SPEAKERS

Annie Linsemark

Annie Linsemark is a professional in communications and rural development, with a special focus on youth engagement in rural areas. Her commitment to rural development, with a particular focus on youth, reached new heights when she assumed the role of project coordinator for ELARD in the project RURBEST22—a European initiative dedicated to empowering and connecting rural youth across countries. Her involvement in RURBEST22 led her to be part of the project Gen Z Agency. In this project, along with 24 others from Nordic countries, she formulates recommendations for Nordic ministers, the Nordic Council of Ministers, and various authorities. Currently, she is working with the communication efforts at CLLD Halland, Sweden and she actively engages in multiple European projects coordinated by the ELARD Knowledge Hub, including the Youth in Leader network.

Petar Gjorgievski

Petar Gjorgievski is the president of The Rural Development Network of the Republic of North Macedonia. His experience of near 20 years is in the area of agriculture and rural development with an up-to-date knowledge of National and EU rural development policy programmes. He is an expert in community development, utilizing participative tools for local community actions and cooperation between communities at local, regional, national and international level. In the past 10 years Petar works on transferring experience to help others understand the complexity of rural development challenges driven by a large number of factors, and which requires multi-disciplinary and team-work response. Currently he is focused on, rural CSO capacity building, networking and EU LEADER approach as a model for local economic development and enhancement of the capacity of rural civil society organizations in sustainable development.

Laura Jänis

Laura Jänis at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland

Laura Jänis has been working with rural policy and rural development issues in the ministry since 2006. Since 2016 she has been responsible for LEADER in the managing authority. She is interested in developing and strengthening the CLLD method and the added value of LEADER.

Matthias Wagner

• Until 2008: Study of Geography at University of Leipzig
• 2008: employée of the LAG Leipziger Muldenland
• Since 2009: Manager of the LAG Leipziger Muldenland

Projects experiences

• Consulting of over 800 LEADER projects in LAG Leipziger Muldenland
• International LEADER cooperation projects with Finnland, Latvia, Austria, France, Spain and Luxemburg on different topics (youth envolvment, rural coworking, Geopark development)
• Regional networks on local products and local restaurants

Barbara Stumpf

Barbara Stumpf works as a project manager in a LEADER-region in Austria/Styria. Her main areas of work are transnational cooperation projects, sustainable tourism innovation and health tourism. Her educational path is a master’s degree at the University of Applied Sciences for Health Management in Tourism in Austria and additionally a master semester at the University Linköping in Sweden. The professional career led from managing the local tourism association in Hartberg to various regional development offices with EU-funded projects (LEADER, Interreg, Erasmus+).

Enrique Nieto

Enrique Nieto is a Spanish rural economist currently working as Deputy Team Leader of the Rural Pact Support Office in charge of animating and implementing networking activities for the Rural Pact and contribute to the European Commission’s long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas. Enrique holds more than 12 years of experience in European rural networking and has been involved as policy analysist in FARNET, the ENRD and CAP Network leading in particular activities regarding integrated local development and smart villages.

In addition, he is Senior policy expert for AEIDL – The European Association for Innovation in Local Development, and has participated in a number of rural Horizon 2020 & Europe projects such as DESIRA, MOVING or SHERPA and launched the European Local Innovation Forum.

Claudia Bruno

Claudia Bruno is programming and design manager of the LAG Tirreno Eolie that is located in Sicily and puts together several private partners and 14 municipalities between which the Eolian Islands. She was project coordinator for the InterregMED Project Emblematic Plus that had the aim to spread the values of sustainable tourism transmitted by the network of emblematic mountains of the Mediterranean hinterland through the process of eco-itineraries established under the previous EMbleMatiC. Through this project they created 3 eco-itinearies in the island of Stromboli that allowed the Aeolian itineraries to be known and recognized internationally, for the characteristics of slow and experiential tourism even in the mountain areas, to be enjoyed not only in the summer months, but especially in the mild seasons of spring and autumn.

Loïc Sorin

Loïc Sorin is a senior consultant specializing in the food sector, with over 30 years of experience. He is an expert in supporting artisanal businesses and territories development, and has played a key role in the growth of the french network “La Cité du Goût et des Saveurs.” He works partly for the Chambre de Métiers et de l’Artisanat de Bretagne and partly as an independent consultant under the SLR2A banner.

Since 2014, Loïc has also been running his own consulting firm, SLR2A. Through this firm, he assists local governments, companies, and agricultural and food processing sectors in defining and implementing sustainable food strategies and projects. His work spans across France, Europe, and overseas territories, focusing primarily on structuring food supply chains, promoting local economies, and ensuring food sovereignty.

