Kyriacos Kakouris is Vice-President of the European Investment Bank as of October 2023. Mr Kakouris has a 20-year professional experience in the Ministry of Finance in Cyprus. In the period November 2022-October 2023 he was Director of Finance, Directorate of Strategy and Coordination in the Ministry, while between 2016 and 2022 he was Director of International Financial Institutions and Financial Management of Central Government Directorate in the same Ministry. As part of his professional activities, he was also member of the Board of Directors of EIB, Administrative council of the Council of Europe Development Bank, Governor for Cyprus of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Kyriacos Kakouris has a Master of Arts degree in Economics at Lakehead University, Ontario.

As of September 2022, Stef Blok continued his lifetime of public service as a Member of the European Court of Auditors (ECA). His work currently includes audits of the EU’s 2030 strategy on hydrogen, EU support for persons with disabilities, the European Regional Development Fund’s work on solid waste, and the Commission’s oversight of recognition of professional qualifications. He closely follows developments in Next Generation EU/Recovery and Resilience Funds (RRF) expenditure, and has presented the ECA’s comparative analysis of cohesion policy and the RRF to the European Parliament and other forums. Stef Blok started his career at ABN AMRO Bank, then became a member of the Dutch parliament, holding several positions as a cabinet minister, including as Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate, and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Professor John Bachtler is a Director of the European Policies Research Centre based at the University of Strathclyde and Delft University of Technology. His research experience is principally on regional and territorial policies in Europe, notably national regional policies and EU Cohesion Policy. He has been an expert adviser to numerous government departments across Europe, and to European institutions (EP, CE, CoR, ECA, Council Presidencies), the V4+4, OECD and Nordic Council of Ministers. He is currently a member of the High-Level Group on the Future of EU Cohesion Policy.

Prof. Dr.Friedrich Heinemann is head of the Corporate Taxation and Public Finance research department at the ZEW – the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research in Mannheim, and a professor of economics at the University of Heidelberg. He is a board member of the Leibniz ScienceCampus MannheimTaxation, and the co-editor of Economists’ Voice. His research interests are empirical public finance and political economy with a focus on European integration. He has published extensively in academic journals on the EU budget and euro-area governance, and advised various national and EU institutions on fiscal topics.

Alison Hunter is joint owner and director of a consultancy business – Economic and Public Policy Consultancy (EPPC) – specialising in advice and analysis to the public sector (including EU institutions, and national, regional and local governments). She specialises in EU Regional Policy (including Cohesion Policy and Regional Innovation/Smart Specialisation), Research & Innovation, and Industrial Policy. She is a recognised expert in innovation collaboration. She is also a Senior Adviser with the European Policy Centre think tank, and has written widely on EU regional disparities.

Adriaan Schout is Professor of European Public Administration at Radboud University (Nijmegen, NL) and a Senior Expert at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations in The Hague. He has published in major academic journals on multilevel governance, and won the UACES Prize for ‘Best Book in Contemporary European Integration Studies’ for his book with Andrew Jordan: The coordination of European Governance: exploring the capacities for networked governance (Oxford University Press). He served as EU Adviser to the Dutch government on the Advisory Council for Internal Affairs (2012-2020). His recent research includes studies on subsidiarity, EU agencies and networks, the EU’s multilevel management of border control, and monitoring and enforcement of economic governance. His latest book with Hussein Kassim, Official stories: national governments and EU membership, analyses national EU narratives in 12 member states.

Elisa Ferreira has been European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms since 2019. She holds a degree in economics from the University of Porto and a master’s degree and PhD from the University of Reading. She is currently on leave of absence from her post as a university professor. Prior to her appointment as European Commissioner, she was Vice-Governor of the Portuguese central bank Banco de Portugal (2017-2019), a Member of its Board (2016-2017), and Portugal’s representative on the Supervisory Board of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (2016-2019). From 2004 to 2016, she was a Member of the European Parliament, following roles as Member of the Portuguese Parliament (2002-2004), Minister for Planning (1999-2002) and Minister for the Environment (1995-1999). She started her career at Portugal’s Northern Region Coordination Commission, of which she became Vice-President (1988-1992). Among other roles, she was Executive Vice-President of the Porto Industrial Association (1992-1994).

