Summer School Speakers
Arnold Boon
University Director, Copenhagen Business School, DK
Arnold Boon is since 2022 the University Director at Copenhagen Business School. He is a strategic leader with solid management skills and experience from higher education and research institutions. He previously was University Director and member of the Senior Management Team at Aarhus University. He is responsible for the University administration, including finance, HR, it and digital transformation, student administration, research support and compliance. He is also responsible for real estate and campus development at the university. He has more than 18 years of experience with financial management and a wide experience in leading major change projects, digital transformation, continuous process improvement and organizational changes. He has an extensive network in higher education in Denmark and in Europe.
Earlier positions include Faculty Director at the University of Copenhagen at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences (2006-2015), Chief Financial Officer at the Danish Institute of Food and Veterinary Research (2004-2006), Head of Budget department at the Danish Agency for Food, Fisheries and Agri business (2002-2004), Executive Officer at the Danish Agency for Food Fisheries and Agri business (2000-2002), Executive Officer at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences (1999-2000) and Researcher at the Danish Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Economics (1991-1998).
Sharone Ciancio
Director, Service Delivery & Improvement, Australian Catholic University, AU
Sharone Ciancio has worked in the tertiary education sector for over 20 years in a range of leadership and management roles, which initially focused on the student experience and then broadened to corporate services, when she joined Australian Catholic University as the Director of Service Delivery & Improvements.
In this role Sharone leads university programs that focus on transforming and enhancing service delivery and business/service improvements, and lead a major service management integration program called “Service Central” which provides a single service point for university staff to access services and information across multiple service areas via one unified team and platform. Sharone holds a Bachelor of Behavioural Sciences, a post Graduate Diploma in Educational Counselling and Master of Tertiary Education Management.
She is also a registered psychologist with a keen interest in organisational and cultural change whilst engaging people through the experience.
Chris Cobb
Chief Executive, ABRSM, UK
Chris Cobb is Chief Executive at ABRSM. ABRSM is the UK’s largest music education body, supporting over 440,000 students per year in 93 countries in partnership with four Royal Schools of Music: the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
He was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of London and also at Roehampton University. Prior to that was at the London School of Economics where he was Director of Business Systems and Services. During the pandemic he was also Principal of Goodenough College.
Chris has sat on a number of national working groups relating to IT in Higher Education. He is a former member of the AHUA Executive (2014-2016) and was a member of UK HE Financial Sustainability Steering Group and the HESA Data Futures Programme Board. He was also a Trustee of Advance HE (2018-2020).
Chris has also taught University IT Management at the HUMANE Winter School and is a former member of the HUMANE Executive Committee and Round Table.
Chris has been a judge on the Times Higher Education Awards for over ten years and is a Trustee of the student housing charity AA4S. He is also a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists in the City of London.
Koen Goethals
President, University College Ghent, BE
Koen Goethals obtained a Master and a PhD in Biological Sciences from Ghent University (UGent). He pursued a career as a researcher in the field of molecular genetics and in 2002 was appointed a tenured lecturer in Molecular Genetics at UGent.
In 2004 Koen started as Chief Academic Administrator of UGent, responsible for the administration and policy in research, education, personnel, juridical affairs, communication and internationalisation. Together with the rector, the vice-rector and the Chief Logistic Administrator he was responsible for the daily management of UGent.
In 2017 Koen changed gears and became President (“General Director”) of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Ghent (HOGENT). HOGENT has 17.500 students, supports 30 professional Bachelor programs and 14 associate degree programs in a broad range of vocational fields. Apart from that, HOGENT also provides 4 academic bachelor programs and 6 master programs in the arts (music, drama, film, photography, …). Next to teaching, the institution supports practice oriented research and service to society in the vocational domains and academic-artistic research in the arts.”
Juliane Handschuh
Skills Trainer, DE
Dr. Juliane Handschuh is a distignuished neurobiologist with over a decade of research experience in molecular neuroscience and immunology. Her scientific expertise has been the foundation for her current role as a freelance skills trainer, where she specialises in empowering organisations through personnel development. Dr. Handschuh is adept at enhancing key competencies such as scientific communication, leadership, career development, time- and self-management.
