What is the EIT Alumni Board?
With a strong mandate to represent, guide and engage the cross-sectoral EIT Alumni community, five representatives of the EIT Alumni Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) are appointed as Members of the network of networks, in the EIT Alumni Board. Furthermore, in its efforts to foster the development of the leading network for young innovators and entrepreneurs, the EIT appoints an internal EIT Alumni Community Manager in the EIT Alumni Board, as well as external Board Member(s).
The EIT recognises the impact of young leaders in the EIT Alumni Community for pan-European resilience and progress, and acknowledges the importance of the EIT Alumni Board in providing a “powerful platform” for impact innovation, multi-stakeholder engagement and cross-generational cooperation.
The role of the EIT Alumni Board is to further develop the EIT Alumni impact community by harnessing the massive potential of all EIT alumni, encouraging proactive exchanges between members as well as EIT Alumni KICs, supporting added-value activities with the EIT alumni and providing relevant opportunities for them.
This page presents the current members of the EIT Alumni Board, including each member’s biography.
EIT Alumni President
The EIT Alumni President, appointed by the EIT Director represents over 14.000 alumni from all EIT Alumni KICs and leads the EIT Alumni Board. The role of the EIT Alumni President is to ensure accurate strategic planning and forecasting for the EIT Alumni and provide effective representation of the entire network and vis-à-vis the EIT, the KICs and relevant, external stakeholders. The President also coordinates the operations of the EIT Alumni Board members.
Anca del Rio (Term of office 2021- 2023)
Anca del Río is a sociologist, health economist and thought leader in strategic development, global health and innovation governance. With a strong entrepreneurial drive for impact, digital transformation and positive change, Anca is fostering collective action between businesses, governments and the civil society for progress and a sustainable future. Anca puts great ambition in the advancement of need-led innovation, the meaningful adoption of technology and development of mission-oriented networks. As a lifelong catalyst and community builder in the innovation ecosystem, Anca is currently engaging young leaders with political and industry stakeholders to shape equitable and inclusive agendas for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. In her presidential role with the EIT Alumni, she is in charge of the strategic steering of EIT Alumni towards financial sustainability and global development by advancing cross-sectoral cooperation, a culture of growth and excellence and an impact mindset across EIT’s European and global network (USA, Israel, UK). You can follow Anca del Rio on LinkedIn and Twitter.
EIT Alumni Board members
Representative of EIT Health Alumni - Liana Shvachiy ( 2022 - 2024)
Liana Shvachiy is a Ukrainian Portuguese, located in Germany. Master in Neurosciences and currently a PhD candidate in Biomedical Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon. Since 2019 she is a Fellow PhD student at Experimental Neurodegeneration Lab, University Medical Center Göttingen. Since 2020, enrolled in EIT Health Ageing PhD School PhD programme with EIT Health Label, for high-quality knowledge transference in innovation and entrepreneurship. She has been involved in the lead exposure toxicity field and other projects throughout her science career embarking on numerous European and National Portuguese R&D projects including research in various life science fields. Currently working on her PhD project that focuses on the effect of lead toxicity in Parkinson’s disease in vivo and in vitro models. In parallel with her PhD studies, since January 2020, she is the EIT Health Alumni Board DACH Regional Coordinator, since February 2022 the Field Marketing Representative at at Proteintech group and, since June 2022 the EIT Health Alumni Representative at the EIT Alumni Board embarking in the role of Lead in Engagement and Value creation. She believes that by pursuing a path of innovation and entrepreneurship in all Knowledge and Innovation communities we, together as a community of active young innovators, will create a better and more sustainable environment for the generations to come. As Jim Hanson said, “My hope still is to leave the world a bit better than when I got here”. You can follow Liana Shvachiy in LinkedIn .
Liana is the lead of Engagement and Value Creation agenda of the EIT Alumni Board.
Representative of EIT Digital - Jeroen van Lent (Term of office 2020 - 2023)
Graduated from the EIT Digital Master School, Jeroen van Lent is the current President EIT Digital Alumni Foundation. He has been a part of various industry leading companies and NGO’s enabling Digital Transformation in Higher Education and Erasmus+. He is working on the roll out of the European Student Card and has been involved in the development of the Erasmus+ App. Jeroen has a passion for bringing people together and has been involved in numerous Executive Boards ranging from the EIT Alumni to the Erasmus Student Network. The firm belief in working across sectors and generations to change society is what makes being part of the EIT Alumni Board so exciting for him. You can follow Jeroen Van Lent on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram
Representative of EIT Climate-KIC - Fernanda Todeschini (Term of office 2022- 2024)
Acting Representative of EIT Climate-KIC - Selene Tondini (Term of office September 2022-August 2023)
Selene Tondini is a socio-environmental scientist. After graduating in biology, she specialised in environmental science with the Climate-KIC Master School Label in 2020. In the same year she founded LUMO, a startup engaged in the development of sustainable wastewater treatment technologies in remote areas, and participated in Climate-KIC's Greenhouse programme. She joins the EIT Climate-KIC Alumni Board in July 2021 with the task of community activation. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Bologna in Sociology and Social Research. Her research focuses on the relationship between climate change and behavioural change through citizen science activities collaborating with the H2020 project i-CHANGE. You can follow Selene on LinkedIn.