Eva Lindström became a Member of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) in March 2018. She has since overseen opinions and reports in areas such as budget revenues, and EU policies relating to agriculture and cohesion. A number of her reports have focused on sustainability issues. She also serves as ECA Member for Interinstitutional Relations (MIR), with responsibility for facilitating the ECA’s interactions with its stakeholders. Eva Lindström has more than 25 years’ experience in public finance and audit. Prior to joining the ECA, she was State Secretary at the Ministry of Enterprise and Innovation in the Swedish Government, with responsibility for corporate governance of the state business portfolio containing 43 fully or partly state-owned enterprises, two of which are listed. From 2003 to 2010, she was Auditor General at the Swedish National Audit Office (NAO), where she was responsible for financial and performance audit. As one of three auditors-general, she contributed to setting up the NAO as a new institution independent of the government and with direct accountability to the Swedish Parliament. From 1997 to 2003, she was Budget Director and Head of the Budget Department at the Swedish Ministry of Finance. She has also served on the boards of several Swedish public agencies, including as a member and Vice-President of the Swedish Fiscal Policy Council. She holds a B.A. in economics from Stockholm University.

Sue Almond is a member of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), the independent standard-setting body. She chairs the IAASB Task Forces on Audit Evidence and Public Interest Entities, and is an active member of its Technology Consultation Group. Her previous roles include Global Head of Assurance for Grant Thornton International, Head of Assurance at Grant Thornton UK, Director of External Affairs at ACCA, and Director of Professional Standards with Kreston International.

Valentin Lang is an Assistant Professor of International Political Economy and Development at the University of Mannheim. Previously, he was at the universities of Zurich, Cambridge, Heidelberg, and Paris and worked for the IMF and the OECD. In his research, he studies the political, economic and distributional implications of various dimensions of globalization and global governance. His current projects examine the political economy of international economic cooperation, analyse the electoral backlash against globalization and immigration, and study causes and consequences of economic inequalities. His work combines economics with political science and applies statistical methods for causal inference. It is published in journals like the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, the Journal of Development Economics and the Journal of Politics. For his research, he was awarded a Joachim-Herz-Fellowship, the Fritz-Grunebaum-Award and the Prize for Excellence in Applied Development Research.

Peter Berkowitz is Director for Policy in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy. This directorate is responsible for policy development, economic analysis, evaluation, the European Semester, financial instruments, and legal affairs. From 2017 to 2021, he was Head of Unit for Smart and Sustainable Growth, coordinating work on climate change, the environment and the Just Transition Fund, innovation, the digital economy, and transport. From 2008 to 2016, he was Head of Unit for Policy Development, where his work included preparing and negotiating the Commission's proposals for the reform of Cohesion Policy 2014-2020. He started his career at the Commission as a regional policy desk officer, and has worked on enlargement, Common Agricultural Policy reform, and rural development. He holds postgraduate degrees in politics from the University of Oxford and the Institut d’études politiques de Paris, and in finance and economic policy from the University of London.

Aline Pennisi is in charge of a special unit supporting the implementation and evaluation of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance. A statistician by training and a public-policy analyst by profession, she has worked in the field of economic research, shaping budget governance procedures and spending reviews. She promotes budget transparency initiatives, and has chaired the OECD Senior Budget Officials’ Performance & Results Network. Before joining the Ministry of Economy and Finance in 2008, she was a member of the Public Investment Evaluation Unit in the Department for Development Policies. Previously, she provided technical assistance to national statistics authorities, mainly in North Africa and the Middle East. Several of her articles on public finance, education and electoral studies have been published in scientific journals.