Passionate about diversity within organizations, she focuses on raising awareness and empowering diverse groups, particularly in terms of gender and social background. Dr. Handschuh’s commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion is reflected in her workshops and training sessions, which are celebrated for creating safe spaces for discussion and providing practical tools for professional and personal advancement.
Dr. Handschuh also brings a deep interest in organisational and cultural change, engaging people through transformative experiences. Her work in the scientific community and beyond has established her as a respected figure in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Antonia Instone
Director, Nous Group, AU
Antonia is a high-achieving consultant and trusted advisor with a proven track record of improving the strategic value proposition and future-readiness of organisations. She is an expert at delivering strategy, organisation design and transformation work to achieve meaningful change and progress for complex organisations.
Clients value her clear skilled facilitation, warm stakeholder engagement, strategic thinking, and pragmatic advice. Antonia has worked extensively across higher education, non-government organisations and government – she is a not-for-profit specialist.
Grete Kvernland-Berg
Partner, PA Consulting Norway, NO
Country Head and partner in PA Consulting Group Norway, public healthcare and change expert. Grete holds an MsC in Business administration from North University. She works with health innovation across management levels, including MoH, regulators, health trusts and primary care communities. She and her team leads the Norwegian healthcare system’s innovation hub “InnoMed”. InnoMed’s mandate is to contribute to a customer centric and integrated health system through product and service innovation. She has specialized in designing and implementing new ways of providing care with use of telehealth, as Norway has an ambition of providing 30% of outpatient consultations online and through “hospitals from home”. She works alongside clinical and administrative leaders to make change happen.
Since 2014, she worked for the National Telecare program in Norway. The program has resulted in 70% of Norwegian primary care communities now offers telecare as the first choice of care. The design driven initiative has led to massive savings across local governments with use of technologies enabling self-mastery and less need of physical care. Grete is a strong believer in a wholistic approach to reach lasting change within healthcare, where organisational, cultural, technical, regulatory and ethical barriers must be solved in combination.
Nannette Ripmeester
Founder & CEO of Expertise Labour Mobility, NL
Nannette Ripmeester is director of Expertise in Labour Mobility (ELM). ELM specialises for over 25 years in customising solutions for international labour mobility for study and work purposes. Together with her team, Nannette works under the motto of ‘making mobility work’ for clients in the higher education, corporate and government sector. She is considered an expert on global mobility trends and how to enhance the connection between recent graduates and their future job opportunities.
Nannette holds an MA degree from the University of Amsterdam and combines her role for ELM with her work as Director Europe & North America for i-graduate – a leading benchmarking organisation responsible for running the International Student Barometer (ISB) under 4M students worldwide. More recently, she has become involved in the employability initiative CareerProfessor.works, supporting students’ intercultural and employability skills through a gamification app.
Her love for global mobility and bridging the gap between education and the world of work was ignited when she worked for 7 years at the European Commission where she was responsible for setting up the EURES database on living and working conditions and regional labour job market in the EU Member States.
Antti Savolainen
Director of Administrative Services, University of Helsinki, FI
Antti Savolainen is Director of Administrative Services in University of Helsinki since 2009 and as such is directing general administration sector. One of the main focuses in his working field is development of administration, services and functions.
During his more than 20 years at the University of Helsinki Antti has been involved in many reforms both at Faculty and University level and has acquired versatile experience in change management and service development. He was involved in Bologna Process initiated study reform 2004-2005 when working as a Head of Study Affairs at the Faculty of Science and was the project manager in implementation of campus service structure in the University 2007-2009. During the preparations for University reform in 2008-2009 he was in many ways involved in planning administrative processes and organisational structure. From 2015 – 2016 he was responsible for planning the new organization for administration (University Services) and was the project manager in its implementation in 2016-17.
