Susannah Haan, President

Susannah is an independent adviser on trade associations, governance, EU capital market & entrepreneurship policy. Susannah has previously served as the Secretary General of EuropeanIssuers, a Brussels-based association which represents the interests of publicly traded companies in Europe, an adviser on the post financial crisis to the Financial Reporting Council, the UK regulator for corporate reporting and governance, an Associate Director of Public Affairs at Fidelity International, a major international asset management firm, a Senior Legal Adviser to the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) and a solicitor at Clifford Chance, a leading City law firm.

Luise Kalbe, Executive Director

Dr. Luise Kalbe has a PhD in biochemistry and having lived on three continents, she speaks 6 languages. She has experience in academic research, at the European Commission and for the pharmaceutical industry. She has lead projects and teams in R&D and led workshops in the pharmaceutical industry and at the European Medical Writers Association. Keeping abreast of societal and global trends, she also enjoys closing the gap between science, society and policy makers and communicating complex content to professionals and non-specialised audiences. She likes engaging people from different backgrounds and negotiate consensus among stakeholders with different priorities.

Anke Sieg, Treasurer

Dr. Anke Sieg is a multilingual pharmacist with experience in various positions at multinational companies across Europe. She is speaker at international research conferences and mentor for emerging scientists. Since earning her MBA Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, she has moved to technical business development in the B2B Healthcare environment. Anke is passionate about transforming organisations from within and sustainably creating value. Her unique combination of business and science, customer focus, pragmatism and creative vision channel diverse teams towards their common goal and make Anke the next generation leader in today’s challenging world.

Mihaela Ionasc, VP Corporate Membership

Mihaela Ionasc is an experienced Human Resources Global Leader, with over 20 years of international expertise in business transformation and change. In her last assignment, Mihaela led a large team of HR professionals from over 32 countries for Ingersoll Rand, a diversified manufacturing multinational. Prior to that, she worked in various HR roles for British Telecom and France Telecom. She also has experience in the non-profit sector, having worked for the US government agency Peace Corps in training, cross cultural and small business development. Her background is in teaching literature, but she has also been teaching HR and leadership to undergraduate and graduate students in Brussels for Boston University and Vesalius College. Romanian by origin, she lives in Belgium with her Swedish husband, 2 children and a cat. Mihaela says of herself that she is a very dynamic person with a lot of energy, who loves to help anyone interested in personal growth.

Anaida Dibra, VP Membership

Anaida is an experienced and energetic HR professional. In the last 13 years she has had global and regional roles within Cargill,an international provider of food, agricultural and risk management product and services. She experienced a variety of HR business roles, from building teams, processes, programs to leading divestment or business sell out projects. She particularly enjoyed her experience of leading an EMEA regional team of HR professionals and seeing them realising their potential.She lives in Lier, has two daughters and loves to explore challenging and exciting hobbies and pastimes.

Anna Aleksandra Koj, VP Partnerships

Anna is a passionate communicator, with a broad humanistic background and a strong leadership acumen. She holds an MBA degree in Communications; Leadership and has extensive experience in high-profile strategic communications, public affairs, institutional relations, as well as event organisation and project management in public and private sector. Anna has worked with a number of high-level international partners. Over the last years she has developed a particular focus on organisational management, political and strategic communication in the EU institutions and international organisations' environment, as well as on public diplomacy and business ethics. Managing Partner and co-Founder of her own consultancy, she currently provides strategic assistance to the clients within the areas of public affairs, communications and EU affairs recruitment. She helps clients unlock their true potential through trainings on meaningful communication and authentic leadership practises. Anna is an enthusiastic public speaker, covering the areas of her expertise and passion.

Rebecca Weicht, VP Communications & Marketing

Rebecca Weicht is Co-Founder of Bantani Education, a non-profit in Brussels working to foster entrepreneurial learning policy and practice. Rebecca is an experienced project manager, journalist and communications specialist. In addition to her role on the PWI Brussels Board, Rebecca is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper with the Brussels hub and has been named a 2017 YTILI Fellow, a U.S. Department of State-sponsored fellowship focused on developing entrepreneurial skills and enhancing economic opportunities for young professionals from throughout Europe.

