REVIEW OF APPOINTMENTS IN 2020

Source: Politico (Category Influencers)

*Excludes appointments within the EU institutions

18 December 2020

• Stefan Gran, from the German Trade Union Confederation, has been elected chair of Eurofound’s management board, taking over from outgoing chair Aviana Bulgarelli.
• Nina Peacock, head of public policy and government relations at Kellogg Europe, has been elected as president of the European Breakfast Cereals Association (CEEREAL). Peacock is the first woman to be elected president of CEEREAL and first person under the age of 40 to hold the role. CEEREAL also announced the election of Jochen Brüggen, owner and managing director of H. & J. Brüggen KG, as its vice president.
• Julie Van Tongerloo joins specialist management consultancy EPPA from Nestlé as a senior account manager.

11 December 2020

• Health care and life science industry expert Andras Fehervary joins FTI Consulting as a senior adviser in its public affairs practice, based in Brussels.
• Oliver Zipse, chairman of the board of management of BMW Group, takes over the presidency of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) next year. He emphasized next year’s “urgent task is the EU-wide rollout of charging infrastructure to ensure everyday usability of electric vehicles for customers in all member states.” Zipse replaces Michael Manley, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
• Christopher Burghardt (managing director Europe at ChargePoint) has been president of ChargeUp Europe, the alliance of the EV charging infrastructure sector in Europe.

4 December 2020

• German lawyer Jens Karsten joined FIPRA recently as a special adviser for food and farm law, bolstering the firm’s food practice.
• Casper Klynge, vice president for European government affairs at Microsoft, has been named to the new advisory board of BLUETOWN, a global internet and content service provider.
• The European Snacks Association (ESA) has elected Mathijs Peters, sector lead of public policy and government affairs in Europe at PepsiCo, as its new president for a two-year term from July 2021.
• Thierry Krier, president and CEO of KUHN Group, was elected as president of CEMA, the association representing the European agricultural machinery industry.
• Jean Bizet, a former French senator and chairman of the European Affairs Committee, has joined APCO Worldwide as a special adviser to its Paris office.
• Rūta Barthet is now a senior media and communications officer at the European Banking Federation. Barthet was previously with the corporate communications team at Weber Shandwick Brussels.
• Iman Hill is the new executive director of the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, succeeding Gordon Ballard.
• Florian Oel is leaving Oxfam’s EU office this week to join the Commission’s DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion as a press officer.
• German industry lobby BDI chose Siegfried Russwurm as its new president. Russwurm will succeed Dieter Kempf on January 1, and Kempf will become vice president of the association.

27 November 2020

• Lauriane Giet will be leaving the CERRE think tank at the end of 2020 to join Cisco as its communications manager for EMEAR public affairs.
• FleishmanHillard Fishburn has launched a dedicated COP26 unit to advise its U.K. and global clients on the conference, which takes place in Glasgow next year. Leading the unit are Stephanie Bailey, Tim Snowball, Michael Hartt and Peter Wilson.
• Peter Simon, who led the European Parliament on overhauls of capital standards and deposit guarantees during 10 years in the assembly, becomes co-managing director of the World Savings and Retail Banking Institute and the European Savings and Retail Banking Group (WSBI-ESBG) starting January 1. The former Social Democrat MEP has already been back on the Brussels scene since early this year as the German Savings Banks Association’s representative to the EU, after a cooling-off period.
• And Chris De Noose, who’s held the WSBI-ESBG chief executive role for more than a quarter-century, will stay on as co-managing director until the end of 2021.
• Kinga Timaru-Kast is now director of communications, projects and funding at EUFORES, the European Forum for Renewable Energy Sources. Timaru-Kast was previously with the PR and public affairs agency Grayling Brussels PA.
• Thomas da Silva Rosa joined APCO Worldwide’s Brussels office this week as an associate consultant in the Energy & Sustainability Practice.
• EuroISPA, which represents over 2,300 ISPs across Europe, elected its new board: Alexandra Laffitte (FFTélécoms) as president, Innocenzo Genna (AIIP) as vice president, and Thomas Bihlmayer (eco) as treasurer.
• Claire Skentelbery is the new director general of EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries, as of November 23.
• Dieter Vranckx, CEO of Brussels Airlines, is to leave his post after less than a year in the job, taking over as CEO of Swiss, another airline in the Lufthansa group, as of January 1.

