Speakers

Born on 20 August 1955. He joined the Spanish National Police in 1975. For the past 35 years he has dealt with the management of strategies in the fight against the trafficking of human beings, illegal immigration and the management of borders on National and European level. He started his career as a Police Inspector in Barcelona and continued in Units dealing with the management of border control related matters. He was also the Head of the Spanish Delegation in various Working Groups of the Council of the EU. He worked as Senior Advisor for international matters in the Cabinet of the Minister of Interior of Spain.
Gil spends his free time going trekking with his dogs and riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Born on 28th July 1962. From 1990 to 1991 he was a Protection Officer for UNHCR in Nepal. In 1991 he joined International Organization for Migration (IOM). He served as an Associated Expert/Operations Officer in Division for Africa and Middle East as well as a Chief of Humanitarian Programmes and Migration of Nationals Unit. From 2002 to 2003 he was in charge of Special Missions Unit. He used to work as a journalist for SIR Press Agency and was a director of “Cristiani nel mondo magazine”. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Law

He joined Frontex in March 2007 as Head of the Research and Development Unit and assumed his current post in June 2008. His previous experience includes 20 years in various positions at the Swedish Defense Research Agency and two years as Senior Policy Officer at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering Physics from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, an Engineer’s degree in Aeronautics from the US Naval Postgraduate School, and an MBA from Stockholm University.

Before joining Frontex right from its foundation in 2005 he worked for 15 years for the Immigration Service (IND) of the Netherlands. During the past years Edgar actively participated in the development of the border control/security policy at both a national and international level and was involved in the development of the Schengen acquis and its implementation. He was also responsible for the negotiations between the Netherlands and the USA (DHS) on a transatlantic automated border passage/registered traveler program. He was participant in numerous missions to all Schengen member states and a participant in numerous border control related missions to all continents of the world.

He started his career in a Mobile Intervention Unit as squadron leader. He has been very closely involved in the implementation of the Schengen Acquis in Belgium; he occupied a command post in Brussels national airport and was in particular responsible for border police. In 2001 he joined the HQ to create a national Border Control and Immigration Department and to work in several EU projects in the context of the 2001 Belgian EU presidency. Since July 2010 he has been working as a personal policy advisor of the General Commissioner. He sees International Police Cooperation as a key to solutions in our today’s globalised world and believes in the inter-agency cooperation as one of the most important prerequisites to book successes

He is an investigative journalist and writer specializing in justice and home affairs, civil liberties and freedom of information in the EU. He edits Statewatch bulletin and Statewatch News online. He is the author of "The Political Police in Britain", "Secrecy and openness in the EU" and "The Shape of Things to Come" and edited "The War on Freedom and Democracy". He has taken ten successful complaints against the Council of the European Union and the European Commission to the European Ombudsman on access to EU documents. He was selected twice as one of the "EV50" - one of the fifty most influential people in the EU by "European Voice" newspaper. He is a Visiting Fellow at London Metropolitan University.

Born on 16 November 1957. She has 15 years of experience as an expert in curriculum design in an organisational context to private and public sector and 18 years of experience as a successful Business Consultant. She is a member of Black Country Branch CIPD, Finst ILM (Fellow Institute Leadership & Management, FCIPD (Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development).
She is also a member of the European Forum for HRD, FITOL (Fellow Institute Training & Organisational Learning) and CIM. She is also an Award Director for the MSc in Human Resource Development and Organisational Change.

He is senior researcher and policy adviser at the German Institute for Human Rights responsible for international fight against terrorism, for human rights and also for United Nations Human Rights system. He is a senior lecturer in political science at the Free University in Berlin. He is a member of the European Committee on the Prevention of Torture since 2005 and a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee since 2008.

He holds a Master of Law from the University of Aarhus in Denmark. He started his career at the Danish Refugee Council and was involved in human rights capacity building projects with governments and national institutions since 1991.
From 2002 to 2008 he was a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and a member of the EU network of independent experts responsible for monitoring compliance with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (2002-2006). He was the founding Director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR), Denmark’s national human rights institution, and within 17 years developed it from a small organisation to a large internationally recognized institution.

