Jury & Selection Committee

Architect (IUAV) PhD in Conservation of Architectural Heritage (Milan Polytechnic), he was for a long time an official architect at the ABAP Superintendency for the Municipality of Venice and its Lagoon, where he took on various coordination roles, such as that for the UNESCO site “Venice and its Lagoon” and was in charge of the restoration of important public buildings in Venice like Marciana National Library, Gallerie dell’Accademia, the Jesuit Church and the bell towers of Venice.

Since 2021 he has been RTD B researcher at IUAV in Venice and now he is assistant professor in Architectural Restoration. He carries out teaching activities at IUAV and at the Cà Foscari University of Venice. He carries out study and research activities on historical buildings in Venice, Cultural Heritage and climate change. He has participated in international conferences and is the author of several scientific publications. He sits on numerous scientific committees of journals and is a member of associations dealing with Cultural Heritage, such as Green Building Council Italia and ICOMOS Italia.

Esther Valdés Tejera is a Ph.D. Landscape Architect, with more than ten years of experience as a lecturer and researcher and over 25 years in professional practice. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Red List of Heritage of Hispania Nostra.

She received her Bachelor’s degree at the School of Fine Arts in the Complutense University of Madrid. She did a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture and Landscape design at the Politécnica University of Madrid. She defended her Ph.D. at the same university, with the topic: “The aesthetic appreciation of the landscape: nature, artifice, and symbol” and received the Best Thesis Award in 2017.

Since 2019, she has been the Director of the Urban Management BA at the Camilo Jose Cela University in Madrid and a lecturer at the Master in Historical Gardens and Ecosystem Services of the Green Infrastructure at the Politecnica University of Madrid. She has been a lecturer in different programs since 2006 at San Pablo CEU University and Politécnica University of Madrid, among others. Her main research topics and publications are about aesthetics and landscapes and the relationship between environment, culture, and identity. In 2018 she did a three-month research stay at the Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard University in Boston.

Esther Valdés Tejera is co-founder of Gamberaia Jardines, a landscape architecture firm established in 2001 which develops projects for private gardens, public space, and consulting. As a volunteer, she is currently the Vicepresident of the Spanish Association of Landscape Architects, and has been a member of the International Federation of Landscape Architects’ European branch since 2003.

Trained as a chemist in Germany and the USA, Johanna Leissner has been working in cultural heritage research in various EU and national projects for over 20 years with a focus on climate change, environmental pollution, environmental sensor development and sustainability issues like Green Museums.

She is chair of the EU OMC group “Strengthening cultural heritage resilience for climate change”, established in January 2021, and member of the EU expert group “Cultural Heritage Forum”, established in 2019. Currently coordinator of German research project KERES “Protecting cultural heritage from extreme climate events and increasing resilience”.

German delegate for the Council of Europe Strategy “European Cultural Heritage in the 21st Century” and of the UNESCO World Heritage Expert Group for climate change impacts on cultural heritage. Since 2005 scientific representative for Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft at the European Union in Brussels. Co-founder of the German Research Alliance for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in 2008 and of the Fraunhofer Sustainability Network. From 2001 to 2005, National Expert of the Federal Republic of Germany responsible for “Technologies for the Protection of the European Cultural Heritage” at the European Commission in Brussels.

Ana Isabel Velasco Rebollo is a cultural management expert who graduated in Prehistory and Archaeology Autonomous University of Madrid (1991); she obtained a postgraduate degree in Cultural Heritage Management at the Higher Centre for Management, Analysis and Evaluation Studies Complutense University of Madrid in 1997.
She is currently serving as Director of the MBA of Institutions and Cultural Entities of the Complutense University of Madrid (since October 2016). She works as Director of the Senior Public Management Program in Cultural Management of GOBERNA, Latin America, School of Politics and High Government, active since 2012. Since October 2020 she ao teaches the courses of “Economic value of heritage. Organization, management and administration” and “Heritage, tourism and sustainable development” within the Master in Cultural Heritage Management and Museology of the VIU (International University of Valencia).
She has worked as Professor of the Master in Skills for Cultural Management University of Valladolid and Santa Mª La Real Foundation of Historical Heritage since 2016.
Ana Isabel Velasco Rebollo is the founding partner and managing director of TRAMA. Gestión Cultural y Turística S.L., that carries out diverse range of services related to, among the others, design, to the management of cultural activities and projects, to the draft of cultural communication campaigns and financing plans for cultural projects.
She is the President of the State Federation of Associations of Cultural Managers and the Secretary General of the Spanish Association of Cultural Heritage Managers.
In addition to being a member, she provided the the Spanish Association of Museologists (AEM), with Management work. Ana Isabel Velasco Rebollo is member of the Editorial Committee of “Revista de Museología” and founding partner and active member of Ñandutí, Ibero-American Network of Social and Cultural Agents for Development established in May 2008 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia).

