Paulius Barakauskas Panagiotis Tzannetakis Yvonne Reif Andras Krolopp Marina Queins
Andras Krolopp is a Senior Researcher based in Belgium. He joined The Nature Conservancy in 2012 as Senior Policy Advisor for TNC's Africa Region, Focusing on EU policy issues. He is now with the Europe Region, covering European governmental relations with a special focus on the EU in support of TNC's policy, conservation and public funding priorities. Currently, he is a Program Director for the "Balkans' component of the Enterprise grant and managing an EU-funded project on how private landowners could play a complementary role in nature conservation. He was also seconded to the Hungarian Government during its EU presidency and covered Biodiversity finance in preparations and during CBD COP in 2010. Before working for IUCN he was working with various NGOs, like the CEEweb (an NGO network covering Central and Eastern Europe), the Global Nature Fund (Germany) and the European Center for Nature Conservation (Netherlands). Andras has an MSc in Environmental Management and degrees in Biology and Geography. Besides his Hungarian mother tongue, he speaks English, and German and has basic knowledge of Dutch and Russian languages.
Marina Queins is a researcher working on renewable energy technology projects for a consultancy in Cologne, Germany. Marina has also worked on research projects for, among others, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, Germany and the Institute for State Effectiveness, USA. Marina holds a BA in English Studies and a BA in Political Studies from the University of Bonn and is the awardee of a scholarship from the Bank of Cologne's Foundation for Gifted Students. She has held internships at the German Federal Academy for Security Policy and the Geopolitics Branch of the German Bundeswehr, among others, and is a member of the Youth Atlantic Treaty Association and the Academic Association for Security Studies.
Panagiotis Tzannetakis (Pan) works with non-profit organisations in designing projects and processes, having collaborated with more than 70 organisations in Germany, Greece, France, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Kosovo, N. Macedonia, Turkey, and the UK. He is interested in how Civil Society Organisations can design imaginative projects that challenge established realities through the formation of ‘unlikely’ partnerships, a theme he explored in 2023 as a fellow at the Creative Impact Research Centre Europe. In 2019 he founded Green Ideas Greece, the local competition of Balkan Green Ideas in Greece, which in 2023 is undergoing a year of ‘fallow’. Between 2016-2019 he worked with NGOs focusing on refugee rights in Greece in designing projects and developing networks. Organisations included HumanRights360 (2018-2019), Omnes Housing Project (2018), and Choose Love (2017- 2018). In 2016, he was part of the group that founded the Khora Community Center in Athens. Pan holds a BSc in Architecture from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and a BTEC in Art and Design from the Byam Shaw School of Art, Central Saint Martins. Maintaining an active interest in equitable urban development and the right to the city, Pan has co-organised educational workshops for the Development Planning Unit at the Bartlett, UCL, and contributed as a visiting critic to the Architectural Association AAxchange and Royal College of Art MA City Design programmes.
Paulius Barakauskas is a sustainability specialist with a particular focus towards the fair, equitable and science-based design and implementation of sustainability solutions. With a background in environmental justice, political ecology and natural science, his aim is to view the world through the lens of intersectionality thus helping discovery and further development of ideas. Since early teenage-hood, Paulius has been deeply drawn to understanding the intricacies of our natural and co-created world. This curiosity has not stopped and now combined with a necessity for climate crisis understanding and action, has further enticed his curiosity. Within his studies and professional career, he has investigated the importance of accurate and up-to-date data in GHG-emission accounting; how plastic-free cities may take shape; how equitable inclusion is needed in decision-making to ensure an honest process for local people; how fungal bio-composites may provide insights into building and packaging. In 2019, he cycled across
the majority of the European continent. The multi-layered aim was to spread awareness of the climate crisis, to gain an understanding of local bicycle initiatives throughout Europe, and to better understand how slow travel within local regions may serve as a substitute for long-distance tourism.
Yvonne Reif holds a master's degree in business education (Vienna University of Economics and Business) and graduated from the
University of Vienna with a degree in international business administration. She joined the Competence Center for Nonprofit Organisations and Social Entrepreneurship at Vienna's University for Business and Economics in September 2020 where she coordinates two capacity-building programmes, the MEGA Academy, a growth programme for innovative Austrian educational programmes and the NGO Academy - a capacity-building programme for NGOs in Central and Southeastern Europe. Before joining the Social Entrepreneurship Center, she worked as a project manager in the NGO “Women Without Borders” and has more than 15 years of professional experience in tax and business consulting as well as in the field of education and integration.
