Advisory board

Nathalie Richet has been EUREC’s Senior Masters Programme Manager since March 2010 and is one of the three coordinators of the Large-Scale Partnership on Renewable Energy Skills. She is responsible for the strategic management of the two EUREC Master programmes, the European Master in Renewable Energy and the European Master in Sustainable Energy System Management, delivered in 10 European Universities. Her areas of expertise include higher education, renewable energy, jobs intelligence, skills and gender questions, she also contributes to some EU funded projects activities.

Ivanova Eleonora is an experienced project manager with more than 20 years of regional development, SME support, industrial restructuring, studies and analysis (sectoral and regional), programmes and project promotion, development, implementation, evaluation. She is an approved consultant by the EBRD within their programme Advice for Small Businesses, Bulgaria, SME Finance & Development Group. In 2003 she has been invited to advise the foundation of the Bulgarian – Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where she is a founder member and an executive director. Being an expert in European-funded programmes and projects, Ms Ivanova run her own consultancy company which is managing an on-line information tool, providing up-to-date information to companies on all funding sources available to them on local and European level.

Venla Virkamäki has worked as a senior adviser, EU Affairs & innovations at the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council since 2020. She holds MSc in Social Sciences from Tampere University. In her current position she is developing regional innovation activities and international cooperation on RDI topics. She is coordinating the implementation of the Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3) of the Helsinki-Uusimaa. Prior to working at the Council, she has worked at the Netherlands Embassy in Finland, Finnish Association for Nature Conservation and at the European Parliament. In these positions she focused on climate, energy and circular economy related topics. She has also worked at the Finnish Environment Institute as a researcher and has participated in research about transition management and innovation policies. She is passionate about mission-driven innovations that can drive societies towards green and digital transition, resilience, and well-being.

Piero has 13 years of experience in climate change policies and urban resilience planning. Currently he is the Milan Chief Resilience Officer and the City Lead for the H2020 Lighthouse project Sharing Cities at the Municipality of Milan. He is an advisor of the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition for the National Adaptation Plan to Climate Change. In recent years was the Co-Founder of Climalia, specialised consulting company providing climate services in Italy, where he operates as Resilience Specialist. Piero was an Acclimatise Associate and researcher at the Planning Climate Change Unit at IUAV Venice. Piero is a member of the SISC Italian Society for Climate Science and European Commission Mayors Adapt Practitioners Work Group. He has extensive expertise in projects financed by the European Commission, including the LIFE+ project BlueAP Bologna Local Urban Environment Adaptation Plan for a Resilient City (Senior Expert), LIFE+ RECOIL Recovered waste cooking oil for combined heat and power production (Technical Director), MED Greenpartnerships as Senior Expert and MED ZeroCO2 Small communities for big changing. He further specialised in Urban Resilience, Environmental Economic Accounting, Energy Scenario and Climate Change Impact Models through his working experience at the Stockholm Environment Institute – Tallinn Office. In past years he collaborated with EU MP, Umberto Guidoni. He writes for different specialised magazines and web-portals on climate change issues