Heads of University Management & Administration Network in Europe

Nadine Burquel

Director General

Nadine is the Director General of HUMANE. She works closely with the Chair and the governing bodies on HUMANE’s strategic developments. She manages the HUMANE Office to offer the membership an attractive portfolio of professional development and networking activities. She has been involved with HUMANE since its foundation in the mid-nineties, until December 2022 as Executive Director of the three residential schools (the Barcelona Winter School, the Berlin Summer School and the Asia School).

Nadine has extensive director level experience, having worked with multiple international non-profit organisations, university networks and international boards. She has wide knowledge of leadership, governance and management in higher education institutions, and the global trends in the higher education sector. As EFMD Director of Business School Services she was responsible for a wide portfolio of large global events and communities of practices, interacting with business schools and universities in the wider Europe, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Australia, the Middle East, the Gulf, as well as North and South America. More recently in Maastricht University she was strategic adviser to the leadership of the School of Business and Economics, advising on international accreditation, the internationalisation strategy, and delivering societal impact.

She has significant experience with EU (higher) education policy and programmes since the early days of the Erasmus programme. She has a strong track record of EU projects, leading large EU-funded European university networks and providing technical assistance to the European Commission. She is high level EU policy expert, working at system level in Brussels and beyond, carrying out capacity building and evaluations of EU interventions, having worked with EU Delegations in many countries.

Cécile Chicoye

Programme Leader

Cécile is involved in the delivery of several HUMANE programmes (seminars, study visit, professional pathways programme). She has been very active in HUMANE for many years, among others as Round Table Chair (from 2015 to 2020).

She is currently consultant with the French Association of Heads of Administration (ADGS), an expert for the French Evaluation Agency (HCERES) and works with various higher education organisations. Until September 2020 she was Head of Administration of Toulouse 1 Capitole University, well known as the host of the Toulouse School of Economics one of the top 10 teams in Economics Research and whose Head is the Nobel Prize Jean Tirole.

In this position she led the modernisation of the university management resulting from the 2007 law on Higher Education, the so-called “law on the autonomy of universities“, which initiated a deep reform in the French higher education sector. During that time she was also actively involved in the activities of ADGS, HUMANE and as expert in HCERES.

Trained in the French “Ecole Nationale d’administration”, she has spent part of her career in Ministries in Paris, dealing most of the time with the European dimension of public policies: she was in charge of regional policy and the EU Structural Funds for France, and head of European Affairs Directorate in the Ministry of Industry. Later on, after 5 years as Deputy Director General of the regional council of the Midi-Pyrenees Region in Toulouse, she served in the “prefecture” (the office of the central government representative in the region) and was advisor to the “prefet” (governor) in all matters dealing with the development of research and higher education infrastructures.

Tim Evans

Network and Membership Management

Tim is the Network Administrator of the HUMANE network since 1997. In this role he is responsible for overall coordination (membership services; board and general assembly; events organisation and financial management of the association).

With 25 years in the higher education field Tim brings to HUMANE his extensive experience in management, including financial management, network membership, IT and EU project management. 

Tim has a strong track record of contract and financial management (including audits) of complex EU projects, consultancy and technical assistance, mainly but not exclusively in Europe, working with the European Commission, project partners, consultancy companies and third parties worldwide.

Cecilia Heidelberger

Event Manager

Cecilia is providing support and coordination to deliver all the HUMANE events, from the annual conference, the residential schools, professional pathways programme and seminars.

She has significant experience in the field of EU Higher Education and Culture gained through EU project support and coordination. These include among others project on Adult Learning policies and the EU Pact for Skills (DG Employment); DG Education and Culture (DGEAC) Network of Education Experts (all educational levels); the DGEAC University-Business Cooperation Network and the EU Graduate Tracking Initiative.

She has carried out research for different studies for the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Madrid, has worked previously in international event coordination for EFMD, and in different cultural institutions.