In his position he has actively contributed in introducing new methods and thinking such as user-oriented approach, service design and lean management to the development of university functions. He has also participated actively in digitalisation of service production and has directed several years university’s enterprise architecture work.
HUMANE Panel
Nadine Burquel
Summer School Director and Director General of HUMANE
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.
Sharone Ciancio
Director, Service Delivery & Improvement, Australian Catholic University, AU
Sharone Ciancio has worked in the tertiary education sector for over 20 years in a range of leadership and management roles, which initially focused on the student experience and then broadened to corporate services, when she joined Australian Catholic University as the Director of Service Delivery & Improvements.
In this role Sharone leads university programs that focus on transforming and enhancing service delivery and business/service improvements, and lead a major service management integration program called “Service Central” which provides a single service point for university staff to access services and information across multiple service areas via one unified team and platform. Sharone holds a Bachelor of Behavioural Sciences, a post Graduate Diploma in Educational Counselling and Master of Tertiary Education Management.
She is also a registered psychologist with a keen interest in organisational and cultural change whilst engaging people through the experience.
Marcin Dabrowski
Chancellor, SGH – Warsaw School of Economics; HUMANE Board member, PL
Marcin Dąbrowski, Ph.D. is the Chancellor – Chief Operating Officer of SGH Warsaw School of Economics since 2016.
Marcin is a Board member of HUMANE absl, founder and editor-in-chief of a scientific bimonthly journal “E-mentor”.
He also has experience in non-governmental organisations, e.g. as a managing director of the Foundation for the Promotion and Accreditation of Economic Education & chairman of the programming board of the European Foundation for Entrepreneurship Development.
Marcin’s doctoral dissertation was devoted to the application of a strategic scorecard in ensuring organisational efficiency of university operations based on the example of the organisation of distance learning
Paul Greatrix
Registrar, University of Nottingham; President, HUMANE, UK
Dr Paul Greatrix is Registrar at the University of Nottingham, a post he was appointed to in January 2007.
As Registrar he is responsible to the President and Vice-Chancellor for the academic administration of the University. As well as being Secretary to the statutory bodies of the University and a member of the University Executive Board, the Registrar manages the provision of a broad range of professional services for prospective students, current students and staff.
Prior to joining the University of Nottingham he held a number of roles at the University of Warwick including Acting Registrar. Before joining Warwick in 1998 he was at the University of East Anglia for six years, where he worked on quality matters, and Staffordshire University.
Paul read English Language at the University of Edinburgh, and holds a PhD from the School of Education at the University of East Anglia.
He was Chair of the HUMANE General Assembly for a period before being elected to the HUMANE Board in 2021. Since October 2023, Paul is the President of HUMANE, the Heads of University Management and Administration Network in Europe.
He is also currently Honorary Secretary of AHUA, the Association of Heads of University Administration in the UK.
Paul used to blog regularly on Wonkhe but now has his own blog, Wonderful HE, and continues to try other things with podcasting.
Director of Administrative Services, University of Helsinki, FI
Antti Savolainen is Director of Administrative Services in University of Helsinki since 2009 and as such is directing general administration sector. One of the main focuses in his working field is development of administration, services and functions.
During his more than 20 years at the University of Helsinki Antti has been involved in many reforms both at Faculty and University level and has acquired versatile experience in change management and service development. He was involved in Bologna Process initiated study reform 2004-2005 when working as a Head of Study Affairs at the Faculty of Science and was the project manager in implementation of campus service structure in the University 2007-2009. During the preparations for University reform in 2008-2009 he was in many ways involved in planning administrative processes and organisational structure. From 2015 – 2016 he was responsible for planning the new organization for administration (University Services) and was the project manager in its implementation in 2016-17.
In his position he has actively contributed in introducing new methods and thinking such as user-oriented approach, service design and lean management to the development of university functions. He has also participated actively in digitalisation of service production and has directed several years university’s enterprise architecture work.
Summer School Director
Nadine Burquel
Summer School Director and Director General of HUMANE
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.
