Speakers

András EDELÉNYI, Graduated as a chemical engineer from the legal predecessor of the Pannon University, in Veszprém. Technical doctor thesis defended in 1974. Executive management postgraduate studies in the Dartmouth College and the Duke University, USA.

21 years in the Taurus Hungarian Rubber Works, starting in managerial jobs of the research and development area. For 9 years acting as executive vice president of the Taurus Group. At the French Group Schneider Electric, 7 years as country director Hungary, after regional director of M&A in Central and Eastern Europe. Since 2006, consultant in top management.

Past secretary general of the Federation of European Chemical Societies, board member of the Chemical Engineering Federation. Member of the Hungarian, the French-Hungarian and the German-Hungarian chambers of commerce and industry, invited lecturer

Since 2015, member of the Employers’ Group in the European Economic and Social Committee.

Baiba Miltovica has been appointed in 2020 President of the “Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and Information Society” Section (TEN) of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). In her previous mandate at the EESC, Ms Miltovica held a position as Vice-President of the Diversity Europe Group of the European Economic and Social Committee.

Ms Miltovica is a member of the Consumer Policy Advisory Group established by the European Commission Directorate-General Justice and Consumers.

At the national level Baiba Miltovica serves as the International and EU Affairs Adviser of the Latvian National Association for Consumer Protection (LPIAA, member of the European Consumer Organization, BEUC) and is Member of the Advisory Board of the Latvian Public Utilities Commission.

Prof. Dr. Gusztáv Báger is Professor Emeritus of Pázmány Péter Catholic University. From 1990 to 1992 he was Head of the Economic Policy Department of the Ministry of Finance, and in 1992 he became Head of the International Finance Department of the Ministry of Finance. From 2003 he was Director General of the Research Institute of the State Audit Office of Hungary, and later Scientific Advisor. He is currently Senior Advisor to the Governor of the MNB and Acting President of the National Economic and Social Council.

Krzysztof Balon; born 1955 in Cracow/Poland; Master of Science, Social Management, Danube University of Krems, Austria; Member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) since 2010; Member of the EESC Bureau and President of the EESC Permanent Group Services of General Interest; Member of the Public Benefit Council (consultative body to the Government for the development of civil society in Poland) 2003 - 2005 and 2007 - 2021, co-president of the Council 2012 - 2018; Chairman of the Programming Committee of the Working Community of Associations of Social Organisations (an association of approx. 1000 non-profit organisations), Poland; Vice-President of the Polish Committee of the European Anti-Poverty Network EAPN, Poland; Vice-President of the Association EUROSOZIAL, Germany; Officer of the Order of Merit, Republic of Poland; Medal of Merit, Federal Republic of Germany.

Maria Nikolopoulou, is a member of the EESC representing the Spanish trade union Comisiones Obreras. She is a member of the TEN and the NAT sections, and the president of the Equality group of the EESC. Back in Spain, she is also the President of the Asociation for the Developement of Timebanks Banks

Judit Csoba, Prof. habil. PhD

Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Debrecen

Research focus: Sociology of Work, Social Policy, Employment System of Welfare States, Employment Policy, Conditional Benefits, Social Economy

Flórián Sipos is a social scientist and historian. His main research areas cover youth sociology, political/civic participation, discourse analysis, social innovation, and co-creation. He has 15 years of experience in executing EC funded international projects, including Life Long Learning, FP7, Horizon 2020 programmes and is currently working on launching an ESFRI Roadmap 2021 Research Infrastructure, GUIDE aiming at executing the first European birth cohort survey. He is an advisor of the EESC opinion on 'Co-creation of services of general interest as a contribution to a more participative democracy in the EU', and a PhD student at the University of Debrecen.

Aurel Laurenţiu Plosceanu has been President of the Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) since October 2020. He has been a member of the EESC and its Employers' Group since 2007. Mr Plosceanu is involved in activities across all sections of the EESC, and is currently also the EU Chair of the EU-Serbia Joint Consultative Committee. Moreover, since 2016 Mr Plosceanu has been Vice-president of the Romanian Industrialists General Union. Since 2007, he has been President of the Romanian Association of Building Contractors, which is a member of the European Federation of Construction Industries.

