EMN Czech Presidency Conference

Ylva Johansson

Ms Ylva Johansson has served as European Commissioner for Home Affairs since 2019. Her responsibilities include developing a new EU internal security strategy, advancing measures to prevent and respond to terrorism, developing a New Pact on Migration and Asylum, strengthening external borders, reforming asylum, readmission and return rules, promoting integration and ensuring real legal pathways to the EU, by resettling those in need of international protection and offering job opportunities to skilled workers.

Prior to her joining of the European Commission, she had served in the government of Sweden as Minister for Schools from 1994 to 1998, as Minister for Welfare and Elderly Healthcare from 2004 to 2006, and as Minister for Employment from 2014 to 2019. She has been a member of the Swedish Riksdag since 2006.

Vít Rakušan

Mr Vít Rakušan is 1st Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of the Czech Republic. In 2010, he was elected mayor of Kolín and held this position until 2019.  After being elected Chairman of the Mayors movement, he stepped down from his mayoral position. In 2016, he was listed in the New Europe 100 — changemakers in Central and Eastern Europe, announced by the Financial Times.

He spent a year as Statutory Deputy Governor of the Central Bohemian Region for the areas of security and tourism; this position ended when he was elected Member of Parliament of the Czech Republic. During 2017–2021 he worked in the Committee on Security and Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. He was also the chairman of the Standing Committee for the Supervision of Military Intelligence.

António Vitorino

Mr António Vitorino has been Director General of the International Organization for Migration since 2018.

He served as European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs from 1999 to 2004. Prior to joining the European Commission António Vitorino served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense of Portugal, from 1995 to 1997.

His political background includes tenures as Portugal’s State Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs from 1983 to 1985, member of the Government of Macau in charge of Administration and Justice from 1986 to 1987, member of the Portuguese Parliament from 1980 to 2007, member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 1995, where he chaired the Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs Committee in charge of Migration, Asylum, Justice and Fundamental Rights. During these years António Vitorino crafted leadership, management and negotiations skills at the highest level and developed in-depth knowledge of global and national migration contexts and related policy challenges.

Michael Spindelegger

Mr. Michael Spindelegger was appointed Director General of ICMPD as of 1 January 2016. He has extensive experience in international relations through his work in the Federal Government of the Republic of Austria. In 2000, he was elected as representative of Austria to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe where he led the Austrian delegation from 2002 to 2006. During this time period he represented Austria at conferences on migration issues.

As Minister for European and International Affairs, Mr. Spindelegger worked closely with international organisations in the field of migration and contributed to the policy debate during the Third EU-Africa Summit in Tripoli. After Mr. Spindelegger was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of the Republic of Austria, he created a State Secretariat for Integration within the Austrian Federal Ministry of Interior. At this time he worked closely with the Ministry of Interior on asylum and labour migration issues while also negotiating a re-admission agreement with the Afghan Government.

Stefano Scarpetta

Mr Stefano Scarpetta has been the Director of the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS) Directorate of the OECD since 2013. He leads the work of the Organisation in a number of broad areas including Employment, Labour, Migration, Health, Skills, Gender and Tackling Inequalities and contributes to the implementation of the Secretary-General’s strategic orientations in these areas.

Stefano represents the OECD in the G20 and G7 and many other high-level international fora on labour market, social, migration and health issues.

From 2002 to 2006 he was the labour market advisor and lead economist at the World Bank in charge of the Bank-wide programme of Employment and Development; he authored a number of reports and was one of the leading authors of the 2005 World Development Report. Upon his return to the OECD in 2006, he led the economic reviews of Japan, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, China and India, before moving back to ELS.

Jean-Christophe Dumont

Mr Jean-Christophe Dumont has been the Head of the International Migration Division in the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD since 2011. He joined the OECD Secretariat in 2000 to work on international migration issues. He oversees the OECD annual flagship publication on migration; International Migration Outlook and numerous publications on the economic impact of international migration, as well as on migration management and the labour market integration of immigrants and their children in OECD countries. He has also worked on migration and development issues and on the international mobility of health workers. He holds a PhD in development economics from the University Paris IX-Dauphine and was a research fellow at Laval University, Quebec, Canada.

Jan Rafaj

Maxime Cerutti

Anita Vella

Ms Anita Vella is currently Head of Unit in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, Unit HOME C2, responsible for Legal pathways and integration. Prior to that, she was political assistant to the Director General, Ms. Monique Pariat, since May 2020, preceded by a short period in 2019 as Deputy Head of Unit in HOME E2, dealing with National Programmes and EMAS for South and East Europe.

Michelle Leighton

Ms Michelle Leighton is Chief of the Labour Migration Branch for the International Labour Organization where she directs the Office’s work on labour migration and mobility, and supports policies and programs related to migrants and refugees.  She has expertise in the fields of international law, labour migration, human rights, and economic development.