Born on 22 August 1962, he has dealt with border control issues both on national and European level for the past 30 years. In his home country Finland, he reached the rank of Brigadier General.
This self disciplined and precise man of the North started his career as a teenager on the border with USSR. He continued in Finish Permanent Representation in Brussels and was greatly involved in Schengen evaluation. He was co-chairman of the Council Working Party Frontiers and a director of the EU Risk Analysis Centre. Ilkka frequently travels between Warsaw and Helsinki where he spends quality time with his family and enjoys golf and tennis.

He served in senior positions related to U.S. immigration policy and operations at the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). He led the establishment of the dedicated commuter lane program Secure Electronic Network for Traveler’s Rapid Inspection (SENTRI) at U.S. land border ports and initiated the policy of interagency project teams to meet critical U.S. government mandates.
He supports a vision of increased cooperation in biometrics-based border security standards worldwide and serves as an advisor to the European Union Biometric Forum. He holds a degree in Soviet studies from the University of California. He has received numerous awards in his career, including U.S. Vice President Al Gore’s annual Hammer Award for the SENTRI program’s innovative use of information technology.

Born on 15 May 1968. From 1999 to 2006 she was a Member of European Parliament and worked mainly on foreign affairs, human rights, EU enlargement and constitutional issues. In 2006 she was appointed EU minister by the Swedish government and was responsible for EU issues and built support for the EU among Swedish citizens. Now Cecilia Malmstrom is responsible for police cooperation, border control, asylum and migration, which means she is in charge of EU’s fight against serious international crime and trafficking.
Currently she lives in Brussels with her husband and their two children.

Born on 11 January 1954. She started her career in Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. In 1991 she joined UNHCR . In 1994 she was a Protection Officer on Emergency Mission to Kingston (Jamaica) and Guantanamo Bay (Cuba). In 1996 she was appointed Senior Legal Officer in Department of International Protection Advisor in Department on International Protection and then Senior Legal Officer in Standards and Legal Advice Section. For several years she worked as a Representative of UNHCR in Republic of Korea.

He started his career as a Patrol Officer with different functions on tactical level. After he gained Administrative Diploma he held different positions in Police management at a medium level (e.g. team leader, platoon leader and FPU commander). In 1994 he was appointed Head of a Special Police Department and than Deputy Head of a County Police.
He has an impressive international experience. He was involved in UNMIK. He also worked as a Project Manager and Senior Police Adviser to the African Union concerning the implementation of the ASF Police Component.

He also works as an Adjunct Professor in vocational education and training (Tampere University) and in general education (Oulu University). His main research interest areas are work-related learning, organisational learning and curriculum development. Nikkanen worked on many international research projects and authored scientific books and articles.
He has also supervised students in their research work for dissertation thesis books. Dr Nikkanen is a member of the editorial board of The Finnish Journal of Vocational Education and Training since 1999.

In 1997 he started his professional career with Schiphol Group. He specializes in the development and realization of border passage facilities and registered traveler programs as Dartagnan operates programs in Europe (www.privium.com) and Asia Pacific (www.saphire.co.id). In close cooperation with US and Dutch border authorities he set up the FLUX program (www.flux-alliance.eu ). He is a member of the user commission of technology foundation STW of University of Twente advising on funding of biometric related R&D activities. He holds a Master's degree in Communications at the University of Amsterdam.

Worked for the Ministry of Public Works in the Netherlands from 1975 till 1985 and then joined the European Commission Directorate General for Energy and Transport.

Before he started his career in public service, he had worked as a human recourses manager at UPS. In 1996 he graduated in Law with a barrista-at-law. In 1998 he joined the Federal Police. He held different positions in the Federal Ministry for Internal Affairs of Germany for eight years. He specialises in the European and cross border police cooperation.

Born on 17 April 1964 in Austria. He held different positions on local, district and regional level in the Austrian Federal Gendarmerie since 1985. In 2002 he was appointed a Head of Unit Law Enforcement Matters in Ministry of Interior. Since 2008 he is a Head of Department Operational Matters.
His main responsibilities are operations in the field of border police, missions abroad under the mandate of the EU and UN, traffic police, Airport Security and diversity management. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Police Leadership.

Graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of London. He served as the EU Advisor to the President of Poland in the years 1996-2000. He then headed the Office for European Integration in the Chancellery of the President. In the years 2001-2006 he served as Director of the Department of the European Union in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He is a Member of the Lisbon Council, Member of the Advisory Board of the European Policy Centre, Member of the Advisory Board of the Baltic Development Forum, Member of the Advisory Group which assists the Polish government in its preparations for the EU presidency in 2011. Author of numerous articles on European integration and international relations, he has a column on foreign policy in "Gazeta Wyborcza".

Born on 21 August 1955 in Germany. He was in service of German Federal Police (former Bundesgrenzschutz) since 1974. He graduated the Border Guard academy. He held several management functions on mid level (platoon leader, deputy Head of unit, specialized instructor). In 2001 and 2002 he was a senior consultant with Federal Ministry of Interior. In 2003 and 2004 - Head of border issues branch with the EUPOL mission PROXIMA (FYROM). From 2005 to 2008 he was a Head of Federal Police District Office at Schwandorf.

Born on 28 July 1951. He is a professor of Organic Chemistry at Complutense University in Madrid. In June 1992 he was appointed Minister of Education and Science and a year later – Minister of the Presidency, a position he held until May 1996. He was a Member of the Congress for Toledo, then Member of the Congress for Madrid.
He worked on the most important education legislation of the Socialist government: the University Reform Law, the Law on the Promotion and General Coordination of Scientific Research and Technology and the Law on General Organisation of the Educational System. He is also a member of the Federal Executive Committee of the Socialist Party and member of the Federal Committee.

Born in 1967. Graduated from the London School of Economics, University of London. In 1989 he joined the UK Civil. Between 2000 and 2003 he was the Head of the UK Liaison Bureau at Europol, and he was also managing the Europol National Unit in London.
In 2003 he appointed Director International of the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS). From 2006 onwards, he was Chief of the International Department of the UK Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), where he was overseeing 20,000 law enforcement cases each year as well as establishing the international strategy and operational capabilities of the newly formed agency. Rob Wainwright is married with three children.

Born on 3 September 1949. He started his career as a Legal Advisor in Federal Chancellors’ Office. For seven years he held the position of Deputy Director General for Public Security where he was responsible for aliens police, visa and border management, national crisis management, civil protection and air police. He coordinated several UE research projects concerning migration policies. He was a project leader of the visa module in the EU PHAR horizontal programme for all 12 candidate countries in 2001 and 2002 in co-operation with ICMPD.

From October 2008 he managed the unit “IT systems: Infrastructure and Legal Issues”. In January 2009 he was promoted and appointed head of the Unit "Large-Scale IT systems and Biometrics", which manages the development of the second-generation SIS, the future VIS and related Biometric Matching System.
Dr Paul has a legal background in German, French and International Law. In 1993 he joined the European Commission as a Permanent Official. In 1998 he joined the then Task Force Justice and Home Affairs (now a Directorate-General) and worked as a project manager for EURODAC and on a variety of legal and organisational issues related to Asylum and Immigration.

He was Secretary General of Norwegian Organization for Asylum Seekers and a senior diplomat responsible for Norwegian interests in the field of Justice and Home Affairs for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Norwegian delegation to the European Union in Brussels. He worked for Norwegian Refugee Council as a Director for International Department and later since 2002 and as a Resident Representative for Europe office in Brussels. He holds degrees in social and political sciences from Oslo University.
As a Secretary General he is focused on advocacy and public awareness-raising in the work of the organization what will lead to greater public understanding of refugee issues and asylum as a human right.

Born in 1951. He served as Secretary General of the Higher Council of Civil Service of the Ministry for Public Administration. In 1987 he was appointed Director General of Territorial Cooperation of the Ministry for Public Administration. He served as Deputy Director General for Human Resources Team of the Directorate General for the Civil Service of the Ministry of Public Administration. He has been the Director General of Civil Defense and Emergencies since 2006. He holds Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science and is a Member of the Higher Body of State Civil Servants (Cuerpo Superior de Administradores Civiles del Estado).