Our Experts

Stanislaw Bienias President & Former Head of the National Evaluation Unit, Ministry of Regional Development, Poland, IDEA Institute Ltd., Poland

From 2004 to 2013, Stanisław Bienias worked in the Polish Ministry of Regional Development for the National Evaluation Unit. He became Head of this unit in 2006. He was responsible for organising the process of evaluation for the National Development Plan 2004-2006 and the National Strategic Reference Framework 2007-2013 as well as the negotiation of regulations concerning evaluation, monitoring and indicators for 2014-2020. Furthermore, Stanisław Bienias coordinated the work of more than 50 evaluation units located in Operational Programmes and was responsible for building the evaluation culture in the public administration. For the last nine years Stanisław Bienias represented Poland in the DG REGIO Evaluation Network meetings. In June 2013 he founded the non-profit organization Foundation IDEA. Currently he is a President of IDEA Institute Ltd. He has been expert and team leader of dozens of evaluation studies conducted in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Susana Barragan Communication Officer, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

Susana Barragan is a Communication Officer at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm, where she leads the digital strategy and specialises in crisis and outbreak communication. She works closely with ECDC’s Epidemic Intelligence and Response team, and supports risk communication in the areas of food and waterborne diseases and HIV. Prior to joining ECDC, she worked in Portugal as a health journalist, communications manager and as a content editor for the Portuguese Ministry of Health. Susana Barragan has a background in communication science. She has lectured on health communication as part of the Master’s Programme in Public Health Sciences at Karolinska Institute (Sweden).

Martin Baumhauer Senior Policy Officer, Austrian Federal Ministry for the Civil Service and Sport

Martin Baumhauer is Senior Policy Officer at the Austrian Federal Ministry for the Civil Service and Sport. His work focuses on performance management, outcome orientation and the implementation and coordination of gender equality aspects within both frameworks. He teaches at the Federal Academy of Public Administration. Before joining the Austrian Federal Ministry for the Civil Service and Sport, Martin Baumhauer worked for several years in the public and private sector in Austria.

Małgorzata Bojańczyk Head of Unit, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Poland

Since 2018 Małgorzata Bojańczyk has been Head of Unit at the Departmen of Rural Development at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development responsible for managing authority verifications in the RDP, errors and irregularities, management control, as well as administrative proceedings. She is a Polish official with over 14 years of experience in the EU policy covering agriculture and rural development, in particular in all aspects of the Pillar II common agricultural policy (CAP). Since 2005, she has been working at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland, the Managing Authority of rural development programs performing tasks of a Member State of the European Union, where she has held different positions. She obtained a broad range of expertise in management and implementation of rural development policies (programming periods since 2004), as well as managing legal and financial issues related to the European Union.

Raymond Bausch Finance Inspector, Inspection Générale des Finances (IGF) - Luxembourg

Since 2010, Raymond Bausch is one of the fifteen Finance Inspectors at the Inspectorate of Finance assisting the Luxembourg Government in the preparation and execution of the public budget. His responsibilities include the monitoring of different ministerial departments (Social security, Finance, Agriculture, …) and the preparation of Budget Reforms in Luxembourg. In 2014, Raymond Bausch coordinated the Spending Review in Luxembourg. In 2015, he participated as one of the four pairs in the OECD Study of the Budget procedures in Tunisia. Before joining the Inspectorate of Finance, Raymond Bausch was Secretary General of the National Research Fund (1999 – 2010), an Officer at the Research Ministry (1994 – 1999) and the Head of an Operational Research Unit (1986 – 1994) at ARBED (now ArcelorMittal).

Dr. Juan Bicarregui Head of Data Division, Science & Technology Facilities Council (TBC)

Juan Bicarregui is Head of the Data Division in the Scientific Computing Department at STFC. Juan’s division has responsibility for research and development of the data systems that handle much of the huge volume of scientific data that is produced by the STFC research facilities. He has played a key role in formulating UK policy on opening up access to research outputs and chaired the cross Research Council group which published the RCUK Joint Principles on Data and associated Guidelines. He was a member of the steering group that set up the Research Data Alliance and co-chaired the RDA Organisational Advisory Board. Currently, Juan Bicarregui is the coordinator of the H2020 EOSC pilot project that is supporting the first phase in the development of the European Open Science Cloud.

