Senior Programme Manager – Climate, Energy and Cities, World Future Council Anna Leidreiter joined the World Future Council in October 2010. As Senior Programme Manager for Climate Energy, she carries out policy research and develops advocacy campaigns with the climate energy team. In her main capacity Anna works on enabling policy frameworks for a global energy transition towards 100% renewable energies as well as a transformation of urban areas towards regenerative systems. Besides that, Anna is a founding member of an energy cooperative in the North of Germany where she coordinates the media and communication work. Before joining the WFC, Anna gained practical experiences in the renewable energy industry. Working for a photovoltaic company, she implemented community owned solar systems in the North of Germany. Further, Anna has worked at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA Hamburg) on the topic of climate change and resource management in Africa. Writing her thesis on „Community Participation in Natural Resource Management”, Anna carried out her fieldwork in rural Ethiopia. She authored and co-authored various articles and publications on climate change and renewable energy subjects and speaks frequently on international conferences. Anna holds a Masters degree in International Development Studies focused on Environmental Governance from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Francesca has a solid background in regional development and European Affairs. She joined ECN in February 2016 and, having previously worked for the Emilia-Romagna Delegation to the EU, she has a strong interest in dissemination of knowledge about crowdfunding through regional and local authorities. She is responsible for advocacy and organization of events, and is currently coordinating the CF4ESIF working group, aimed at exploring synergies and possibilities for the integration of crowdfunding into European Structural and Investment Funds. Since January 2019, she is also coordinating the ECN Italian Strategic Group, focusing on training and education as drivers for the creation of a favorable crowdfunding ecosystem in Italy. She holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Bologna, where she focused on researching the potential of crowdfunding for regional development from a European perspective.

Michel Wilwert worked as a cluster manager and was responsible for the development and setting up of the first regional cluster of eco-friendly enterprises issued from the building and housing sector in Luxembourg. Since 2012 he is working as an environmental consultant and project manager. Michel Wilwert detains a MA in Urban Geography of the Université de Provence Aix-Marseille, France and a MA in Spatial Planning of the University of Luxembourg. His interests try to identify coherent and sustainable methods of implementing open source principles into day-to-day workflows.

Telecom and Networking Specialist Representative of the Municipality of Heraklion Good Practice City For the Smart City Strategic Plan

Christian has worked as policy analyst for national and European administrations in the field of innovation, research and regional and urban policy for more than two decades. He is really interested in rethinking policymaking to better reflect the realities in which policies are being implemented. He joined the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research in 2001, moved to the Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy in 2009 and joined the JRC in 2015. Christian holds an MSc in Systems Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm), an MBA in industrial economics and innovation management from the Ecole Centrale Paris and a PhD in management and sociology of innovation from the Paris-Dauphine University.