Management

The Executive Board of Greenovate! Europe is responsible for the daily management of the EEIG and its presentation towards third parties. The first Executive Managers of the Greenovate! Europe are Astrid Severin and Katharina Krell.

Astrid and Katharina have started the Brussels-based company Greenovate! sprl and initiated the creation of Greenovate! Europe EEIG.

Astrid Severin
Astrid has been co-managing Greenovate! Europe since October 2007 after 3.5 years working as a Policy Officer at the Innovation Policy Development Unit of DG Enterprise and Industry. In this function, she was responsible for European clusters, financing and standards networks in the sectors of energy, eco-innovation, construction and the automotive industry within the framework of the Europe INNOVA initiative (www.europe-innova.org [1]). Being responsible for the PAXIS initiative (www.cordis.lu/paxis [2]), she has also gained substantial experience in regional innovation policy areas such as innovation financing, technology transfer, incubation and innovation management. Astrid has organised a range of major European conferences and has led the publication of the ‘PAXIS Manual for Innovation Practitioners and Policy Makers’.

Before joining the European Commission in 2004, Astrid was a Senior Consultant at Saatchi & Saatchi Business Communications, developing and implementing major pan-European communication strategies for the European Commission, NATO and UNICEF.

Astrid holds an MBA from United Business Institutes in Brussels and speaks German, English, French, Dutch and Spanish

Katharina Krell

Katharina has been co-managing Greenovate! Europe since November 2007. From 2004 to 2007, she was the Secretary General of the Brussels-based European Group of 47 renewable energy research centres, EUREC Agency [3]. She introduced the promotion of innovation and knowledge transfer of renewable energy research output from public research centres as a new strategic objective for EUREC Agency in 2004 and developed this new activity area. She was the initiator and coordinator of the ProRETT [3] (Promoting renewable energy technology transfer) project.

Before working with EUREC Agency, she worked for two years for the German Development Service (GTZ/CIM) in Hangzhou, China, as a seconded expert to the International Network on Small Hydropower and programme manager for renewable energy electrification projects.

Katharina holds a BA in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International Relations in Geneva, as well as an MBA from United Business Institutes in Brussels. She speaks German, English, French, Spanish, Russian and Italian.

Sarine Barsoumian
Sarine joined the Executive team of Greenovate!Europe in October 2009 as a Project Manager. She has previous working experience in the European Commission as a trainee where she conducted research on offshore renewable energy. She has also worked as a field researcher in various academic related projects in the field of product policy, sustainable consumption and sustainable tourism. For her thesis, she explored the B2B communicative behavior of large supplier companies and the value they place on CSR reports.

Sarine holds a BS in Environmental and Public Health from the American University of Beirut, as well as an MS in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management from IIIEE (Lund University) in collaboration with the Central European University, the University of Manchester and the University of the Aegean (an Erasmus Mundus Masters Course). She speaks Greek, English, French.

Rossella Riggio

Rossella holds an MA in Communication Systems and a BA in International Communication. She works as Communication and Project Manager at G!E and is responsible for event planning, organisation and communication. She has previous working experience in the DG Environment as a trainee dealing with sustainable production and consumption issues. She has also worked as a communication assistant for the Italian Foreign Ministry in Dublin. Her thesis focused on European Environmental Law. She speaks Italian, English, French, Spanish and German.