Eduard Trepat

Eduard Trepat is a geographer and coordinator of the Rural Initiatives Association of Catalonia, the Catalan network of Leader Groups. For more than 15 years he has been working projects on rural development related, among others, to demography, depopulation, heritage or rural education. He has coordinated the Atlas of the Rural World and is a promoter of the Rural Agenda of Catalonia (Catalan Rural Pact).

Elena Di Federico

Elena Di Federico is the Publications Manager at the EU CAP Network, where she also contributes to the creation and publication of contents related to the implementation of the CAP (particularly General Objective 3 – Strengthening the social fabric of rural areas). After almost 15 years of experience as a researcher and project manager in the cultural sector, in 2018 Elena joined the ENRD Contact Point, which then became part of the EU CAP Network in 2022. 

Peter Toth

Peter is a networker working for the EU CAP Network. His work experience includes working in awareness-raising and community mobilisation campaigns with an environmental NGO, work for the Managing Authority in Hungary helping to develop and implement the LEADER, village development, and rural tourism measures for the 2007-2013 programming period. Since 2011, Peter has been working with ENRD Contact Point which became part of the EU CAP Network in 2022. His main fields of interest include community-led local development (CLLD), environmental and social issues.

Dr. Konstantinos Zapounidis

Dr. Konstantinos Zapounidis holds a PhD in project and human resources management from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He also has a BSc-MSc in Civil Engineering from the same university and an MSc in Project (Construction) Management from Heriot-Watt University, UK. He is a certified Project Manager by the International Project Management Association. Since 2002, he has been involved in coordinating and managing European cooperation and research projects in applied technologies, and is a LAG Leader Programme Management member. He has led various projects across frameworks such as CLLD/Leader, Interreg MED, ERASMUS+, HORIZON 2020, and others, often serving as Communication Manager. Currently, he is Head of the Projects and Programmes Management Unit at Pieriki Local Development Agency.

He also consults for organizations on co-financed projects totaling nearly €100M, evaluates investment plans, and serves as a Quality Manager under ISO 9001. He is an active member of scientific committees, a reviewer for scientific publications, and an invited lecturer in Civil Engineering and Business Administration courses at various universities. Dr. Zapounidis has authored over thirty scientific papers and is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Civil Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Katharina Koss

Dr. Katharina Koss (Geographer, PhD in rural development)

• since April 2022: working in LAG Leipziger Muldenland, responsible for networking and cooperation projects
• 2012-2022: worked as a scientist and lecturer at University of Leipzig and Leibniz-Institute for Regional Geography in several projects about rural developement, urban development, climate adaptation and demographic topics

Séverine Bressaud

Séverine Bressaud, is the co-founder of eurêka 21, a company specialized in European cooperation notably on the topic of climate change. For many years, she supports the development of transnational cooperation projects in the framework of many European programmes: Leader, Erasmus+, INTERREG… Leader has a specific place in her heart since she is committed since the beginning of her career in encouraging EU cooperation among rural areas. Indeed, cooperation is one of the key to innovate, to foster the ecological transition by improving practices and creating bridges between stakeholders.

Her last transnational projects? Cooperation among the emblematic Mediterranean mountains on sustainable tourism issues and cooperation among European wine producers to adapt their methods, approaches to the climate change.  

Maria Gafo Gómez-Zamalloa

Maria Gafo Gómez-Zamalloa is deputy head of the unit “Social sustainability” in the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission. The Unit of Maria follows social issues in our rural areas, including generational renewal, depopulation, equality, local development or human rights. Her Unit is responsible for the LEADER programme.
Maria has a long experience in the European Commission where she has worked on energy, environment, forestry and agricultural policies.  She coordinated the long-term vision for rural areas adopted in 2021.
 
María holds a PhD in Forestry Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. She completed her studies at the Universities of Wageningen (The Netherlands) and Debrecen (Hungary). She also holds a diploma in European studies from the Diplomatic School.
 
Before joining the European Commission, María was a consultant at Arthur Andersen-Garrigues and participated in several development projects in Mexico, Ecuador and Paraguay with the NGO “Solidarios para el Desarrollo”.

Markkola Juha-Matti (Ruoka)

Network Coordinator in Finnish Rural Network Support Unit responsible for LEADER approach and transnational cooperation

• Member of EU CAP Network’s steering group
• Member of CAP Network’s Subgroup on LEADER and territorial development
• Rural issues cover both my work and leisure time. I live in a small village in Western Finland. I am forester, forest owner, local politician and run a rural tourism business.
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/juha-matti-markkola-60205a54