Speakers

Gil Arias-Fernández has served as Frontex’s Deputy Executive Director since January 2006.
Previously, during his 35 years in the Spanish National Police, he dealt with the management of strategies in the fight against the trafficking of human beings, irregular immigration and the management of borders at both the national and European levels.
He served as a police Inspector in Barcelona and continued public service in units dealing with the management of border control related matters and also as Head of the Spanish delegation in various Working Groups of the Council of the EU. He became the Chairman of these Working Groups in the years when Spain took over the Schengen Presidency as well as the Presidency of the Council of the EU. He was also deeply involved in Schengen evaluations. Gil Arias-Fernández has worked as Senior Executive Advisor for international matters in the Cabinet of the Minister of Interior of Spain.

Inmaculada Arnaez became Frontex’s first Fundamental Rights Officer in December 2012. Before joining Frontex, she worked on rule of law matters at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. She has a fifteen years’ experience in fundamental rights, humanitarian law and international relations. She has worked to strengthen the protection of fundamental rights of returnees and internally displaced persons, reform the judiciary and facilitate access to justice for victims of conflict in the Balkans and Latin America. Arnaez has held various posts in the United Nations Police Mission, United Nations Development Program, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Office of the High Representative, the Registry for the Court and Prosecutors Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Spanish Agency for International Co-Operation.

Dimitris Avramopoulos started his term as Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship on the 1 November 2014, together with the other members of the Juncker Commission.
Before becoming European Commissioner, Avramopoulos was Minister of National Defence of Greece, as well as in 2011.
In 2012, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 2004-2009 he was Minister of Tourism Development and Minister of Health and Social Solidarity.
Avramopoulos was a two-term Major of Athens from 1995 until 2002. In 2000-2002 he served as the President of the Summit Conference of the “Mayors of the World”.
Dimitirs Avramopoulos served in the Diplomatic Service of Greece from 1980 until 1993. In 1992 he was appointed Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in 1993 he was appointed Director of the Diplomatic Cabinet of the Greek Prime Minister.
Avramopoulos was elected Member of Parliament in 1993, 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2012, and is also Vice President of the New Democracy party since 2010.
Dimitris Avramopoulos completed his studies at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at the University of Athens and his graduate studies at Boston University.

Carlotta Bellini is the Head of Child Protection at Save the Children Italy, where she has worked for eight years. She has been leading the organisation’s operations at Italy’s southern borders to support and protect children crossing the Mediterranean. She had also cooperated with the Italian Navy in the Mare Nostrum.
In her previous professional experience Carlotta worked with numerous human rights academic institutions and organisations, such as the European Inter-University Centre on Human Rights and Democratisation and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Edgar Beugels heads the Research and Development Unit at Frontex, where he has worked since its foundation in 2005. Earlier, Beugels worked for 15 years for the Immigration Service (IND) of the Netherlands.
The Research and Development Unit contributes to and follows up on research and developments that is of relevance for the security of the external border of the EU. This is done for the benefit of the member states of the European Union and the European Commission. The unit also participates in short, mid and long term border security related projects being executed at the EU level. The development of best practice guidelines, common (technical) requirements and standards at the EU level for technical equipment to be used for border checks and border surveillance is one of the focal points of the unit.

Philippe de Bruycker (PhD in Law) is Jean Monnet Chair for European Law on Immigration & Asylum and Professor at the European University Institute (EUI) of Florence and the Institute for European Studies and the Law Faculty of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). His books and articles focus on Immigration and asylum law with a special emphasis on its EU dimension. In 2004 and 2005, he advised the I.O.M. in Tirana for the National Strategy on Migration of the Albanian Government. From 2001 to 2003, he was adviser at the European Commission in the DG Home Affairs in charge of drafting proposals for directive on immigration.

Karen Clifford has 22 years experience working as a police officer in Ireland. In 2001 she transferred from Crime Ordinary Investigations into the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) – the Bureau having been formed in May 2000. Since joining the Immigration Service she has worked in various roles including Human Trafficking and illegal facilitation Investigations, Repatriation and Border Control. Currently she is the liaison for unaccompanied minors and has overseen many investigations involving the illegal movement of children across EU Borders. She is responsible for managing an analytical operation which monitors the suspicious movement of children into, through and out of Ireland. She has been a contributor to the VEGA Children Handbook, recently published by Frontex.

Huub Dijstelbloem is Professor of Philosophy of Science and Politics at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Senior Research Fellow at the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) in The Hague. Bringing together the fields of philosophy of science and political philosophy, his research employs a combination of conceptual, normative and empirical approaches. His current project is concerned with ‘Surveillance and counter-surveillance at the Southern borders of Europe and the United States’.

Krum Garkov has been the Executive Director of eu-LISA since November 2012.He has more than 15 years of cross-cultural experiences spanning the public and private sectors, complemented by two Master's degrees in the area of information technology, a MBA and project management certification.
Before taking the leadership post at eu-LISA, Mr Garkov was Operations Director for the Experian Group ltd., a leading global information provider serving the finance industry. Prior to that, Mr Garkov worked as a Program Manager at Hewlett Packard, a major technology company, where he was responsible for key programme initiatives, including a large-scale data centre consolidation and application portfolio consolidation and integration.
From 2003 to 2006, he served the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency as a CIO. He had held several positions at Bulgaria’s Centre for Mass Privatisation.