Other past professional experiences include the position of CEO at ABC Asigurari Reasigurari SA from 2000 to 2007, President of the Social House of Building Workers from 1999 to 2016, member of the Board of the Bucharest Construction Technical University and member of the Romanian Economic and Social Council (both from 2007 to 2011), President of the Romanian Association of SMEs in Insurance from 2005 to 2007 and Co-president of the Romanian Alliance of Employers Confederations from 2007 to 2013.

Mr Plosceanu has been also involved in multiple social projects in the construction field in Romania, for example, innegotiating and signing the first Social Accord for the Romanian Construction Sector in 2006 and the most recent one, signed in 2012.

Mr Plosceanu studied at Bucharest Construction Institute and obtained an Executive MBA from the National Institute for Economic Development. In addition, Mr Plosceanu studied at the Law Faculty of the "Nicolae Titulescu" University Bucharest. Mr Plosceanu also completed post-university studies at the National Defence College.

Susan Baines is Professor of Social Enterprise in the Policy Evaluation and Research Unit [PERU] at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. As a researcher and teacher she is particularly interested in civil society, social entrepreneurship and public service innovations including (but not limited to) digital technologies. From 2017 to 2021 she was co-leader of the largest workpackage ‘Applied co-creation in pilots’ in the H2020 project Co-creation of Service Innovations in Europe (CoSIE). Latest publications include.

Baines, S., Wilson, R.,  Narbutaite Aflaki, I., Wiktorska-Święcka, A.,  Bassi, A. & Jalonen, H. (2022) Editorial: Innovating ‘co-creative’ relationships between services, citizens and communities, Public Money & Management, 42:5, 295-297 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09540962.2022.2054579

Baines, S., Fox, C., Harrison, J., Smith, A. and Marsh, C. (2021). Co-creating rehabilitation: Findings from a pilot and implications for wider public service reform. Probation  Journal  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02645505211065683

Balázs Venkovits is Associate Professor in American Studies and director of the Institute of English and American Studies, University of Debrecen. He was awarded a Ph.D. in 2014 and completed his habilitation in 2021. His broader academic interests include migration studies, travel writing studies, Hungarian immigration to Canada, US-Hungarian relations and he has published internationally on these topics. He is currently working on his book on Hungarian emigration to Canada in the inter-war period. He became involved with the Family and Infant Neurodevelopmental Education (FINE) program in 2018 and since then has played an active role in implementing FINE trainings in Hungary primarily for healthcare professionals working with premature or sick babies.

Gábor Kardos, MD, PhD, is a clinical microbiologist presently working as an associate professor and head of department in the Department of Metagenomics, University of Debrecen. He also works as a researcher in the University of Veterinary Medicine, Budapest. His research interest is the human microbiota, microbial communities and metagenomics as well as genomic epidemiology of multiresistant bacteria, especially in a One Health context, i.e. the epidemiological links between human, animal and environmental isolates. He is also interested in doctor's and patient's attitudes towards antibiotic consumption and awareness increase on this topic. He was involved in preparation of the draft policy document 'Infection control and AMR policy program based on the “One Health” approach, including veterinary medicinal products. He teaches microbiology and related subjects at the University.

Enikő Felszeghy

Degrees

• Medical doctor 1994
• Pediatrician 1999
• Doctor of Endocrinology 2001
• Doctor of Diabetology 2004
• PhD 2011

Scholarshipes & Membershipes

• University Medical School of Vienna, Department of Pediatrics, (1994-1995) 7 month
• ESPE Winterschool, Prague, 2000
• International Scholar of the Endocrine Society 2005-2008
• Member of the Sociaty of Hungarian Diabetolgy
• Member of the Board of the Hungarian Endocrine Society 2019

Position

• Associate Professor, Head of the Pediatric Endocrinology/Diabetology of University Medical School Debrecen
• Pediatric-Endocrinology
• Doctor of Diabetology

Balázs Kertész,  MSc in Economics, PhD student of Károly Ihrig Doctoral School of Management and Business (research area is conjoint analysis of factors of choices between public and private healthcare). Started career in 1998 at Szinapszis Market Research & Consulting, currently partner, consultant and managing director of the company, directly responsible for international relations and innovation. Creator of branded methodologies, models and solutions in the pharma market research sector. Area of consultation are pharma sales force effectiveness, segmentation, multi-channel marketing, digital transformation and patient communication. Also co-owner and took part of setting up www.webbeteg.hu, one of the biggest 3 health portal in Hungary with over 2m unique visitor monthly.

