Apostolos Tzitzikostas, President of the European Committee of the Regions

Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the Governor of the Region of Central Macedonia and President of the Association of Greek Regions, studied Government and International Relations at Georgetown University, in Washington DC. He has a Master's Degree on European Public Policy and Economics from the University College of London. Since 2015 he is a Member of the European Committee of the Regions. In July 2017, he was elected Head of the Greek Delegation and Vice-President of the European Committee of the Regions. In February 2020 he was elected President of the European Committee of the Regions. He speaks fluently English and French and his articles are published in Greek and foreign newspapers and magazines.

Twitter: @CoR_President

Věra Jourová is currently Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency and deals with democracy, rule of law, disinformation and media pluralism. From 2014 to 2019, she served as EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality. In 2014, before arriving to the European Commission, Ms Jourová held the position of Minister for Regional Development in the Czech Republic. Previous to this, from 2006 to 2013, she worked in her own company as an international consultant on European Union funding, and was also involved in consultancy activities in the Western Balkans relating to the European Union Accession. She holds a Degree in Law (Mgr.) and a Master's degree (Mgr.) in the Theory of Culture from the Charles University, Prague.

Andrej has come to non-profit sector from business. After exiting a consultancy company and change management in private sector, he focused on change management in NGOs. After boosting the program www.yourbuddy.sk, which connects adult volunteers with children institutionalized in childrens' homes in Slovakia, he focused on mental health and is now the director of the League for Mental Health Slovakia. He created the concept of Coalitions of Companies, Schools and Municipalities for Mental Health as platforms to initiate buttom-up improvement of work, school and municipal environments with the aim to transform the communities into mentally healthy structures based on participation and engagement of the members of the given communities.