Brussels Forum Session: Civil Society’s Role in Building Democratic Resilience: Lessons from Central and Eastern Europe

Stanley Pignal writes the Charlemagne column on European affairs and serves as The Economist’s Brussels bureau chief. His previous postings include covering economics and business from Paris and Mumbai. Prior to that, he was the banking editor, overseeing coverage of financial institutions from London.

Pignal joined The Economist in 2012 from the Financial Times and previously worked as an investment analyst in the energy sector. 

Brussels Forum Session: Rebalancing Power, Restoring Trust: The GMF
Transatlantic Taskforce Report

Meredith Berger is the former assistant secretary of the US Navy (Energy, Installations, and Environment). In that role, she served as its first chief sustainability officer, a position she established.

Berger is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center and a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. She previously served in key roles at Microsoft, the US Department of Defense, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and with the State of Florida. She is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. 

20th Anniversary Dinner Reception at Brussels Town Hall

Theodora Gentzis is secretary general and president of the board of directors of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. She was previously director-general for European affairs, ensuring that Belgium is in a position to defend its interests within the EU by coordinating with the country’s stakeholders at the federal and federated level.

Gentzis served as adviser to the minister of foreign and European affairs, overseeing European issues and relations with partner countries in the EU’s east and southeast; and as counsellor for EU enlargement, the EU’s Eastern Partnership, and relations between the EU and neighboring countries in the EU Directorate-General for External Relations. She was a member of the administrative board of the European Fund for Democracy and a delegate to the European Committee for the Neighbourhood Program. Her other positions included counsellor in the Directorate for Internal Market and Transport, Telecom and Energy; and desk officer in the Directorate-General for Coordination and European Integration.

Gentzis holds a master’s degrees in European studies and in political science from the Institute of European Studies at the Université Catholique de Louvain, and a bachelor's degree in economics, politics, and social sciences from the Faculté Universitaire Saint-Louis.