Ms Ronzitti has been the General Secretary of SGI Europe (CEEP until December 2020) since May 2012. She reached this position after having worked for the organisation for nine years. Jurist, she joined SGI Europe General Secretariat in 2003, after having started her career practising labour and civil law in a law firm in Italy.

ln her function as SGI Europe General Secretary, she is responsible for managing the organisation, including overall policy making and implementation, external representation, communication to members, management and coaching of SGI Europe staff. Current priorities are focused on positioning high-performing services of general interest as a key ingredient for the future of the EU and the trigger for a completely new paradigm for the future of the European Project.

Ms Ronzitti has been an active member of the REFIT Platform (stakeholder group) from 2015 until 2019, where she represented the public services community and was rapporteur for Employment and co-rapporteur for Competition policies. She is now a Member of the Fit4Future Platform, led by European Commission Executive Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič.

Between June 2021 and May 2022, she represented SGI Europe in the Plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe. Last but not least, she has been an active Member of the Board of the European Movement International since 2017, was elected Vice-President in 2020 and reelected in 2023.

Jean-François van Boxmeer is Chairman of Vodafone Group plc, a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Nominations Committee. Prior to joining Vodafone in 2020, he was Chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer of Heineken N.V. for a period of 15 years (from 2005 to June 2020). He joined Heineken N.V. in 1984 as a trainee in production, sales and administration in the Netherlands. He moved to Africa in 1987 in Sales and Marketing roles, first in Rwanda and then in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC). He was appointed General Manager of the DRC operation in 1993.

In 1996 he returned to Europe to become President & General Manager of Zywiec S.A. in Poland, and in 2000 he was appointed Managing Director of Heineken Italia. In 2001 he joined the Executive Board of the Heineken Group, with worldwide responsibility for supply chain and technical services, as well as the operating businesses in North-West Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Eastern Europe. After his appointment as Chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer in 2005, Jean-François was to oversee a period of significant growth with the company consolidating its position as the most geographically diverse brewer in the world, the largest in Europe and the second largest globally.

Jean-François joined the Board of Mondelez International Inc. (formerly Kraft Foods Inc.) as an Independent Director in 2010 and has served as its Lead Director since 2020. He is a member of the Shareholders Committee of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA in Germany since 2013 and is non-executive Director at Heineken Holding N.V. since 2020. In 2005, he became a Member of the European Round Table for Industry (ERT) and served as its Vice-Chair from 2016 to mid-2020. He is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of De Nationale Opera & Ballet in Amsterdam.

Jean-François studied at the Facultés Universitaires Notre Dame de la Paix S.J. in Namur (Belgium) and obtained a Masters in Economics in 1984.

Stefano Grassi is Head of Cabinet to Kadri Simson, Member of the European Commission responsible for Energy. Previously Head of Cabinet to Federica Mogherini, Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and member of the Cabinet of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Grassi has worked in various positions within the Secretariat General of the European Commission since 2004. He has served two Presidents of the Council of Ministers of Italy, advising President Mario Monti on European issues and economic reforms from 2011 to 2013, and as EU Sherpa and Advisor on EU policies to President Enrico Letta from 2013 to 2014. From 2002 to 2004 he worked for the Council of Europe Development Bank. He is married with two children.

Gaëtane Ricard-Nihoul holds a degree in political science from the university of Liège and an MPhil and a DPhil in European politics and society from Oxford University. Her research focused on policy formation in the European Union, and more particularly on education policy.

Prior to her current role, Gaëtane served as the Secretary General of the Jacques Delors Institute, where she played a pivotal role in shaping discussions on European policy and governance. In her capacity as Secretary General, Gaëtane was responsible for managing the organisation and overseeing policy development and implementation, external representation, and staff management.

Gaëtane’s contributions extend beyond her role at the Jacques Delors Institute. In 2011, she was successively political analyst, acting Head of the Representation and then deputy Head and responsible for the political sector at the European Commission Representation in Paris in 2011. In 2011, she published a book at Larcier entitled Pour une Fédération européenne d’Etats-nations: la vision de Jacques Delors revisitée.

In 2018, she was seconded to the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs where she successively held the position of Deputy Secretary general for the Citizens’ consultations on Europe and Head of the Citizens’ Conferences Department at the Mission Grand Débat. She then advised the Secretary of State for European Affairs on civil society engagement and citizens’ participation.

After she reintegrated the European Commission in Brussels in early 2020 as Deputy Head of the Unit dealing with Citizens’ Dialogues, Gaëtane subsequently joined the Common Secretariat for the Conference on the Future of Europe until June 2022, where she was more particularly in charge of the conception and organization of the European Citizens’ Panels.

Georg E. Riekeles is Associate Director at the Brussels-based think tank, the European Policy Centre (EPC). He has 18 years of experience at the heart of EU policy-making. Before joining the EPC, he spent eleven years at the European Commission, the five last as diplomatic advisor responsible for strategy and interinstitutional relations in the EU-UK Brexit negotiations. Prior to that, he worked in the Commission’s in-house think tank, as a member of cabinet of the EU Internal Market Commissioner, and in French civil service. His research interests cover today’s geopolitical and economic transformations, the EU’s internal market, trade, energy and digital policies, as well as security and defence issues.