Summer School Speakers
Oriol Amat
Professor of Financial Economics and Former Rector, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, ES
Oriol Amat studied at Autonomous University of Barcelona (PhD in Business Administration and Bachelor’s degree in the same speciality), at ESADE (Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and MBA) and at the Stockholm School of Economics (International Teachers Programme). He has had visiting appointments at international universities, such as Linköping University (Sweden), Massey University (New Zealand), Université de Montpellier (France) and Diego Portales University (Chile).
As a professor at UPF since 1992, he has always been interested in the four main dimensions of academic life: research, knowledge transfer, teaching and management.
His lines of research include the analysis of the success factors of organisations, transformation processes and the ethical aspects of finance. He has directed more than fifteen theses and is the author of scientific articles and more than forty books. Some of his books have been translated into several languages (French, English, Portuguese…). He also collaborates and is a member of the editorial board of several international scientific publications.
In the field of service in higher education, he has had different responsibilities at UPF. He has been rector of UPF (2021-2023), dean of the UPF Barcelona School of Management (2018-2021), director of the Department of Economics and Business (2003-2005), vice-rector for Economics, Information Systems and Services (1997-2001) and, specifically in the teaching field, he was director of the Centre for Teaching Quality and Innovation (2006-2011).
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.
Oriol Escardíbul
General Manager, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, ES
Oriol Escardíbul has a BA in Economics & Business Management from the University of Barcelona (UB), a MA in Economics & Management of Local and Regional Governments (UB), a MA in Industrial Relations (University of Warwick), and a PhD in Applied Economics (UB). He has had visiting appointments at international universities from Latin America as well as at Cambridge University.
He has been a professor in Political Economy as well as in Economics of Education at the University of Barcelona (1994-2018).
He has participated in many books and academic articles as well as directed several theses in Economics of Education and University Management. He has been president of the Spanish Association of Economics of Education (2016-2018). He has also been Vice-rector for Finance at UB (2016-2018). Director of the Research Programme on Human Capital at the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB) as well as Director of the Teaching innovation group of economics at UB (2014-2018).
He was appointed as general manager of the University of Barcelona (2018-2021). For 2021-2022 he has been an adviser of the Social Councils of the Catalan public universities in the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP). Since April 2023 he is the general manager of the University Pompeu Fabra.
Giles Garden
Chief of Staff & Chief Strategy Officer, University of Southampton, UK
Giles joined the University of Southampton in May 2023 as Chief of Staff and Chief Strategy Officer. Reporting directly to the President and Vice-Chancellor, he is a member of the University Executive Board and serves as institutional lead on the development and monitoring of the University Strategy and the supporting strategic plans. He also leads the University’s Change Portfolio Office, a team over 30 experienced senior project and change managers, who support the delivery of major strategic project associated with the delivery of the University’s Strategy. Giles also write regularly for the UK Higher Education Policy Institute thinktank of HE policy issues.
Prior to this Giles served on Lancaster University’s Executive Team for five and half years as Chief of Staff and Director of Strategic Projects. Giles’ role was principally focused on leading and coordinating major, transformational strategic initiatives, recent examples would be, Campus in the Cloud (an online education initiative) and the establishment of two new campuses: Lancaster University Leipzig, Germany and University Academy ’92 in Manchester in the UK, the latter working closely with former Manchester United footballer Gary Neville. Giles also had responsibilities for HE policy matters. Giles played a key role supporting the Vice-Chancellor in the coordination of activities across the Executive Team.
Giles’s academic background is the earth sciences, he undertook a PhD in geochemistry at the University of Liverpool and then a Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Liebniz Prize funded fellowship at the Rhur-Universitaet Bochum in Germany. Prior to joining Lancaster, over a 20-year period, he undertook a range of different professional services roles at the University of Warwick, latterly occupying the role of Director of Strategic Planning and Analytics.
Giles has advised the THE on its world rankings design on behalf of the elite UK Russel Group of universities, was asked by Universities UK to serve on its Efficiency and Modernisation task groups, has chaired the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency- UK Universities Digital Service (Jisc) Business Intelligence programme, served for five years on the UK Higher Education Strategic Planning Association Executive and was chair-elect of the Russell Group Directors of Strategic Planning until he left Warwick and the Russell Group for Lancaster.
Giles attended the HUMANE Winter School in Barcelona back in 2008.
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.”
Andrea Güttner
Deputy Provost, Freie Universität Berlin, DE
Andrea Güttner, born in 1971, studied Latin American Studies, Political Science and Economics at the Universität zu Köln and Freie Universität Berlin. After her studies, she worked as a controller in the Planning and Controlling Department of the Justus Liebig Universität in Gießen, where she was responsible for control systems and planning processes.
