Annual Conference Speakers
Simultaneous translation French-English // English-French will be available
Pierre Corvol
Honorary Administrator of the Collège de France & President of the Academy of Sciences, FR
Pierre Corvol, MD, is Professor emeritus at the College de France and Honorary Administrator of the College de France. He is the past President of the French Academy of Sciences.
He is both a clinician and a scientist. He was Chief of the Hypertension Unit of Hopital Européen Georges Pompidou in Paris and director of the Inserm Research Unit « Vascular pathology and renal endocrinology ». He was Professor at the College de France (chair of Experimental Medicine, from 1989 to 2012) and Administrator (President) of the College de France (2006-2012).
His research was focused on the hormonal regulation of blood pressure. He showed the crucial role of the renin angiotensin aldosterone system in the control of cardiac and renal function. He actively participated to the development of drugs currently used in the treatment of high blood pressure and cardiovascular and renal diseases, particularly angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors. He initiated the first studies on the genetic basis of human hypertension. He served as President of the Scientific Advisory Council of Inserm (1999-2003), President of the Scientific Council of Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris (2003-2006). In 2016, he was asked by the French Secretary of State of Research and Higher Education to conduct a mission on research integrity. His report and proposals resulted in boosting research integrity in French institutions.
He is a member of the French Academy Sciences, of the French Academy of Medicine and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded several prizes, among them the Grand Prix Inserm (2006) and the Leonardo da Vinci Award by the European Academy of Sciences (2019).
Jean-Christophe Erard
Director General, Sorbonne University, FR
JC Erard was appointed Director General of Services at Sorbonne University in April 2019. His main mission has been to continue the implementation of this new institution, following the merger of the former universities of Paris 4 (Paris Sorbonne) and Paris 6 (Pierre and Marie Curie).
After graduating from the Ecole Normale d’Instituteurs de Paris in 1981, he taught for a few years before turning to administrative functions at the Institut de Sciences Politiques de Paris.
Following engagement in competitive examinations (IRA in 1993, Territorial Administrator in 1995) JC Erard went on to then hold positions in the general management of local authorities (City of Rouen, Rhône-Alpes Region, City of Caen) or their public establishments (Crédit municipal de Paris). He also worked in two ministerial cabinets (parliamentary advisor to the Minister of Justice and then chief of staff to the Minister of the Interior) from 1997 to 2002. Prior to joining Sorbonne University, he created and then directed the Delegation for Regional Support (DAR) for four years at the Ministry of Defense (which became the Armed Forces in 2018).
Mahée Ferlini
Director of Strategy, Politecnico di Torino, IT
Mahée Ferlini has a 20-year experience in higher education management. She started her career as International Relations Manager at Politecnico di Torino. Since 2005, she has played a significant role in the foundation and early stage growth of the IMT Institute for advanced studies, Lucca. In 2015, she returned to Politecnico di Torino to direct the Students & Teaching Services Department for 4 years.
At present, she is responsible for the Strategic Planning, Quality Assurance and Campus Life Department.
Mahée holds a M.Sc. in Economics (Université Libre de Bruxelles) and an Executive Master Degree in Management of Research and Universities (MIP Business School, Politecnico di Milano). During her visiting staff experience at Boston University in 2014, she attended lectures on perspectives, issues and governance in Higher Education at the School of Education together with American colleagues.
She is keen on sharing experiences in higher education management challenges within international contexts.
Esa Hämäläinen
Director of Administration and the Secretary General of the Board at the University of Helsinki, FI
Esa Hämäläinen is currently the Director of Administration and the Secretary General of the Board at the University of Helsinki. He began his career in 1989 in student politics at the Helsinki University Student Union and continued it in various administrative roles at the University of Art and Design Helsinki.
Since 1998 he worked at the University of Helsinki as research policy advisor, evaluation coordinator and director of central services. He is specialized in higher education and research policy, evaluation processes, service development and organisational changes.
From 2008 till 2011 he was the Director of Administration at the Theatre Academy Helsinki and led the change from state agency to an autonomous university under public law.
At the University of Helsinki he has led major change process for balancing university finances and also the reorganisation and consolidation of university services. He sits in the Board of Directors of service companies and is the former Chair of HUMANE.
Sirkku Linna
Director of Development, Aalto University, FI
Sirkku Linna, M.Sc. (Econ.), M.Soc.Sc., has a long experience in societal relations and politics. Prior to joining Aalto, Linna has worked e.g. as State Secretary at the Ministry of Employment and Economy, as Chief Political Adviser to Prime Minister, as Special Adviser for Financial Policy to Minister of Finance, and as Head of Public Affairs at The Federation of Finnish Technology Industries.
At her present position as Development Director of Aalto University Sirkku Linna is responsible for Leadership Support Services, and is a member of the Aalto Management Team. Her responsibilities at Aalto include e.g. strategy work and its implementation, public affairs, global engagement, management information services and quality issues. Linna also acts as Secretary to the Aalto Board Nomination Committee.
Paul Mylrea
Special Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor, University of Cambridge, UK
Paul Mylrea is the Special Adviser to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He began this role after stepping down this year as the University’s Director of Communications.
Paul joined Cambridge in 2014 after more than a decade of senior communications roles in the public sector, government and not-for-profit sectors. Before working in public relations, he had a 20 year career as a foreign correspondent for Reuters.
He has reported from more than 30 countries and, as a communications director, has dealt with crises such as the bombing of London’s Tube in 2017.
Paul has also been a lecturer in management at the Open University and President of Britain’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations. He has won several awards and is also a magistrate in Britain’s criminal justice system.