Selene is EIT Alumni Secretary General at the EIT Alumni Board.
Representative of EIT RawMaterials Alumni - Francisco Veiga Simão (Term of office 2022- 2024)
Francisco is a Portuguese geoscientist and entrepreneur with a passion for circular economy. He is a PhD researcher in circular building materials at one of the largest ceramic companies in the world (Wienerberger) with affiliation to the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, within the prestigious network of doctorates “Maria Skłodowska-Curie Actions”. He is co-founder of two startup projects in the areas of geodiversity and waste management, and co-founded the Energy and Climate Forum (FEC), a Portuguese NGO and consultative observer of the CPLP, focused on sustainable projects for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. He holds volunteer positions in Portuguese (Vice-President of APEI Benelux) and international (President of EIT RawMaterials Alumni Board) science and innovation associations. You can follow Francisco Veiga Simão on LinkedIn.
Francisco is the lead of EIT Alumni Nodes and Ecosystem Development agenda at the EIT Alumni Board.
Representative of EIT Urban Mobility Alumni - Bilal Baiju (Term of office 2023-2025)
Bilal is a graduate of Urban Mobility from the first cohort of EIT Urban Mobility Master School. Based in Helsinki, he is currently the President of the EIT Urban Mobility Alumni Association and has been spearheading its establishment since 2021. He has an interdisciplinary background with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and around five years of international experience in one of the world’s largest greenfield port development projects. He has also worked for a mobility startup headquartered in Barcelona and a transport consulting firm in Gothenburg. He is passionate about public transport, shared mobility services, and the influence of digital technologies toward a more sustainable, smart, and inclusive transport system. He is self-motivated, likes being in leadership roles, and has worked with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures throughout his career. He envisages the EIT Urban Mobility Alumni Association as a community connecting professionals in the mobility sector to create more sustainable transport solutions. You can follow Bilal Baiju on LinkedIn.
External EIT Alumni Board Member - Peter Olesen (Term of office 2021 - 2023)
Professor Peter Olesen acted as Member of the EIT Governing Board from 2012 and as Chairman between 2014 and 2018. He spent 25 years as Research Director, Vice President of R&D and Executive VP/CSO in four major international companies: Danisco A/S (Denmark); Sandoz Seeds Ltd. (France) CPKelco/Hercules Inc. (DK & US); Chr.Hansen A/S (DK). He has held appointments as affiliated professor at the University of Copenhagen in Plant Sciences, Functional Foods. He has been Chairman of the Executive Board of the Danish Council for Strategic Research from 2008 to 2014 and member of the Executive Board of the Danish Innovation Fund 2014-15. In 2008 he founded his own consulting company, ActiFoods ApS.
Peter is co-lead of Financial Sustainability agenda of the EIT Alumni Board.
EIT Representative - Agnes Molnar (Term of Office 2022-2024)
Agnes joined the EIT in 2010 and contributed to the advancement of the Institute’s agenda through the preparation, development and implementation of the strategy and policy processes. Throughout her journey, she worked closely together with the EIT Governing Board, the Executive Committee, the EIT Director and EIT Management supporting the deployment of the strategy and steering of the operational activities. With her academic accomplishments in economics, European public affairs, international finance and marketing, she successfully contributes to the development and coordination of the EIT Alumni Community. Leveraging an outstanding, international background from previous collaborations with EuropeAid Cooperation Office of the European Commission and The Open Society Foundations, Agnes brings a lot of passion and a future-oriented vision to the EIT Alumni Board, ensuring its impact and outreach within the broader EIT ecosystem. Agnes` personal interest lays in cultural and creative initiatives and industries. You can follow Agnes on LinkedIn.
Representatives from other KIC Alumni Communities
- EIT Food – Linn Vande Populiere
- EIT Manufacturing - Karima Nahhal
Have a great idea for developing the Alumni Community? Want to get in touch with the Board?
Send us a message at eit-alumni@eit.europa.eu
Or contact us via the EIT Alumni social media channels