After a period as a freelance consultant and scientific and coordinating assistant for university development projects, Andrea worked as a project manager and senior consultant at CHE Consult, focusing on strategy and planning processes, finances, reporting, work process and organisational development and diversity management.
Since April 2013, she has been Head of Administration of the Department of Political and Social Sciences and the central institutes OEI, JFKI and LAI at Freie Universität Berlin. Since May 2022 Andrea is the head of the newly founded coordination and steering unit, which reports directly to the president. She is also Deputy Provost during Provost Dr. Andrea Bör’s absence
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
Britta Piel
Head of Unit and Deputy Director, Centre for International Cooperation, Freie Universität Berlin, DE
Britta Piel is Head of Freie Universität Berlin’s (FUB) Centre for International Cooperation, a unit within the International Office focusing on strategic internationalisation, and Deputy Director of the International Office. Her tasks include advancing the university’s internationalisation strategy, managing the university’s network of liaison offices worldwide, and initiating new cooperation formats. Managing a diverse team across four continents, she can rely on almost twenty years of experience in different higher education institutions. Her interest in team development and organisational psychology prompted her to seek out further education in this field and to work as a humour trainer for national and international audiences.
Britta holds a Master’s degree in American Studies from Saint Louis University, USA, and a Certificate in Management and Leadership from the University of Hamburg. She also finished two years of training at Clownlabor Berlin e.V. and is a certified trainer for the foundation “Humor Hilft Heilen” in Germany.
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
Winter 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.
Calluna Euving
Secretary General of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and HUMANE Chair
Calluna is the Secretary General of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), a research university with close to 40.000 students and a staff of over 9.000. She is also the Chair of HUMANE.
Calluna’s international career has involved working in senior roles in various institutions of higher learning, but also other public organisations in the Netherlands and abroad. The secretary general of the UvA is, among other things, responsible for the policy and strategy departments as well as the university wide system of support staff; working closely with the Executive Board and acting as a bridge between the Executive Board and the faculties. In addition, she is charge for the UvA’s integrated safety, security and crisis management.
Prior to taking up her current post, Calluna was the Director of Finance and Operations at the Office of the Quartet Representative in East Jerusalem, the organisation set up to support Tony Blair’s role in the peace process. Prior to this, she was chief of staff of the Mathematical Association of America and Centre Administrator at the BMW Centre for German and European Studies at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Before moving abroad, she held various posts at Delft University of Technology. Calluna studied political science at Leiden University and did an Executive MBA at Georgetown University.
Margit Nothnagl
Faculty Director, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), SE
Dr. Margit Nothnagl is a Faculty Director at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) since 2011. Before that, she worked for four years as a coordination director of studies at SLU.
As a Faculty Director she is working as a generalist within academic administration. She works together with the Deans of the faculty of Landscape Architecture, Horticulture and Crop Production Science with faculty management and is head of the faculty office with about 50 employees. Since the faculty is situated at one of the three main campus areas of SLU, she is also representing the university director at campus Alnarp (in southern Sweden) and responsible for the coordination of all university professional services on campus.
Currently her main tasks are support within strategic research and academic career development and financial strategies of the faculty. She is also working with campus development, especially focussing on preparations before the establishment of new university buildings and a train stop at campus in 2026 as well as the formation of several living labs.
Margit is an alumn from the HUMANE Winter School 2013 and since March 2022 she is the chair of the HUMANE Residential School Alumni network.
Ulf Richter
Kanzler, University of Siegen and HUMANE Executive Committee member, DE
Ulf Richter is Head of Administration (Kanzler/Chancellor) of the University of Siegen since 2013. Prior to this position he held multiple positions in a large Research Centre in Germany, as Administrative Director of Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Germany (from 2010 to 2013) and since 2003 first as Director of Human Resources then as Head of Financial Management and Controlling.
He started his career as senior consultant, working with KPMG Consulting Infrastructure & Government (World Class Finance) from July 2000 to February 2003 in the field of World Class Finance and Nonprofit Organizations for the conceptual planning of programme-oriented funding within the Helmholtz Association.
From 2005 to 2007, he studied at the University of Applied Sciences in Osnabrück in the faculty of Business Management and Social Sciences focusing on university and science management and graduating with a Master of Business Administration (MBA). Previously, he completed a business law degree (Dipl.-Wirtschaftsjurist) in the Business Law faculty at the University of Lüneburg and specialized in financial services.
Summer School Director
Nadine Burquel
Winter 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.