He is originally from Poland, but European and “”global”” in spirit – after having lived in France and Belgium for longer periods of time, as well as in the US and Japan. For the last six years and until October 2021, he worked as Policy Officer in Culture Policy Unit at the European Commission, Directorate-General for Education & Culture, where he was responsible for, inter alia, the topics such as the role of culture in cities and regions, EU funding for culture, access to culture via digital means or contributing to shaping EU recovery mechanisms for cultural and creative sectors during COVID.
Prior to his experience in Brussels, he worked in the Polish Culture Ministry, British Council offices in Warsaw & Paris, as a Manager in a French on-line e-learning startup as well as a freelance translator for cultural projects, local initiatives, film festivals and cultural institutions.
He is a graduate of the University of Warsaw and College of Europe, he has also studied at Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3. He currently lives in Warsaw where he sets up his own one-person consulting company, specialised in EU cultural policy, cultural and creative sectors, EU funding for culture and management of cultural projects. He is currently collaborating with the European Cultural Foundation based in Amsterdam. As part of their Public Policy Team, he is involved in A CULTURAL DEAL FOR EUROPE campaign as well as in other activities of the Foundation related to EU policies.

Jermina Stanojev, PhD, is an independent expert in the field of cultural heritage and international cultural relations. She is a postdoctoral researcher at Uppsala University with a focus on circular economy and cultural heritage and holds a PhD in participatory and integrated governance of cultural heritage in the Western Balkans. She is currently appointed as an individual expert by the European Commission to the “Commission’s expert group on cultural heritage”. Her work focuses on culture-led, sustainable, regional development, policy design and evaluation for trans-disciplinary challenges through different governance frameworks and geopolitical levels. Since 2009 she is an advisor on the role of cultural heritage in international cultural relations within the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance and since 2016 supports the European Union in engaging in international cultural relations within the framework of the EU strategy for international cultural relations through Cultural Diplomacy/Relations Platform of the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, with a global geographical mandate, under which, among others, developed recommendations “European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018: International Perspectives”. She has established competences and wide experience in fields of international cultural relations and cultural heritage working with different international organisations and institutions (UNESCO, European Commission, Goethe-Institut Brussels, European Cultural Centre Foundation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia etc.). She has an extensive experience in research, policies and numerous projects such as the EU Horizon 2020 project, “Circular models Leveraging Investments in Cultural Heritage Adaptive Reuse”, Erasmus + HERITAGE-PRO, the report of the Structured Dialogue with the EC on “Skills, Training and Knowledge-transfer in the Traditional and Emerging Heritage”, the OMC working group of Member States’ experts report on “Fostering cooperation in the EU on skills, training and knowledge transfer in cultural heritage professions” etc.

Harry Verwayen – General Director Europeana Foundation, the operator of the Europeana Initiative. Across Europe, museums, galleries and archives digitise their collections. Europeana supports these organisations in their digital transformation by making these collections available as widely as possible so that people can find and use them. For work, for learning or just for fun. Europeana’s work is guided by creative collaboration, supportive teamwork and the idea that sharing and reusing cultural content can positively transform the world. Prior to this Harry worked at the Amsterdam based think tank Kennisland where he was responsible for business model innovation in the cultural heritage sector. Harry holds a MA in History from Leiden University and has worked over ten years in the Academic Publishing Industry. Mediocre tennis player, reasonable cook, aspiring photographer.

