Secretary general, Eurocities

Gabriela is a coordinator of the URBACT National Dissemination Point in Lithuania. Since 2011 she has been working as a consultant on environment and energy issues in Association of Local Authorities in Lithuania which also plays a role of URBACT NDP. Within her position her main responsibilities include representation of general interests of municipalities in the fields of urban development, energy efficient refurbishment of buildings and landscape protection at local (Ministries, Parliament, Government) as well as international level. She is also one of the delegates contributing to a national block renovation project called “Energy efficient renewal of urban areas in Lithuania” being implemented in co-operation with Germany. Gabriela has a one-year experience in working on a voluntary basis for a Local Democracy Agency in Serbia on various democracy, regional cooperation and local community related issues. She holds two Bachelor’s degrees in Business studies and administration from Athlone Institute of Technology (Ireland) and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Lithuania) and MBA in Real Estate Management from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.

Mauricio leads Cities of Service’s support to its network of cities, including strategy and design, training, and technical assistance. Cities of Service is a partner of URBACT City Festival. It is a US-based non-profit helping cities use volunteers and citizen engagement to regenerate neighbourhoods.  

Dr Hans Schlappa is an experienced regeneration practitioner and academic. He has worked for 15 years in municipalities and third sector organisations, developing and leading socio-economic regeneration programmes in the some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK. Since 2004 Dr Schlappa is working as a researcher and teacher at universities in Birmingham, London and Coventry. His publications include a wide range of conference papers and research reports, focusing on the provision of government funded services in deprived neighbourhoods, co-production and partnership working in regeneration contexts, and the impact of EU funding on third sector organisations.