizenship within the same DG and in DG Justice, Freedom and Security, where he was responsible for the general fundamental rights policy, the free movement of persons, electoral rights and other rights of EU citizens, and data protection.
He joined the European Commission in 2009, having worked beforehand in various capacities for the Romanian Government and public administration, for the Delegation of the European Commission in Bucharest, as well as for the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU. He also taught international law and EU law at the University of Bucharest Faculty of Law, his alma mater.
He holds an LL.M. from the University of Illinois (US) and a Ph.D. from the University of Bucharest (RO).
Maximilian Strotmann
Maximilian Strotmann is a Member of the Cabinet of Andrus Ansip, European Vice-President in charge of the Digital Single Market. Max's main areas of responsibility in Mr Ansip's team are e-government, interoperability and start-ups.
Working for the Commission since 1997, Max's career has spanned a broad range of portfolio topics including tourism and enterprise policies; audit and anti-fraud issues; communication and institutional IT issues as well as maritime transport and logistics and intelligent transport systems.
Max studied sociology, psychology and economic and social policies at Augsburg University (Germany). The 1989 fall of the Berlin wall was a unique opportunity to expand on his university studies with extensive trips around central and Eastern Europe and having the opportunity to learn more about Europe's political, historical, economic and cultural history. Jobs at a printer and a bookshop, among others, provided a useful understanding of different work realities
Plenary Date:
Friday, September 21, 2018
Closing Plenary
The closing plenary session of the conference is in the first place the moment where we take stock of the lessons learned during the conference. Rapporteurs from the Conference Organising Committee – Germany, France, the European Commission and also the European Environment Agency will present and discuss the findings and lesson learned from workshops, plenaries, thematic presentations and posters. This will offer the participants a useful "take-away" package, a source of future 'INSPIREation' . Finally, it is also the moment where once again we have to say goodbye, however not without saying until the next time. No INSPIRE conference is complete without honoring and thanking the current organizers for their hospitality and the announcement and presentation of the next year's conference hosts and venue.
Rob van de Velde
Rob van de Velde is director of Geonovum, the Dutch National SDI Executive Committee. In this role Geonovum coordinates the implementation of INSPIRE in The Netherlands.
Making the Government work better, when it comes to location, is the common thread in his work in the public sector.
Graduated as a human geographer, he started his career in geospatial technology when joining the National Planning Agency in 1985, the first Governmental Agency in the Netherlands to acquire GIS technology. Later he joined the National Institute of Public Health and Environment and in 2000 he joined the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality heading the GIS Competence Center. Since 2007 Rob is director of Geonovum. Rob is furthermore member of the Board of Directors of the Open Geospatial Consortium and is connected to the Spatial Information Laboratory of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Mrs. Ingrid van den Berghe
Jonkvrouw (lady) Ingrid H.J. Vanden Berghe graduated as an agricultural engineer at KULeuven, specialized in soil science. She started as a researcher before joining the public service. She was advisor to the minister of Environment, Public Works, Town and Land Use Planning. and director of the research center of the Christian Democrat parties. In 2002 she was appointed General administrator of the National Geographic Institute. She is President of EuroGeographics, member of the board of several research organizations and visiting professor at KULeuven. She also chairs the G-Cloud Strategic Board, coordinating ICT activities of the federal government.
Barbara Van Den Haute
Barbara Van Den Haute is Administrator-General at the Flanders Information Agency. Barbara supports the transition towards an Information Driven Government. As the Chair of the Flemish Steering Committee for Information and ICT-policy, she is promoting a coherent government-wide information policy. In addition, Barbara implements a more rational government, advocating Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence.
Roeland Samson
Department
Statute & functions
Zelfstandig academisch pers.
- hoogleraar
Internal mandates
Bestuursmandaat (Bestuursorgaan)
- Bureau Departementsraad Bio-ingenieurswetenschappen (voorzitter)
- Bureau Onderwijscommissie Bio-ingenieurswetenschappen (effectief stemgerechtigd lid)
- Dagelijks Bestuur Faculteit Wetenschappen (effectief stemgerechtigd lid)
- Departementsraad Bio-ingenieurswetenschappen (voorzitter)
- Faculteitsraad Faculteit Wetenschappen (effectief stemgerechtigd lid)
- Faculteitsvergadering Faculteit Wetenschappen (effectief stemgerechtigd lid)
- Onderwijscommissie Bio-ingenieurswetenschappen (effectief stemgerechtigd lid)
Hugo De Groof
Hugo De Groof is a European Commission policy officer in the Directorate-General for the environment, DG ENV of Belgian nationality. He has an academic background in geography and informatics. He joined the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, JRC in 1986 where he worked first as a researcher and later as manager on various projects and programmes where remote sensing data and other spatial information were used to support European Union policies. He joined DG ENV in 1998 to help improving the knowledge base for the development, implementation and monitoring of environmental policies. Some of his main activities in which he collaborates with other Commission services, EU agencies such as the European Environment Agency and experts from Member States and stakeholders, relate to the development and implementation of the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Union INSPIRE directive, the Shared Environmental Information System initiative, the Commission inter-service activities on the Copernicus programme, the Group on Earth Observations initiative and the interfacing with the wider EU's digital economy policies such as the Digital Agenda and Digital Single Market.
Aurel Ciobanu-Dordea
Before taking up responsibilities for enforcement, cohesion and the European Semester, in the European Commission's Directorate General for Environment in January 2014, he was Director for Equality in the Directorate-General for Justice since April 2011, in charge of gender equality and of the fight against discrimination on grounds of sex, race or ethnicity, disability, religion or belief, age and sexual orientation. Prior to this appointment, he was Director for Fundamental Rights and EU Citizenship within the same DG and in DG Justice, Freedom and Security, where he was responsible for the general fundamental rights policy, the free movement of persons, electoral rights and other rights of EU citizens, and data protection.
He joined the European Commission in 2009, having worked beforehand in various capacities for the Romanian Government and public administration, for the Delegation of the European Commission in Bucharest, as well as for the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU. He also taught international law and EU law at the University of Bucharest Faculty of Law, his alma mater.
He holds an LL.M. from the University of Illinois (US) and a Ph.D. from the University of Bucharest (RO).
Maximilian Strotmann
Maximilian Strotmann is a Member of the Cabinet of Andrus Ansip, European Vice-President in charge of the Digital Single Market. Max's main areas of responsibility in Mr Ansip's team are e-government, interoperability and start-ups.
Working for the Commission since 1997, Max's career has spanned a broad range of portfolio topics including tourism and enterprise policies; audit and anti-fraud issues; communication and institutional IT issues as well as maritime transport and logistics and intelligent transport systems.
Max studied sociology, psychology and economic and social policies at Augsburg University (Germany). The 1989 fall of the Berlin wall was a unique opportunity to expand on his university studies with extensive trips around central and Eastern Europe and having the opportunity to learn more about Europe's political, historical, economic and cultural history. Jobs at a printer and a bookshop, among others, provided a useful understanding of different work realities