Info Day On The 2024 Calls For AGRIP

European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission

Janusz Wojciechowski - European Commission (europa.eu)

Director DG AGRI F - Outreach, Research and Geographical Indications

Diego Canga Fano is Director in DG AGRI since 2014.

Spanish national with more than three decades of experience in EU affairs, he has always been closely linked to AGRI Promotion policy and High level missions. After a couple of years working in the European Parliament and experience in national politics, Diego is since October 2023 back as Director F in DG AGRI in charge of Outreach, research and geographical indications.

Head of Department Green Europe, REA B

Paul Webb is Head of Department B at the Research Executive Agency, responsible for the implementation of the Agricultural Promotion Programme, Cluster 6 of the European Union’s Research programme Horizon Europe and the Research Fund for Coal and Steel. Previously, he was Head of Unit responsible for different functions in the Directorate General (DG) for Research and Innovation, the DG for Budget and the DG for Agriculture.

Head of Unit for External communication and Promotion Policy in the Directorate General of Agriculture and Rural development

She deals with the implementation of the policy of promotion of agricultural and food products, including the organisation of the high-level missions for European agricultural and food business.

She worked previously in the Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis in the trade portfolio and in the Cabinet of Commissioner Hogan on agriculture and trade. She has been negotiator in several trade agreements, and dealt with trade relations with Latin America, India and other European countries. She has also been involved in the development of EU quality schemes (organics, protected geographical indications).

She spent four years at the European COPA-COGECA and conducted research on agricultural policies.

Cristina Rueda Catry is an Agronomic Engineer (1992) from the Polytechnic University in Madrid, Spain and received her PhD (2001) at the Paris-X University in Paris, France.

Head of Unit, REA B4 - Agri-Food promotion, Environmental Observation and Innovative Governance

Ms Aleksandra Mecilošek has a scientific background in physical chemistry and holds an MBA. After having worked in the chemical and food industry in Slovenia, in 2007 she joined the European Commission’s Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development. Since 2015, she is leading the unit responsible for implementing the EU policy for promotion of agricultural products currently at the European Research Executive Agency (REA).

Head of Unit, DG AGRI B2 Environmental Sustainability

Gaëlle MARION is the Head of Unit for Environmental Sustainability in the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission.

Before that, she was the Head of Unit for Conception and consistency of rural development.

She has been involved in the development of the Common Agricultural Policy since 2007, both on rural development and farm income support, and horizontal aspects such as governance, delivery models and networking.

Her past career as Secretary General of Euromontana, a European association for the development of mountain areas, gave her in-depth expertise on territorial challenges, local development and interlinks between agriculture and the environment.

She is an agro-economist from Agro-ParisTech (1993), France.

Head of Unit, DG Trade D.3, Agriculture, Food and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Matters

Flavio Coturni Unit’s major tasks are to support the negotiations and implementation of trade agreements, to promote EU market access interests in third countries by removing SPS barriers to trade and to ensure the consistency of EU trade policy in these fields with the EU’s international obligations.

Flavio started his career in the European Commission in the cereals and rice market units in DG AGRI. Between 2000 and 2007, he worked as analyst and trade negotiator in the WTO agriculture negotiations of the Doha Development Round (DDA). In 2007, he was appointed Head of the Unit "Agricultural Trade Policy Analysis" in DG AGRI. After leading the bilateral trade negotiations on agriculture with Canada (CETA), he worked on the last two reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), first leading the unit "Direct support" then the unit “Policy perspectives” with the task of coordinating the work on the post-2020 CAP. 

Mr Coturni is a graduate of Political Science and International Affairs from the University of Rome.

Head of Unit, DG CLIMA C3, Land Economy & Carbon Removals

Christian Holzleitner is currently Head of Unit responsible for Land economy and Carbon removals at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action. Previously, he worked as Head of Unit for Finance for Innovation and Land Use and assistant to the Director-General for Climate Action covering all issues related to EU and international climate policy; and at the Directorate-General for Competition in the area of State aid for services of general economic interest in the postal, transport, and health sectors.

Before joining the European Commission, Christian worked as senior manager with KPMG Germany on international transfer pricing.

Christian is an economist and holds a PhD from the University of Linz (Austria).