Marie-José Bonthuis Privacy- and IT-Lawyer, CIPP/E, CIPM, CIPT, FIP, Privacy1 / University of Groningen

Mrs Bonthuis is IT-Lawyer and PhD at the Faculty of Law at the University of Groningen. The purpose of her research is to gain more insight into the problems encountered by cooperating organisations (and governments), or 'chains' in the area of careful handling of personal data (privacy), as a result of which they do or do not risk their social product. By "placing" chains in the current legal framework with regard to the protection of personal data, proposals can be made at the legislative level, but perhaps also at the level of the organisation of the chain. Within the Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU), Mrs Bonthuis is a contributor and promoter of the national Code of Conduct for Using Personal Data in scientific research. In her role at Privacy1 she assists organisations in a pragmatic and fun way to deal with data from their target group as a reliable party.

Béatrice Baumann Inspector General of Finance, Head of the Federal Audit Cell of the Inspectorate of Finance for the European Funds, Interfederal Corps of the Inspectorate of Finance, Belgium

Béatrice Baumann has been a member of the Inspectorate of Finance since 2010. She is currently the Audit Authority for the three European Funds AMIF, ISF and FEAD. In the very end of 2014, she was asked to take over the Audit Authority in charge with the ESF 2007/2013 at federal level, and the SOLID funds at national level. Prior, she was assigned to the classic assignments of the Inspectorate of Finance, and was appointed to the federal Ministers of Finance, Budget and Sustainable Development as an independent controller and adviser. In this capacity, she developed a strong expertise in the ex ante control of public procurement, among others. Before that, she assisted the Wrapping-Up Body (former name of the Audit Authority) in the closure process of the 2000-2006 programming period of ESF at federal level. She is an recognized expert in internal control and audit since 2007 within the Belgian Federal Administration.

Jean-Benoît Bel Senior project manager, Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and Sustainable Resource Management

Jean-Benoit is an environmental engineer holding a degree in general engineering from the École Centrale de Lille (France) and a Master degree in environmental engineering from the Technical University of Denmark. He has worked for 9 years for the Paris Region Waste Observatory (ORDIF). He is now a Senior Project Manager and Senior Expert at ACR+, specialised in waste monitoring and benchmarking.

Arnold Boon University Director, Aarhus University, Denmark

Since 2016, Arnold Boon has been University Director and Member of the Senior Management Team at Aarhus University. In this role, he is responsible for the University administration, including finance, HR, IT, student administration and research support as well as real estate and campus development. Arnold Boon has more than 18 years of experience with financial management and a wide experience in leading major change projects, digitisation, continuous process improvement and organisational changes which he gathered in various public institutions.

Michael Wayne Bexton Head of Energy Services, Nottingham City Council, United Kingdom

Wayne Bexton is Head of Energy Services at Nottingham City Council and has worked in public sector energy and sustainability fields for over 15 years, having previously delivered sustainability advice in the private sector. Wayne has delivered numerous high profile, high value environmental projects and programmes for the public sector across the East Midlands, receiving industry recognition along the way including the National Lottery Awards Environment Category Winner, Solar Power Portal - Best Commercial Project and the Access Alliance Best Scheme Award. Currently leading on Nottingham’s ambitious energy and carbon neutral delivery programme, which is recognized as the leading local authority response to the climate emergency.

Simona Bovha Head of Division, European Investment Bank (EIB)

Simona Bovha is heading the CPCM Division at the European Investment Bank. The division is responsible for procurement, contract and consultant management of technical assistance operations/consultancy services within and outside the EU financed from third-party mandates and delivered by external consultants. She has been with the Bank for eleven years and has wealth of experience in macroeconomic and financial sector analysis, credit counterpart analysis, project monitoring and disbursements. She also gained experience in the European Commission and International Monetary Fund.

Christian Bercker Managing Director, rechenwerk GmbH

Christian is managing director of rechenwerk GmbH. After graduating with a business degree in computer science and planning in 2001, he began his career as a freelance IT consultant for the Ministry of Economics in North Rhine-Westphalia, working on the ERDF-Programme and gaining experience in monitoring system development. Notably, he developed an integrated data warehouse for analyzing project indicators and financial data. In 2010, he founded rechenwerk. Since then, he has engaged in various programme evaluations providing data support and quality checks, developing web applications and Business Intelligence systems. He has also contributed to articles on e-Cohesion and has condicted two e-Cohesion feasibility studies. His expertise extends to supporting users in different roles, serving as a project manager. Currently he works for several Jems using programmes (MED, EMR, BY-CZ, Brandenburg-Poland, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern-Poland, ABH) providing hosting, maintenance and development.