20 November 2020

• Deborah Nash has been promoted to the role of CEO of Teneo Brussels. Nash has been COO in Brussels for the past four years.
• Andreas Treichl is the new president of the European Forum Alpbach, succeeding Franz Fischler who has been president for the past eight years.
• Former Commission official Veerle Beelaerts has joined the association of the European Heating Industry. Beelaerts worked at DG Energy as a policy officer, focusing on ecodesign and energy labeling regulations for heating products.
• Hugues Hinterlang is now head of EU public affairs at ORANO.
• Robert Condon has been promoted to senior director of EMEA public policy at software company VMware. Paola Brucker-Dhont, previously with Alstom, the French Treasury and ENA, has been hired to lead French government relations. And Jörg-Alexander Albrecht, formerly with Huawei, Microsoft and the German foreign ministry, will lead German government relations.
• Katarína Gatialová is now an EU government affairs and policy officer at Viatris.

13 November 2020

• Florence Mayor Dario Nardella will represent European cities for the next two years as the new president of Eurocities.
• Managing director at Deutsche Bank Nina Schindler has been appointed chief executive officer of the European Association of Cooperative Banks.
• Two new members joined the executive committee of COGEN Europe, the European Association for the Promotion of Cogeneration — Christian Grotholt, CEO at 2G, and Alex Marshall, group marketing and compliance director at Clarke Energy. Marc Vignal from Solar Turbines has been elected treasurer of the association.
• Goran Gotev is BlackBerry’s new director of government affairs and public policy for Europe.
• Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska will become a new senior government affairs manager at Apple in Brussels as of November 16. She was a senior research fellow at the Centre of European Reform, a think tank, where she covered Brexit, the rule of law and EU institutional affairs.

6 November 2020

• Jakub Jasiewicz joins public affairs consultancy Nemec+Chvatal to work with health care clients. He previously worked for rival Kreab.
• The European Potato Trade Association has a new technical affairs director — Romans Vorss.
• Leon de Graaf will leave industry lobby BusinessEurope to join #SustainablePublicAffairs, a consultancy firm.
• Former British MEP Paul Brannen has been appointed director of public affairs for the European woodworking and sawmill industries.
• Berlin-based consultancy 365 Sherpas appointed a new managing partner for its Brussels office: Reimund Simon from the German business association Wirtschaftsrat der CDU e.V.

30 October 2020

• The Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime appointed John Cusack as its inaugural chair. Cusack has twice been the chair of the Wolfsberg Group and was previously Global Money Laundering Reporting Officer at UBS and Standard Chartered Bank.
• Former Irish Minister Paudie Coffey and Irish Government Adviser Paul Fox founded Pinnacle Public Affairs — a new Irish-based consultancy with “an extensive network at local and national levels of Government in Ireland and at EU level.
• Swedish health expert Katarina Johansson, founder and former chair of the Network Against Cancer, joins Rud Pedersen Public Affairs as a senior adviser.
• Moshe Kantor was reelected as president of the European Jewish Congress (EJC) this week.
• Former CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi, is set to become a new member of the supervisory board to the annual general meeting of shareholders of Royal Philips, a global health technology company.
• International NGO EuroGeographics has named Léa Bodossian as its new secretary-general and executive director.
• Visiting professor at the College of Europe Justin Greenwood joins EU recruitment firm Dober Partners.
• Simona Romeo has joined Europa Insights as a senior communication media and digital adviser.
• The Polish Unions of Entrepreneurs and Employers from Silesia and West Pomerania are the newest members of the European Enterprise Alliance.

