Speakers, 29.05 | European Forest Institute

	Marc Castellnou is a strategic fire analyst with the Regional Fire Services, Catalonia, Spain and the head of the GRAF units. He has 30 years of practical experience of working as a firefighter and a fire analyst. He teaches various courses and is actively involved in events aimed both for the forestry and fire professionals as well as the general public. He is associated professor at the University of Lleida, Spain. Since 2010 he has also served as the president of the Pau Costa Foundation.
	José Manuel Jaquotot is the Deputy Director General, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment of Spain. He is responsible for the management of the Spanish forest policy. With a long career both in the public administration as well as in the private sector, he is the former Chair of EFI’s Multi Donor Trust Fund and as of 2017 president of the Committee of Mediterranean Forestry Questions – Silva Mediterranea of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He is a forest engineer graduated from the Polytechnic University of Madrid with an Executive MBA from IESE International Business School.
	Marco Marchetti is Full Professor of Forest Planning and Conservation and Vice Rector at the University of Molise, Italy. He has a research record of more than 30 years in the domains of land use, forest inventory and monitoring, management and conservation of natural resources with experiences in Europe and several countries in Africa and Latin America. His experience in land planning, biodiversity and ecosystem services assessment is currently being applied to urban systems and land consumption. Chair of Italian Association of Agricultural Science Societies and President of the Italian Society of Forest Ecology and Silviculture, recently he has recently been elected as Board member of the European Forest Institute.
	Inazio Martínez de Arano is Head of Office at EFIMED since June 2013. He holds a degree in Ecology (Basque Country University), a post-degree in Landscape management (Polytechnic University of Valencia) and a M.Sc. in Forestry (Universidad Austral de Chile). Previously he has been coordinator of forest research at NEIKER and has served as Executive President at the Union of Foresters of Southern Europe (USSE), where he was involved in the analysis of forest-related policy developments at European and global levels, and the evaluation of the potential effects of policies and regulations on Mediterranean and South Atlantic forests and forestry. His current focus is in understanding the challenges and opportunities for innovating in the Mediterranean bioeconomy.
	Tiago Oliveira is the Head of the Special Unit for Portuguese Wildfire Management, superintended by the Prime Minister of Portugal. He is the Former Head of Dept. of Innovation and Forestry Development (2016-2017) and Forest Protection (2008-2016) at The Navigator Company, covering fire prevention and suppression operational programs and R&D project, including a FireEngine under the scope of MIT-Portugal program. He holds a PhD in forestry, consolidated by 25 years of wildfire management experience in national and international activities from the topics of risk governance to suppression operation management. His operation and research experience is grounded on 20 wildfire seasons as incident commander, aerial coordinator, hotshot crew or regular wildland firefighter.
	Esperanza Orellana Moraleda is the General Director of Rural Development and Forest Policy since 2016. She holds a degree in Veterinary Science from the Complutense University of Madrid, and a long career in the public administration developing several responsibilities in Agriculture management. She is currently responsible for the management of the National Spanish Forest Policy including Forest Fire National deployment as well as focal point of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
	Marc Palahí is the Director of the European Forest Institute and responsible for leading the organisation towards an acknowledged pan-European science-policy platform. Previously he led EFI’s policy support activities and during this time was instrumental in launching ThinkForest, a European high-level science forum on the future of forests. He has also worked as Head of EFI’s Mediterranean Regional Office, EFIMED. He has a PhD in forestry and economics and an MSc in forestry engineering.
	Göran Persson served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1996 to 2006 and was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1996 to 2007. Since leaving office, Mr Persson has been a consultant for the Stockholm-based PR firm JKL. He is also a Member of the Board of the World Resources Institute, and the President of the European high-level forum on the future of forests, ThinkForest, facilitated by EFI.
	Ignacio Seoane is the Deputy Head of Unit D.4: Environment, climate change, forestry and bioeconomy, at DG Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission. During his long career in the Commission, he has responsible for the review of the EU Forestry Strategy and the preparation of the EU Forest Action Plan, the preparation of forestry measures under the rural development policy as well as for the Forest Europe process. During 2001-2006, he was also the technical manager for the specific regulations on the protection of forests against fire and against atmospheric pollution. From 1990 to 2001 he worked in the Directorate-General for Research as research programme officer. He was responsible for the management of research programmes in the area of forestry and forest products research under different Framework Programmes. Before joining the Commission he worked as a researcher in the "Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agrarias (INIA)", Spain, and in the pulp industry (ENCE) as engineer in the forest department. He graduated as forestry engineer by the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
	Alessandra Stefani is the Forest Director of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies since January 2017. She holds a degree in Forest Sciences from the University of Padova) and a M.Sc. in administrative law. Previously she has been vice head of the Italian National Forest Service. She is a member of the Italian Academy of Forest Sciences.
	Margarida Tomé , Forestry Engineer, is Professor at Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, where she teachs Forest Resources Inventory, Forest Modelling and Forest Management. She coordinates the Forest Resources Inventory and Modelling Group (ForChange), one of the research groups of CEF (Forest Research Centre at the University of Lisbon). She has been strongly involved with EFI, being member of the SAB 2009-2012, and participating actively in the activities of EFIATLANTIC and EFIMED regional offices, as well as with IUFRO where she was the Division IV coordinator in the period 2006-2014.
	Gavriil Xanthopoulos is a forest fires researcher and head of the Forest Fires Laboratory at the Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems of the Hellenic Agricultural Organization "Demeter". He holds a B.Sc., degree in Forestry from the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Greece and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Forestry with specialization in Forest Fires from the University of Montana, U.S.A. He has been active in European forest fire research for more than 25 years, with a parallel involvement in many areas of operational fire management as advisor to the General Secretary of Forests and Natural Environment, to the Minister of Public Order and to the General Secretary of Civil Protection in Greece. He also has extensive experience in forest fire management training and post-graduate university teaching. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Wildland Fire and of the UNISDR Wildland Fire Advisory Group.