Mathias Cormann is the 6th Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Prior to his appointment to the OECD in 2021, Mathias served as the Australian Minister for Finance, the Leader of the Government in the Australian Senate and as Federal Senator representing the State of Western Australia. In these roles, he has been a strong advocate for the positive power of open markets, free trade and the importance of a rules-based international trading system. Mathias was born and raised in the German-speaking part of Belgium. He graduated in law at the Flemish Catholic University of Louvain (Leuven), following studies at the University of Namur and, as part of the European Erasmus Student Exchange Program, at the University of East Anglia. He migrated to Perth, Australia in 1996, attracted by the great lifestyle and opportunities on offer in Western Australia. Between 1997 and 2003, he worked as Chief of Staff as well as Senior Adviser to various State and Federal Ministers in Australia and for the Premier of Western Australia. Between 2003 and 2007, Mathias worked for major Western Australian health insurer HBF in a range of senior management roles.

Helga Berger has been a Member of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) since 2020. She started in Chamber V (Financing and administering the Union), where she was responsible for the annual report chapter on budgetary management and the special report on “Protecting the EU budget - Better use of blacklisting needed”. In January 2022, she joined Chamber II (Investment for cohesion, growth and inclusion). There, she is currently working on the annual report chapter on Cohesion, Resilience and Value, as well as on a special report on public procurement and a review on the regularity of Cohesion spending. Before joining the ECA, she worked as Director-General for Budget and Public Finances at the Austrian Ministry of Finance, as an auditor and ultimately Director-General for management and support at the Austrian Court of Audit, and as a criminal judge, among others. As a trained lawyer, she has more than 20 years of professional experience in the areas of planning, implementation and control of public finances.

Alfredo De Feo is a professor and Scientific Director at the European College of Parma. He is a Research Fellow at the Alcide de Gasperi Centre of the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence, where he is co-coordinator of the project EP Contribution to the European project, as seen by the actors inside and beyond. He is also an adviser to the Ministry for Regional Affairs. He has been a Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) at the European University Institute, Florence, (from 1/10/2014 to 31/12/2021), and a Distinguished Fellow at the Jean Monnet Centre of New York University, in 2017. He has been a visiting professor at LUISS University, Rome, and at Complutense University, Madrid (2018), as part of the EUPADRA Master’s programme. He has also cooperated with the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). His main areas of interest cover: the European institutions, the European Parliament, European finances, oversight of EU policies, reform of the EU, and the history of European integration, He worked for the European Parliament from 1981 until the end of 2015. He was Director for Budgetary Affairs until 2008, and Director of the EP Library and Archives until 2015. He is a frequent speaker at European events, and has published extensively on European affairs.

Thomas Delahais is an evaluator and founding partner of Quadrant Conseil (Paris, France), where he works on evaluation projects for international, European and French institutions. He specialises in complexity-responsive evaluation approaches and in particular in theory-based impact evaluation. He also trains and advises civil servants on evaluation and evaluation systems, in particular on how to broaden methodological options and make evaluation more useful for decision-making. He is currently a member of the team in charge of the ex-post evaluation of the ERDF 2014-2020.

Martina Jurjević is an Assistant Auditor General in the State Audit Office of the Republic of Croatia. She has 10 years of experience in auditing (both financial and performance audits), and has specialised in EU funds-related audits. In 2019 and 2020, she worked as a national expert at the ECA, gaining training and practice which further enhanced her professional skills, and she is committed to transferring her knowledge to others. She holds a postgraduate diploma in Management and Business Administration from the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Zagreb.

Jorge Núñez Ferrer is the Director for Cohesion Policy and EU Budget at the Conference for Peripheral and Maritime Regions (CPMR), and has more than 25 years of expertise in EU budgetary instruments. He is an expert trainer at the European Institute of Public Administration, and holds a PhD from Imperial College London. Formerly, he served as Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies, as a DG ECFIN official, and as an adviser or consultant for several governments and EU and international institutions in areas relating to regional policy, innovation, and agricultural and rural development.

Tony Murphy, from Dublin (Ireland), is the President of the European Court of Auditors, since 1 October 2022. He became a Member of the European Court of Auditors in 2018 and has mainly been responsible for financial audits, including the annual report on the EU budget in his capacity as ECA Member for the Annual report. As a Member, he has also been responsible for audits relating to Child Poverty and Regularity of spending in EU Cohesion policy. Prior to that, he served at the ECA as Director of Chamber IV (Regulation of markets and competitive economy) and head of the private office of an ECA Member. He began his career in the late 1970s as an auditor at the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General in Dublin.