Team Leader, Promotion of agricultural products, DG AGRI - External communication and promotion policy

Anett Buzek is the team leader responsible for promotion policy and CAP information measures at the European Commission, Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI). Prior to that, she worked as Head of Sector for agri-promotion grants in REA. She joined DG AGRI in 2008, holding different positions in the Strategic Programming Unit and in State aid. Before joining the European Commission, she worked for the private and the public sector in France, dealing with European affairs, international HR projects and public sector modernisation. She graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and holds a Masters degree in Political Science from IEP Paris.

Alessio Bacchielli, Administrator Programme Manager REA

Alessio Bacchielli works as programme manager in the Agri-promotion grants sector at the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Before that and since 2007, he held various positions within IHI (Innovative Health Initiative) JU, REA and the EC directorate general for International Partnerships (INTPA). He has been working mainly in management of EU programmes and projects, mostly in the context of European research, with a focus in agriculture and earlier in the career, in development cooperation.

Alessio Bacchielli is a Mechanical Engineer (2005) from the ‘Roma Tre’ University in Rome, Italy

PhD, Marketing Specialist

Krisztina Rita Dörnyei is an economist and holds a PhD in Business Administration. Since 2007, she has been teaching and researching in several higher education institutions (Corvinus University of Budapest, International Business School, Universitatea Babes Bolyai, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Green Brands Academy). Her research priorities are consumer behavior and food marketing, connecting the domains of food, marketing, packaging and sustainability. She has published several peer-reviewed academic papers in journals, such as Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Foods,  and given several public and conference presentations. She is currently a working group leader of the European COST Action CIRCUL-A-BILITY, a research network focusing on sustainable food packaging. She also works as a freelance consultant in the areas of food, packaging, branding and marketing. She has been working as expert evaluator, rapporteur and monitor for different EU funded programmes since 2015.

Wine Marketing Specialist

Anne Burchett is a wine marketing and communications specialist, writer, wine judge and lecturer. She went freelance in 2017 and works on various projects, notably:

• Vinexposium: marketing and trade PR

• V&S news: UK correspondent

• International Wine Challenge: (tasting) panel chair

• Wine and Spirit Education Trust: Diploma marker

• Kedge Business School: lecturer on the UK wine market

• European Research Executive Agency (REA): expert evaluator and reviewer of proposals for EU funded promotion campaigns for agrifood products.

She was previously MD of Sopexa UK, an agency for international marketing, promotions, press and public relations and also held general management, sales and marketing positions for several French wine producers, namely, Chantovent, Skalli, Vinival, Grands Chais de France and Castel UK, and for Waverley Vintners.

French born, Anne Burchett has lived and worked in the UK for longer than she has lived in France. More information on: www.linkedin.com/in/anneburchett

For the project FV4MILLENNIALS

Joanna Nathanson is Policy Advisor on Sustainability, International Affairs & Communication at Freshfel Europe – the European fresh produce Association. Joanna joined Freshfel Europe in August 2023. There, she covers policy areas related to environmental, economic and social sustainability, including promotion and health policy. Prior to joining Freshfel Europe she held internships at the Swedish Embassy in the Hague, and at a Brussels-based think tank. She has an academic background in political science and international political economy and conducted her studies in Sweden and in the Netherlands.

President of Polish Chamber of Organic Food

A lawyer by education, a social animator, ecologist and nature lover by passion and practice. Co-founder of the Polish Chamber of Organic Food and its President since the beginning of the Chamber's operation. Krystyna Radkowska is also a founder and president of the Fight Boredom Foundation. Organizer of many events and social campaigns as Green Week, Switch to Organic – look for the Euroleaf”, financed by the European Union.

Digital Communication Manager

Martina Frapporti is an agroecologist with a passion for digital communication and social media. She works as Digital Communication Manager for Bioland Südtirol (Italy), an organic farmers’ association based in Germany and Italy. Her current focus is social media and content management for the project “GReBioEU” (DE-IT).

Moderator

Lawyer by training, Peter was a judge in Germany before joining the European Commission in early 1998. Peter has worked in different Directorates General of the Commission: Research, Information Society, Anti-fraud and, since mid-2011, Agriculture, almost always in contract/financial management and compliance. Retired since May 2021, he remains active as moderator and facilitator of numerous conferences for the Commission.