Thomas Römer
Administrator of the Collège de France, FR
Professor Thomas Christian Römer (1955) is professor and chair of the Collège de France and Professor emeritus of the University of Lausanne, he holds also a Doctorate h.c. of the University of Tel Aviv.
His current research covers the Formation of the Torah, the question of the So-called Deuteronomistic History and its Social and Historical Setting, and the relation between the literary and archaeological approaches to the Hebrew Bible. He is one of the main editor of the Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception and chief editor of the collection “Ancient Israel and Its Literature” (SBL, Atlanta).
His main publications include: Israels Väter (Fribourg – Göttingen 1990); The So- Called Deuteronomistic History: A Sociological, Historical and Literary Introduction (London – New York 2005 ; translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese ; Korean), L’invention de Dieu (Paris 2014, translated into Portuguese, Romanian, German, Italian and Korean ).
He has been awarded many honours, including this year the Prix de l’université de Lausanne and the Chevalier de l’ordre des palmes académiques.
Jean-Marie Tarascon
Chair of Solid-State Chemistry and Energy, Collège de France, FR
Jean-Marie Tarascon is a Professor at Collège de France holding the “Chemistry of solids and energy” chair. However, much of his early career was spent in the United States where he developed (1994) the plastic Li-ion technology. Returning back to France in 1995, he created the European network of excellence ALISTORE-ERI that he headed until 2010 prior to become in charge of the recently created French network on electrochemical energy storage (RS2E). Tarascon’s present research is devoted to Li(Na)—ion batteries, solid state and aqueous batteries with emphasis on developing novel reactivity concepts as well as new diagnostic methods.
He is the author of more than 700 scientific papers and detains nearly 100 patents. He received many honours, with the last one being the 2020 Balzan Prize.
Discussion Panel
Marianna Bom
Chief Financial Officer, Aalto University, FI
Marianna Bom is the Chief Financial Officer of Aalto University, responsible for the university financial management, campus and real estate development as well as administration of the group companies owned by the university.
Prior to joining Aalto University, she held several senior financial executive positions in the corporate sector; She holds M. Sc. (Econ) from Helsinki School of Economics.
She is passionate about developing the university leadership and administration, bringing the best practices from the corporate sector to Aalto University, without sacrificing the unique traditions of the three historic institutions that formed the university in 2010.
Calluna Euving
Secretary General of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and HUMANE Chair, NL
Calluna is the Secretary General of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), a research university with close to 40.000 students and a staff of over 9.000. She is also the Chair of HUMANE.
Calluna’s international career has involved working in senior roles in various institutions of higher learning, but also other public organisations in the Netherlands and abroad. The secretary general of the UvA is, among other things, responsible for the policy and strategy departments as well as the university wide system of support staff; working closely with the Executive Board and acting as a bridge between the Executive Board and the faculties. In addition, she is charge for the UvA’s integrated safety, security and crisis management.
Prior to taking up her current post, Calluna was the Director of Finance and Operations at the Office of the Quartet Representative in East Jerusalem, the organisation set up to support Tony Blair’s role in the peace process. Prior to this, she was chief of staff of the Mathematical Association of America and Centre Administrator at the BMW Centre for German and European Studies at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Before moving abroad, she held various posts at Delft University of Technology. Calluna studied political science at Leiden University and did an Executive MBA at Georgetown University.
Maja Feldt
CoDAU Board Member, Director of Education & Student Services, University of Verona, IT
Maja Feldt is a member of the board of CODAU, the Italian network of Heads of University Management & Administration. She is currently the Head of the Academic Administration Division which focuses on student recruitment, student services, student administration and educational policy at the University of Verona since May 2018. Before that, she worked for nearly 20 years as a Quality Assurance Manager at different Universities in Italy.
Maja is registered in the register of the Commission of Experts, appointed by the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR) since 2014 and has taken part of eleven site visits. She is a member of the Evaluation Board of the University of Parma, Italy since 2017. Maja holds a M.Sc. in History of Ideas (University of Stockholm, Sweden and University of Ferrara, Italy) and an Executive master’s degree in management of Research and Universities (MIP Business School, Polytechnic of Milan, Italy).
Annual Conference Facilitators
Marylène Meston de Ren
Marylène Meston de Ren is the Directeur général des services (Head of Administration) at the Collège de France, a position that she has held since 2009. She is ultimately responsible for an administrative staff of 900 working in a variety of professional teams focussed on supporting the Collège de France’s research and teaching. During her tenure at the Collège de France, Marylène has led an ambitious programme of reform and modernisation of the institution’s administration and management practices, implementation of the capital development plan, public funding negotiations with the Government, and research contracts with research funders.
Prior to her current position, Marylène was the Head of Administration at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and before that, she had a career as a Civil Servant, including a period as Chief of Staff of the central administration in the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research. She has served on the executive committee of HUMANE since 2013.
Marylène’s contributions to higher education have been recognised with her being awarded the Knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honour, and Officer Order of the Academic Palms.
Ian Creagh
After serving 10 years as King’s College London’s Senior Vice-President Operations & College Secretary, Ian now holds a portfolio of non-executive and higher education consulting roles. Prior to King’s, he held similar chief operating officer roles at City University London and before that, the University of Adelaide.
The first part of his career was in the Australian Public Service where he rose early on to become a member of the Senior Executive Service. Ian is also an experienced non-executive having served on the Board of King’s Health Partners, the Council of Governors of an NHS Foundation Trust, and the audit committee of the British Academy. He is currently the Chair of the Academic Council of BPP University in the UK,
Since relocating to Europe 20 years ago, Ian became an active member of HUMANE serving on its Executive Committee. He was a regular contributor to the Winter School and was key in the development of its sister Schools, the Berlin Summer School and the Shanghai Transnational Partnership School.