Alessandra Satta, Director of the STEAM Woman (Science, Technology, Engineering and Arts and Mathematics)

Alessandra Satta is a physicist with a specialisation in Science and Technology of Advanced Materials. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Physics at the University of Leuven, in Belgium. For 12 years she worked as a researcher in Technological Innovation at the Interuniversity MicroElectronics Center (Imec) in Leuven, a world-leading research centre in nanoelectronics, which leverages scientific knowledge and industry-relevant technologies for a better life in a sustainable society. Since 2011, Alessandra works to promote systems thinking as an indispensable shift in the way we think about complex issues. Alessandra is committed to developing systems practice as an essential part of education and innovation for sustainability.

Emmanuelle Verhagen, Director of Women Entrepreneurs

Emmanuelle is extremely passionate about stimulating people to grow to their full potential. She’s very much involved in leadership in all it’s aspects and strongly believes people-centric collaborative structures are the key to our future. Emmanuelle earned her spurs running several international marketing and brand consultancies, an internet company as well as a healthcare facilitator, mostly serving Fortune Global 500 clients in Asia Pacific, Middle East and North America. Throughout the various roles she fulfilled, she got confronted with change and chasms. This got her fascinated with how to cope best with transitions - whether it is moving from one role into another or moving from being an employee to running your own business or also moving from one country to another, leveraging a divorce, etc. Emmanuelle is a global citizen who made her home in Europe and lives both in Brussels and under the Tuscan sun in Arezzo.

Ana Escarpenter, Co-Director of Your Path & Social Media

Ana’s background is in tourism promotion, marketing and event organisation. In her 20 years of experience she has worked for marketing consultancy firms, economy & tourism ministries and international associations. As director of the Catalan Tourist Board for Benelux and of Brussels – Wallonia Tourism in Spain her role was to develop off-line and on-line opportunities in both markets. Her interest for digital marketing has brought her to participate in several initiatives linking new technologies to the travel and meeting industries. She enjoys the challenges of technologies and  particularly those of human interactions. Connecting people with opportunities really motivates her. Being a NLP practitioner, Ana now follows an Executive Master at the Université Catholique de Louvain to become a Business Coach. In her free time she is a Nordic walking instructor and a Kundalini yoga teacher.

Catie Young, Co-Director of Your Path

Cristina Vicini, President of the Advisory Board

Cristina Vicini is Managing Director of her own Management Consulting practice, Vicini Consulting. She started her career in 1988 and held various international management positions both in the private sector and within international organizations, including as former Global Business Development Manager at Microsoft, as Director of Sales at Deutsche Telekom - Systems-International Public Sector and as Strategic Marketing Manager for the Public Sector in Germany at Siemens Business Services. Cristina holds a degree with honours in Computer Science from the University of Brussels and a Masters Degree in International Management from Boston University. She serves on the boards of a number of European technology companies and associations. She also serves on the Advisory Board of Boston University and is an accredited member of the Association of Board Members in Belgium. Born in Bologna, Italy, Cristina is married, fluent in five languages and is an avid golf and tennis player.

Alessandra Zocca, Member of the Advisory Board

Having worked in Belgium, Italy, Germany and Sweden, Alessandra is a change management expert with an international career background in managerial positions within leading global multinational organisations, including DHL, Accenture and the European Commission. Currently, Alessandra is working in HR at the EU agency Single Resolution Board (SRB), the resolution authority within the Banking Union. In 2011 she was appointed as Secretary-General of PWI Brussels where she founded the "PWI Magazine", an online quarterly review about management and culture. She started her career as an organisation and manufacturing lecturer at the University of Verona, where she graduated in Economics in 1985. In 2001 she earned her Master Degree in Neurolinguistic Programming. Recently, Alessandra founded and is the President of Opportunalia aisbl, an organisation in the tourism sector. She has also actively contributed to associations like AIESEC, Amnesty International and Fondazione Marisa Bellisario. Born in Verona, Italy, Alessandra speaks five languages, is a passionate traveler and a psychology scholar.

Ruth Etter, Member of the Advisory Board

Ruth is a Swiss national with British citizenship. She has a background in banking and for the last 15 years has been managing her own international interior design business working with customers in Europe and USA. Having lived in different European countries has given her the ability to work in four languages and understand nuances of working in different cultures. She held board positions and the presidency of Brussels based Women’s International Club asbl.

Elizabeth Hammer-Kjellberg, Member of the Advisory Board

In Memoriam - 1944-2016