Koenraad Van Balen graduated as an Engineer Architect at the KU Leuven (Belgium) in 1979; he obtained a postgraduate degree in architectural conservation in 1984 and he obtained a Ph.D in Engineering in 1991 at the KU Leuven. He is a full-professor at the KU Leuven in the Civil Engineering department. Van Balen carries out research and teaches on binders, masonry and sustainable construction methods. He is the director of the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation (RLICC) at the University of Leuven. He has been the holder of the UNESCO Chair on preventive conservation, monitoring and maintenance of monuments and sites since 2008. He is a member of ICOMOS and was the first secretary-general of the International Scientific Committee on the Analysis, Repair of Structures of the Architectural Heritage (ISCARSAH). He has long been a member of the general assembly of Monumentenwacht Vlaanderen. He is or has been an advisor to, amongst others, the Council of Europe, the European Commission, and the Getty Foundation. In 2002-2003 he was a visiting scholar at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles. He supervises research carried out at the Raymond Lemaire International Centre for Conservation related to various aspects of investigation, valuing and managing (World) Heritage. Amongst others he coordinated the research carried out by the RLICC on Heritage Counts for Europe in collaboration with Europa Nostra. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the European wide research coordination initiative “Joint Program Initiative: Cultural Heritage (JPI-CH)”. He is the scientific coordinator of ILUCIDARE programme.

Rossana Bettinelli graduated at the University of Architecture in Venice (1976). She is an Architect, landscape and urban planner and restoration expert. In 1977 she founded her own Professional studio in Brescia (I) as Architect designing architectural-landscape restoration and environmental redevelopment, residential and commercial buildings, planning and implementing more than 60 projects.

In 2009 in Taormina she won the Grand Prix in Category Conservation of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards following her restoration project of the Fasano Church destroyed by the 2004 earthquake at the Garda lake (I).

Expert advisor for Conservation of Historic Buildings and Natural Landscape Environment she collaborates with public administration boards. From 2008 to 2014: Member of the National Landscape Quality Observatory for the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.

Rossana Bettinelli has carried out several scientific and teaching activities at the Brescia Engineering Faculty and at the Parma Engineering Faculty. She has curated many exhibitions and acted as the member of their scientific committees, along with the publishing of the corresponding catalogues. She is the author of more than 50 publications and essays and has organised conferences and conventions at national and international level of which she has been moderator and speaker. She has published articles, and contributed to interviews on the protection of heritage to newspapers, local and national radio and television.

Androula Vassiliou was born and raised in Cyprus. She studied Law and International Affairs in London. She practiced Law for 25 years. She was elected member of the Cyprus House of Representatives for two consecutive terms (1996-2006) and served on various parliamentary committees. She represented The Cyprus Parliament at the IPU and the ‘Convention on the Future of Europe’. In March 2008, she became member of the European Commission responsible for Health, a position she held until February 2010.
In March 2010 she was reappointed to the European Commission and was entrusted with the portfolio of Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, a position she held until October 2014.
Back to Cyprus, she had been re-appointed Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Cyprus Oncology Centre, a position she held until recently. She is the Chair of the Bi-Communal Technical Committee on Culture and a member of the Board of CVAR. She is a member of the High Council of the European University Institute of Florence and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cyprus Institute of Research and Education.
Her mother tongue is Greek. She speaks English fluently and has sufficient knowledge of French.
She has received the following honors: ‘The Grand Cross of the Order of Benefaction’ from the Hellenic Republic, she was named ‘Commander of the Order of the Arts and the Letters’ by the French Republic in 2015 and in January 2016 she received from the Prime Minister of Spain ‘the Grand Cross of ‘Alfonso X el Sabio’ at a special ceremony at the Prado museum. She has an Honorary Doctorate from Dimitri Cantemir University of Romania; on 19 September 2019, at a special event at St James’s Palace in London, she was honored by the Global Heritage Fund, along with 3 other women, from other regions of the world, as ‘Women Leaders in the field of heritage’. She is married to Dr George Vassiliou, former President of the Republic of Cyprus and has three children.