23 October 2020

• BCW hires health care policy expert Achim Kautz as a senior adviser.
• HOTREC, the umbrella association of hotels, restaurants and cafés in Europe, reelected Jens Zimmer Christensen as its president, Marc Van Muylders as vice president, and Adrian Cummins as treasurer. Jean-Marc Banquet d’Orx was also reelected as chair of its Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee.
• Martino Canonico and Nancy O’Neill have joined the Vulcan Consulting team as public affairs executives in Brussels and Dublin, respectively.
• Sarah Göbel joins RISE as an associate consultant after stints at the European Parliament and Rud Pedersen Public Affairs, and Neil Davy joins as a senior adviser on sustainability and corporate purpose. Davy is the former global CEO of Corporate Citizenship,  and prior to that led the London-based corporate governance think tank Tomorrow’s Company.
• Bart M.J. Szewczyk joins Covington & Burling in Brussels as an associate.
• Shweta Kulkarni is the new director of communications for ISFE, Europe’s video games industry, and Sergi Mesonero is now head of ISFE Esports.
• After nine years, Wouter Kolk left PAX for peace to join Mighty Earth as campaign director in the Netherlands.
• Georgia Dawson has been elected the first female senior partner of the British law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. The move is part of the firm’s expansion strategy in the United States.
• Jürgen Mindel is now deputy managing director of Germany’s auto association, Verband der Automobilindustrie (VDA), and Lutz Meyer is now head of communication and media.

15 October 2020

• The former director of the European Defence Agency Jorge Domecq has been hired as a lobbyist by aircraft manufacturer Airbus seven months after leaving the EU body.
• AmCham EU has a new chair: Zeger Vercouteren, vice president of worldwide government affairs and policy for Europe, Middle East and Africa and global supply chain initiatives at Johnson & Johnson.
• Derk Oldenburg, former managing director of public policy at Liberty Global, joined FIPRA as a special adviser for digital, telecoms, transport and institutional EU affairs.
• The Assembly of European Regions appointed Christian Spahr as its new secretary-general as of November 2.
• Seamus Conboy, who’s headed up Red Flag Europe for the past five years, moves to London to take up a new role as the consultancy’s global head of client services.
• Nancy Pallares and Diego Andreis were elected as vice presidents of Ceemet, the European tech & industry employers’ organization.
• The European Milk Board elected current vice president Sieta van Keimpema from the Netherlands as its new president.
• Bernat Miquel, previously with Red Flag Consulting, joined Kreab Worldwide as an associate in Barcelona.
• András Süle is now president-elect of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists.
• The European Federation of Bottled Waters elected Muriel Lienau, CEO of Nestlé Waters in Europe, Middle East and North Africa (EMENA), as its new president.
• Karl Haeusgen, chairman of the supervisory board and co-owner of Hawe Hydraulik SE, is the new president of the mechanical engineering industry association of Germany (VDMA).