Dr. habil. György Jóna works as an associate professor at the University of Debrecen, Faculty of Health Science. He has been teaching sociology of health, health economics, health management studies, and network science for 18 years. Within the framework of Erasmus and CEEPUS scholarships, he has already given lectures in Poland, Czech, Slovakian, Transylvanian, Austrian, and German universities as well. He lives with his wife and son, aged 13, in Budapest.

Pierre Bauby, Ph.D. Political Science, Specialist on Public Action, Public Services – Services of General Interest in Europe, Chairman of Reconstruire l’action publique (RAP), Expert on Services of general interest to the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Member of the International Scientific Commission “public services – public enterprises” of CIRIEC.

Author in particular: L’Etat-stratège du XXIe siècle, www.actionpublique.eu, 2017; Service public, services publics, La Documentation Française, Paris, second ed., 2016; L’européanisation des services publics, Presses de SciencesPo, Paris, 2011 ; Mapping of the Public Services in the European Union and the 27 Member States, Brussels, 2010

Dr Anita Fedor

Jobs, job titles:

University of Debrecen, Faculty of Health Sciences, Deputy Dean for General and Scientific Affairs
Quality of Life and Sociology of Health Coordination Centre, Head of the Department

Academic Degree

2019 Habilitation in Economics and Management Sciences
2013 Doctoral (PhD) degree in Education 

Qualifications

1999 Degree in Sociology, Kossuth Lajos University of Sciences, BTK 
1998 Graduated in Social Policy Kossuth Lajos University of Sciences BTK

Field of research

Labour market, employment policy, sociology of the family, sociology of health

Professor Dr Ildiko Horvath, MD, PhD, DMSc

Ildiko Horvath is the Head of Departmant of Pulmonology at the University of Debrecen and Director of Research and Education at the National Koranyi Institute for Pulmonology, Budapest, Hungary.  She is an MD; board certified in pulmonology and public administration, and holds a BSc in Health Management. She was a Fogarthy fellow at the NIH, Bethesda, US and an ERS Fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute, London, UK. She has an internationally well recognised research activity with more than 200 scientific publications and an H-index of 47 with several awards for her achievements. Professor Horvath has received, managed and collaborated in major scientific grants and has participated in several international expert panels including the Scientific Panel for Health for DG Research, TaskForces and Editorial Boards of scientific journals. She served in public administration as Secretary of State for Health between 2018-2022. In her personal life she enjoys being a happy wife and mother of four children.

Gabor Halmos, Pharm.D., Ph.D. is a professor at the University of Debrecen, Hungary where he serves as Chair of the Department of Biopharmacy (2005-) and Vice Dean of the School of Pharmacy (2009-). He is board certified in Hospital/Clinical Pharmacy, Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Care. He graduated in Pharmacy in 1986 (Univ.Szeged), and then received his pharmaceutical, biomedical, receptor pharmacology and endocrine oncology training as well as his Pharm.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Univ. of Szeged and Univ. of Debrecen (Hungary) and Tulane University (New Orleans, LA, U.S.A.). In 1991 he was invited by Dr. Andrew V. Schally; the Nobel Laureate (1977) scientist to work at the Endocrine, Polypeptide and Cancer Institute at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Tulane University, Department of Medicine, New Orleans, LA. He was the Head of the Receptor Section of the Institute (1991-2006). His main research areas are endocrine oncology, the expression and pathophysiological function of peptide hormone receptors, various growth factors and the development of new peptide hormone analogs for targeted cancer therapies. In 2006 he also become a Visiting Professor (2-6 months a year) at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and V.A. Medical Center, Miami, FL, retaining his research ties with Dr. Schally. Based on his collaborations with U.S. and EU universities he also works on the implementation of Pharmaceutical Care in Hungary. Professor Halmos has received, participated, managed and collaborated in numerous scientific grants in the U.S. and Hungary. He has over 200 peer-reviewed publications, numerous book chapters (with nearly 4300 independent citations and an H-index of 50) and scientific awards. He has also participated in several Hungarian and international expert committees including EU ECRIN and Editorial Boards of scientific journals. He has already trained numerous Ph.D. and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and clinical fellows and he is also member of several national and international scientific societies and associations.