Aija Kalnaja joined CEPOL in September 2011, bringing with her 20 years of policing experience and a wealth of international law enforcement expertise. Initially appointed as Training Coordinator and then promoted to Head of the Training and Research Unit, Ms Kalnaja is responsible for the overall development and implementation of CEPOL’s residential training activities.
Prior to joining CEPOL, Aija held the position of Deputy Chief of the Latvian Police, responsible for international cooperation and administrative affairs for the national police force. Between 2007 and 2011, Ms Kalnaja was Latvia’s Police attaché to the United Kingdom, acting as a strategic advisor to the Latvian government on police matters and cooperation with the United Kingdom. Before this, from 2003, Ms Kalnaja headed the Latvian SIRENE Bureau, managing the establishment of the national bureau.
Ms Kalnaja joined the Latvian police in November 1993, rising through the ranks to Chief Inspector by 2003.

Fabrice Leggeri took up the post of the Executive Director of Frontex on January 16, 2015. He has an extensive background in working with various levels of government on issues related to the Schengen agreement, migration and international law.
Earlier, he ran the Division on Irregular Migration at the French Ministry of Interior, with key responsibilities arising from Schengen-related public policies and illegal immigration. Between 2003 and 2007, he represented the State in two French regions holding the office of Vice-Prefect. At the French Ministry of Defence, he served as the head of the division of International and European Law, a position he left in 2011 when he moved to Seoul to become the deputy head of the French embassy in the Republic of South Korea. Between 2000 and 2003, he served as a national expert detached to the European Commission in 2000-2003, where he contributed to drafting the Commission Communication COM(2002)233 “Towards an integrated management of the EU external borders”, which was endorsed in 2002 and recommended the creation of Frontex.

Oldřich Martinů was appointed Deputy Director of Europol in November 2011, with specific responsibility for governance matters.
Prior his appointment to Europol, Mr Martinu worked at the Police Presidium of the Czech Republic, where his activities focused mainly on EU police cooperation matters. Earlier, he served as the Chief of the Police in the Czech Republic. He was responsible for the full scope of activities of the Czech police in the field of national security and public order and implemented a reform focused on streamlining of police services towards a higher level of safety and security. He also represented the Police of the Czech Republic internationally. He was the Czech Republic member of the Europol Management Board and a representative to the General Assembly of Interpol.
He was promoted by the President of the Czech Republic to the rank Major General in 2009.

Mircea Mocanu heads the IOM office in Romania. He is actively involved in the implementation of practical solutions to assist migrants in need, victims of trafficking and stranded people seeking emergency consular assistance.
Before IOM, Mircea’s professional experience included assignments with UNDP, EU and the FCO in SE Asia, Central Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe, where he carried out socio-economic programmes in line with the MDGs. Mircea is a strong advocate for inter-institutional cooperation and communication among governmental, non-governmental and private-sector stakeholders.

Charlotte joined Border Force in December 2014 and works in the Strategy and Policy Team. The team is involved with a range of strategy and policy projects that enable the organisation to deliver its overarching vision. The team also translates legislative changes – such as the recent Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 – into guidance for the front line.
Prior to Border Force, Charlotte worked directly for the Immigration and Security Minister, focussing on Border Force and border policy. Before that she worked for Her Majesty’s Passport Office. Charlotte has a degree in French and Russian.

Michał Parzyszek is an expert in communication and home affairs policies. Combining his deep knowledge of political science, sociology and public relations, he worked with Poland’s Ministers of Interior, Agriculture and Rural Development to support the country’s bid to join the European Union and Schengen area. He left the Ministry of Interior in 2005 to join a small team of pioneers who were creating the EU’s new border management agency. Since 2005, he has been developing Frontex’s communications, making the idea of border management and internal security clearer to a number of audiences.

Adriano Silvestri is the Head of Sector Asylum, Migration and Borders at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), where his areas of expertise include international human rights and refugee law, as well as the EU acquis relating to asylum, borders and immigration.
Before joining the FRA he was at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where he worked in the field for several years (Armenia, the Russian Federation and Austria) as well as at UNHCR headquarters. He worked on a wide range of activities, both legal as well as operational, relating to asylum, the protection of internally displaced persons and statelessness. He was involved in the development of UNHCR tools and guidelines, such as the best interests of the child or on assessing protection gaps for internally displaced persons. He also worked for the World Wide Fund for Nature in the Altai-Sayan region.

David Trembaczowski-Ryder is a retired UK Royal Air Force officer with significant experience in NATO and EU policy development. David’s last appointment was with the UK Permanent Representation (UKREP) to the European Union and prior to that he was seconded to the EU Council General Secretariat. Before his stint in Brussels, he was the CEO/Base Commander of Gibraltar Airfield/RAF Gibraltar, where he was responsible for all aspects of the airfield operations, which had significant security related challenges. At ACI EUROPE, which he joined in February 2010, Trembaczowski-Ryder covers the whole range of aviation security issues affecting Europe’s airports.
He holds a BSc (Hons) in Economics (University of Hull), and is a graduate of the Royal Air Force Staff College and the European Security and Defence College.

Dr Visser was appointed Executive Director of EASO in November 2010 and took office on 1 February 2011.
Before joining EASO, Dr Visser occupied the post of Director-General for Legislation, International Affairs and Immigration at the Dutch Ministry of Justice (April 2003 to January 2011).
From 1997 to 2003 he served as Deputy Secretary-General and senior advisor to the Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
He started his diplomatic career in 1981.
Dr Visser has university degrees in Law and in History at the Groningen University, having obtained his PhD in Law from the Leiden University in 2008.

António Vitorino has been an associate at the law firm Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira & Associados since 2005. He served as European Commissioner for Justice and Internal Affairs between 1999 and 2004. As a representative of the European Commission, he took part in both the convention which drew up the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Convention on the Future of Europe.
Earlier, he held the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister of Portugal, an MEP, a judge on Portugal's constitutional court, Deputy Secretary in the government of Macau and a Minister for Parliamentary Affairs.