ERMA – Why Europe needs a Raw Materials Alliance

Speakers for this event

• Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou

  Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou

  Member of the European Parliament, EPP, Greece

  Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou has studied economics and law in the USA and in the UK and worked for several years as a lawyer in New York, specializing in financial transactions and international banking law. She worked as director of an NGO in Greece, focusing on ICT deployment and regional development. She also worked as an evaluator of projects funded by the European Commission and as a consultant in the private sector in Brussels and Luxembourg. She served as Deputy-Mayor of the City of Ioannina (2010-2012) and an elected member of the Hellenic Parliament (2012-2019). She was appointed Spokesperson of the New Democracy Party in 2013. She was Head of Fiscal Policy Sector (2015), Head of the Development and Competition Sector (2016) and Head of the Digital Policy, Telecommunications & Media Sector for New Democracy (2016-2019). She is currently a Member of the European Parliament and Vice Chair of the Committee on International Trade.

  Member of the European Parliament, EPP, Greece

• Barry Andrews

  Barry Andrews

  Member of the European Parliament, Renew Europe, Ireland

  Barry Andrews serves as an Irish Member of the European Parliament representing the Dublin constituency. Barry is a member of the Fianna Fáil party which is part of the Renew Europe group in the Parliament. Before entering political life Barry was a secondary school teacher and was elected to the Dáil (Irish Parliament) in 2002 as a TD representing the Dún Laoghaire constituency. He served as Minister of State for Children from 2008 to 2011 before taking a hiatus from formal political life and taking up the position of CEO of the International Development NGO GOAL in 2012. Barry became the Director-General of the Institute of International and European Affairs in 2017 until his election to the European Parliament in 2019. Barry took his seat in the European Parliament in January 2020 after the United Kingdom left the European Union.

  Member of the European Parliament, Renew Europe, Ireland

• Bernd Schäfer

  Bernd Schäfer

  CEO, EIT RawMaterials

  Bernd Schäfer has extensive business experience. Prior to his recent role as CEO/Managing Director at apt Group, leading European supplier of extruded, anodised and processed aluminium products, he was the VP Commercial, Global Commercial Transportation and Industrial in Alcoa. His area of accountability included global market responsibility as well as execution of the innovation and technology roadmap in close cooperation with R&D. Mr Schäfer was a Board Member with the Gesamtverband der Aluminiumindustrie (the trade association of the aluminium industry) and the Wirtschaftsvereinigung Metalle (the umbrella of metal producing companies in Germany) until 2020.

  CEO, EIT RawMaterials

• Maria da Graça Carvalho

  Maria da Graça Carvalho

  MEP, EPP, Portugal

  Maria da Graça Carvalho is currently member of the European Parliament (2019-2024). In the European Parliament she is a full Member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) and a substitute Member on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and substitute member on Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM). She follows as well the parliamentary Delegations for relations with the United States, for relations with the countries of Central America and Delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. As a MEP, she was appointed rapporteur of the Specific Programme Implementing HORIZON 2020 and of the report on Simplification of the Rules of Participation in the European Programs for Research and Innovation. In 2011, she was awarded the Prize for the best MEP in the area of Research and Innovation.

  MEP, EPP, Portugal

• Pietro Fiocchi

  Pietro Fiocchi

  Member of the European Parliament, ECR, Italy

  Pietro Fiocchi (born 22 May 1964, Milan) is an Italian Entrepreneur and Politician. After graduating in aerospace engineering at the University of Missouri of Rolla, in 1990 he entered the Navy, serving as a Sub-lieutenant on the San Giorgio landing ship until 1992 and working with the San Marco Marine Brigade and with the Comsubin, an Italian special forces department. After two years in the navy he began his professional activity as technical director at Ravasi Robotics, an Italian robotics company, and later as manager and technical director at Fiocchi Munizioni. In 1998 he became president and member of the board of directors of Fiocchi of America. In 2007 he founded Fiocchi UK, while in 2015 he became a member of the Board of Directors of Target, a New Zealand company producing hunting and shooting cartridges. In 2019 he has been elected as a member of the European Parliament on the Fratelli d’Italia of Italy list. After the election to the European Parliament, he resigned from all positions.

  Member of the European Parliament, ECR, Italy

• Prof. Emmo Meijer

  Prof. Emmo Meijer

  Chairperson, EIT KIC Raw Materials

  Prof. Emmo Meijer has an extensive (over 30 years) experience in R&D, strategy, innovation and management. Previously, Chief Technology Officer of DSM and Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Unilever, Prof. Emmo Meijer is currently amongst others Chairperson of the Dutch top Sector for Chemistry. Prof. Meijer is an Honorary Member of the Royal Dutch Chemical Society. He studied Chemistry at the Free University of Amsterdam and gained a PhD in Biochemistry in 1979.

  Chairperson, EIT KIC Raw Materials