She serves as an expert appointed to the UNFCCC Task Force on displacement related to climate change, and formerly a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Migration. Ms Leighton has led global and field research teams, including on linkages between human migration and development, environmental and climate change. She has taught on law faculties in Asia, Europe and the United States and authored numerous publications. Following her service as a Fulbright Scholar in Central Asia, she co-founded the American University of Central Asia’s Tian Shan Policy Center at the American University in Bishkek. She has been an adviser and consultant to international institutions, government, and non-profit organizations, leading technical cooperation projects in the Americas, Africa, Europe and Central Asia.

Paola Alvarez

Ms Paola Alvarez is currently Senior Regional Thematic Specialist on Labour Mobility and Social Inclusion at the Regional Office for the European Economic Area, the European Union, and NATO of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). She acts as a thematic and strategic resource in the region within thematic areas such as labour and human mobility facilitation, labour migration and ethical recruitment, migration and development, integration and social cohesion. She works closely with other thematic Units and supports Country Offices in the development of high-quality programmatic responses to migration issues in the Region; contributes to improved understanding of migration dynamics and provides strategic guidance to IOM on key trends and emerging issues; and supports the implementation of strategic policies and frameworks within the thematic areas of competence. Paola also supports the Regional Office’s liaison efforts through the provision of expert advice to European Union (EU) Institutions and Member States on IOM policies and activities in these thematic areas. Previously, she was responsible for programming and research at IOM’s Coordination Office for the Mediterranean and held the position of Migration and Development Specialist at IOM Headquarters in Geneva. Paola has a background in anthropology and sociology of development and education.

Neveen El-Husseiny

Ambassador Neveen El-Husseiny is the Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister for Migration, Refugees and Combatting Human Trafficking at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has been working on these issues for more than 4 years, and participated in the process leading to the adopting the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. She participated in the International forum for Refugees and has been involved in discussions related to these issues at the national, regional and international levels.  

Ms Elhusseiny started her career as a diplomat almost 25 years ago, where she dealt with various files including Human Rights, Egypt-US relations, Peace Process in the Middle East, as well as Asian Affairs.

Ms Elhusseiny graduated from Cairo University in 1996 with a major in Political Science. She has two Master’s Degrees from Cairo University, focusing on Gender and Development, and the other from LSE with a focus on International Human Rights Law. 

She is particularly interested in gender, social policy, as well as development.

Diana Stefanescu

Ms Diana Stefanescu is a Project Specialist in Labour Migration at International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). In her function with ICMPD’s Mobility Partnership Facility, Diana has accompanied the implementation of the EU-funded pilot projects on legal migration in close cooperation with DG HOME. A political scientist by training, she previously worked for the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, and in the private and non-profit sectors in the Netherlands, France, Germany, and in the US.

Robert Kiml

Vít Samek

Sjoerd Warmerdam

Mr Sjoerd Warmerdam is currently working as a Director, coordinating the Ukraine crisis for the Ministry of Social Affairs in the Netherlands. Providing Ukrainian refugees access to work is one of the main objectives of his team. Before the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Sjoerd Warmerdam was a member of the National Parliament and the City Council of Amsterdam. With solid international experience, representing the government of the Netherlands at the United Nations, the European Union and the Council of Europe, he has always had a strong focus on human rights and on gender equality in particular. As a cultural anthropologist he always works from the believe that no policies should be made without the full and direct participation of members of the group(s) affected by that policy.

Philippe Huberdeau

Mr Philippe Huberdeau leads the Scale-Up Europe initiative launched two years ago by President Emmanuel Macron to enable European tech startups to grow to become world class champions. The initiative brings together 300+ Scale-up founders and VCs, as well as the startup associations and the innovation ministers from the EU27 and the European institutions (European Commission, EIC, EIB, EIF…) around a bold objective : building in Europe 10 tech champions each worth euro 100bn by 2030. The recommendations brought forward by the members focus around four main areas : investment, talent, deeptech, and corporate/startup collaboration.

Before Scale-Up Europe, Philippe Huberdeau held various positions in the private and public sector. He organized the G7 Summit in Biarritz in 2019 and headed the trade department of the French Embassy in Canada from 2015 to 2018. From 2012 to 2015, as Head of the international economics affairs of the French foreign ministry he inter alia worked on sanctions against Russia and Iran. He also advised two European affairs ministers and worked in the European Commission DG Trade as part of the WTO negotiations unit. He graduated from the Ecole polytechnique in Paris and holds a degree in economics and statistics from the ENSAE Paris.

Hanne Beirens

Ms Hanne Beirens is Director of Migration Policy Institute Europe. She specializes in European Union policies related to asylum and migration, human trafficking, labour migration, and youth.

