French

Vicky Masson is the Paris-based senior manager for operations. She leads high-impact transformation initiatives and brings operational coherence to GMF's transatlantic presence.

Masson was previously chief of staff to GMF President Dr. Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer. She began her GMF career as an intern in the organization's Paris office before becoming a program operations manager. Before joining GMF, she was an intern at the Agence Française de Développement and contributed to a research project on the intervention of international stakeholders in countries in crisis, particularly in the Middle East and Africa.

Masson holds a master’s degree in international security from Sciences Po Paris, where she specialized in diplomacy and African studies.

Maria Florea oversees the Black Sea Trust’s (BST) Enhancing the Resilience of Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership project and BST’s grantmaking portfolio for the wider Black Sea region. 

Florea has extensive experience in leadership program design, having implemented GMF’s Leadership and Democracy Initiative for Eastern Europe, which focuses on Eastern Partnership countries. Over the course of her 10 years at GMF, she has helped hone the skills of more than 200 leaders and civil society activists, supported more than 100 organizations working to improve communities in the wider Black Sea region, and organized numerous events and large-scale forums. 

Florea holds a master’s degree in European governance from the University of Bristol and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Vienna. She is also a graduate of the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program. She speaks English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian, in addition to her native Romanian.