Christopher Fox is Professor of Evaluation and Policy Analysis at Manchester Metropolitan University where he is Director of the Policy Evaluation and Research Unit. His work focuses on public service reform and he is particularly interested in co-produced and co-created services, different models of financing public services and the role of evidence and evaluation in the design of public services.

Sára Felszeghi is a professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Miskolc and participates as a lecturer in postgraduate training at the Institute of Public Health of Semmelweis University and the Department of Family Medicine and Occupational Health of DE, NK. She is a Senior Physician at the Centre for Health Professions and Methodology of the University of Miskolc, a member of the MAB Medical-Health Sciences Committee, Chairman of the Public Health Working Committee and a member of the Gerontology Working Committee of the Social and Human Sciences.

She is active as an expert, member or board member in several national and international professional organisations, such as MÜTT, MMTT, MET, NKKOE, EMEGY, the Professional Group of Occupational Medicine, ENWHP (European Network for Workplace Health Promotion), EASOM (European Association of Schools of Occupational Medicine), EU-OSHA Hungarian Focus Group, ILO, ETUC and EZA.

Since 2012, she participates as a member of the National Occupational Health and Safety Committee in the preparatory discussions of the occupational health and safety legislation. From 2020 member of the European Economic and Social Committee, where he participates in the SOC and TEN sections and several thematic working groups.

Her professional and public activities have been recognised with numerous awards and distinctions.

In 2006 she was awarded the SIGNUM AUREUM UNIVERSITATIS by the University of Miskolc.

In 2007, the Hungarian Society of Occupational Physicians, MÜTT, recognized her scientific and professional work with the Imre Tóth Memorial Medal.

In 2013 in Brussels, the ENWHP - the programme of the Centre for Health and Methodology she runs was awarded the best programme.

In 2014, the City of Miskolc awarded her the Pro Urbe Prize, and in 2020 the Sámuel Benkő Prize.

In 2016, the Ministry of Human Resources awarded her the László Batthyány-Strattmann Prize.

In August 2022 she was awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary.

John Comer is a dairy and beef farmer from the west coast of Ireland and has been passionate about the family farming model through the years. He is the former president of the Irish creamery milk suppliers association a post that he held for six years. He has been involved in farming politics for many years and has served on the board of Ornua (formerly the Irish dairy board) , An Board Bia (The Irish food board, The national dairy council as well as the Irish cattle breeding federation (ICBF). He is currently a member of the European economic and social committee (EESC) where he is Vice President of the TEN  section and also the co spokesperson for farmers category

Giuseppe Guerini is Member of the EESC (European Economic and Social Commitee) since September 2010 has been dealing in particular with the social economy and social enterprises, employment and labor and finance for SMEs and social enterprises. He is spokesperson for the Social Economy category of the ESSC.

President of CECOP-CICOPA Europa the European Confederation of Industrial Cooperatives and Social Cooperatives, representing some 50,000 companies with more than 1.3 million workers in Europe, member of the Board in CICOPA and Cooperatives Europe.

Since 2010 until  June 2018, he has been a president of Confcooperative-Federsolidarietà  (association representing 6,200 social cooperatives, social enterprises in Italy).

He has been a social entrepreneur since 1988, he subsequently had executive roles in several cooperatives.

He has been an administrator in many social cooperatives and consortia and in a Cooperative Credit Bank. For 4 years he was a member of the Board of Directors of Banca Popolare di Bergamo of the UBI Group.

He is a member of the board of the AICCON research Center of the University of Bologna.

From 2012 to 2015, he was chairman of the Entrepreneurial & Territory Unit Committee, which brings together 10 small and medium-sized enterprise associations in the province of Bergamo. He is also a member of the Board of the Chamber of Commerce, Agriculture and Crafts Industry in Bergamo