Prior to joining MPI as Associate Director in 2015, Dr. Beirens worked as a Lead Managing Consultant for ICF Consulting, where she focused on impact assessments, feasibility studies, and evaluations for the European Commission, with a particular focus on EU asylum and migration policy, as well as developing products within the European Migration Network (EMN), including pan-European studies and the EMN annual report. Topics covered include reception facilities for asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, and non-EU harmonized protection statuses.

Earlier, Dr. Beirens worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Applied Social Studies of the University of Birmingham. She has also worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and as an independent consultant for the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO).

Diane Angermüller

Ms Diane Angermüller has been working since 2016 on migration issues in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs. She is now head of sector for legal migration. Prior to that, she was a lawyer and a policy officer in the Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

Magnus Ovilius

Mr Magnus Ovilius is Head of Sector for the European Commission’s Home Affairs Migration Forecasting, Contingency Planning, Preparedness and Policy Monitoring. He is responsible for monitoring and anticipating the developments of the EU migration flows on legal and irregular migration including asylum while regularly reporting these developments. Mr Ovilius is responsible for migration risk assessment, forecasting and contingency/resilience building in EU MS as well as preparedness including business continuity. Moreover, he is responsible for inputs and support to policy making including through the European Migration Network. Magnus Ovilius is also Chair and Manager of the European Migration Network (EMN) which includes horizontal coordination, representation and negotiations with EU Member States, and EMN Observer countries: Norway, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Serbia, Montenegro and Armenia. Prior to that he was responsible for coordination & direction of global government relations issues & group initiatives for Smiths Group. Before joining Smiths Group, Magnus Ovilius was with the European Commission where he held various management positions including as Head of Sector, Preparedness and Crisis Management in DG Justice Freedom and Security responsible for the formulation, implementation and evaluation of European Union counter-terrorism policies that entailed defence-related aspects of counter-terrorism, law enforcement led civil protection, critical infrastructure protection, crisis management, CBRNE policies, G8 Roma/Lyon meetings and Security Research.

Pallas Mudist

Marina Brizar

Holly Asquith

Ralph Genetzke

Mr Ralph Genetzke is a Director at the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and the current Head of Mission in Brussels, Belgium, since 2011.  He oversees ICMPD’s outreach to EU institutions and EU Member State representations, diplomatic missions and other organisations or institutions relevant to ICMPD’s work in Brussels. Ralph is also the Project Director of various EU-funded capacity building facilities including the Migration Partnership Facility (MPF), which provides financial and knowledge support to the EU pilot projects on legal migration. As a former staff member of the European Commission (DG DEVCO), Ralph has more than 20 years of experience in the field of migration and cooperation between the EU and countries outside the EU. Regularly engaged in discussions as a panelist or moderator, he is committed to discussing migration and asylum issues in all their complexities without losing sight of practical and feasible solutions. His particular interest lies in translating policies into practical cooperation with partner countries outside the EU,  be it at EU  level using various financial instruments,  or at bilateral level.  Ralph holds a BA in Russian Studies from the University of London and an MA in European Studies from the College of Europe.

Kate Hooper

Ms Kate Hooper is a Policy Analyst with Migration Policy Institute‘s International Program, where she leads MPI’s global work on labour migration. Her areas of research include legal migration pathways, fair and ethical recruitment, the implications of remote work and other non-traditional working arrangements for immigrant selection systems, labour market integration, and complementary pathways for displaced populations.

Ms Hooper has advised governments and intergovernmental organizations on legal migration pathways and opportunities to adapt immigration and immigrant integration policies to respond to emerging labor market trends. She had a part-time secondment to the United Nations Development Program, where she conducted an internal review of UNDP’s programming on return and sustainable reintegration.

Ms Hooper is the primary point person for the Transatlantic Council on Migration, MPI’s flagship international initiative that brings together senior policymakers, experts, and other stakeholders to discuss responses to pressing migration, protection, and immigrant integration issues.

Zuzana Vatráľová

Ms Zuzana Vatráľová has served as the Head of the IOM Office in the Slovak Republic since 2004. In 2003, she worked at IOM as a coordinator of the information campaign on Preventing Human Trafficking in Slovakia. From 1997 to 2002, she worked as a journalist for BBC Bratislava and London. Prior to that, she had been a project manager at the National Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (NADSME) and she had also worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic.

Pavla Novotná

Ms Pavla Novotná serves as the Director of the Department of Asylum and Migration Policy at the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic. Prior to assuming her current role in 2017, she held several positions at the Ministry of the Interior, having started at the Unit of International Relations and Countries of Origin Information. She also served as Director of the Unit of Immigration Legislation and Administrative Procedures, Unit of Policy Analysis, and Acting Director of the Unit of International Cooperation and EU.

Tesseltje de Lange

Prof. Tesseltje de Lange researches the European regulation of economic migration and integration. She specialises in migration and entrepreneurship, the economic integration of refugees, knowledge workers migration, family migration and migrant family members’ access to employment.