9 October 2020

• Heiko Weiss joins Interel Group as managing director of Interel Germany, succeeding Markus Weidling, who will leave the company by the end of the year. Weiss joins from Advice Partners GmbH and previously held senior management positions in public affairs at Deutsche Bank AG, as well as positions at FleishmanHillard Germany and IPA Network International Public Affairs.
• Nina Schindler leaves Deutsche Bank, where she was managing director and head of government and public affairs for the EU, to pursue opportunities outside the bank. She is succeeded by Johannes Pockrandt.
• Delphine Rudelli has been appointed as the new director general of Ceemet, the European tech and industry employers’ association, and Rainer Ludwig, director of human resources at Ford of Germany, was elected president.
• Nico Muzi leaves Transport & Environment (T&E) to join Mighty Earth, an NGO campaigning to protect rainforests and make agriculture sustainable. T&E is now looking for a new senior director of communications and campaigns to replace Muzi.
• Garrick Long is the new director of Inline Policy in Brussels. Long was previously director of international relations for CARE and director of (then) Burson-Marsteller Brussels’ government affairs and technology practice.
• Simona Vackeová has joined ePURE, the European renewable ethanol association, as director of government affairs and will be working on energy, environment and trade issues, representing the interests of European renewable ethanol producers.
• Giustino Piccolo has joined Energy Cities, the European association of cities in energy transition, from Climate Alliance. Marie Royer will also join as of October 12 to support communications of various decarbonization projects in the pipeline.
• Marcin Cichy, former head of the Polish telecom authority, joined lobby shop Access Partnerships as senior adviser for the EMEA region. Cichy was forced out of his position at the regulator due to friction with the right-wing government, notably around the country’s 5G spectrum auction and 5G security requirements.
• Simon Holmes is now a strategic adviser for competition law and sustainability at #SustainablePublicAffairs.
• António Coimbra will step down as CEO of Vodafone Spain as of November 1 and be appointed as non-executive chairman. Colman Deegan will become the new CEO and joins the Vodafone Group executive committee.
• Michael Wolgast, previously Moody’s senior vice president of government and public affairs, joined Berlin Global Advisors as a partner.
• Michael Boll leaves EUTOP in Berlin to become head of public policy at Infineon Technologies as of 2021.

2 October 2020

• Shada Islam is BCW Brussels’ newest senior adviser after leaving her role as director of the Friends of Europe think tank in June. She also remains senior adviser at the European Policy Centre and has her own company New Horizons Project.
• The CERRE think tank (which just celebrated its 10-year anniversary) added Lara Natale to the team as director for tech, media and telecom (TMT). Natale previously co-led FTI Consulting’s TMT practice in Brussels.
• Steve George joins Rud Pedersen as a senior adviser in its chemicals and environment team, where he will focus on chemicals policy and regulation. He spent the last 20 years at Rolls Royce.
• Kimon Zorbas leaves Nielsen where he was SVP of government relations and public policy to head up public policy at DATEV.
• Gaëtan Claeys has left EUGINE and will be heading the Brussels office of the French region Grand Est as of October 1.
• Marcin Cichy was appointed Access Partnership’s senior adviser for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

25 September 2020

• France’s top farmers’ lobbyist Christiane Lambert has been elected president of the EU’s umbrella farmer’s lobby COPA.
• Emma Brown, director of EU affairs at Red Flag, joins the Society of European Affairs Professional (SEAP) board. Stefano Marmo of AmCham EU and ECMA Director General Paul Varakas have been appointed as vice presidents.
• Charlotte Matthysen joins Liberty Global as senior public policy manager as of October 1. Matthysen leaves Cambre, where she was an account manager for mostly technology and foreign policy clients.
• Thomas Grandjouan has left NOVE to join NGO EU Disinfo Lab as their new advocacy coordinator.
• BOLDT expands its consultancy to Dusseldorf and brings on political and digital communication specialist Sophie Braun to expand its newest German team.
• Jos Delbeke has been appointed as the European University Institute’s first European Investment Bank (EIB) chair on climate change policy and international carbon markets. Delbeke is the former director-general of DG Climate Action and will work on issues related to carbon pricing and sustainable finance.
• Carys Dunn and Sacha Baudet recently joined the team of Lysios Public Affairs consultancy in Brussels.
• Peter Kraus vom Cleff was elected president of the Federation of European Publishers in the organization’s first virtual general assembly.

18 September 2020

• Teresa Calvano leaves FleishmanHillard Brussels after 18 years to join Rud Pedersen Brussels’ management team, where she’ll focus on the technology sector. Duncan Casey also joins the Brussels office as a research executive.
• Caroline Greer leave Cloudflare to join TikTok’s European team as director of public policy in Brussels.
• Financial services veteran Daniel Bolder took over the EU office of the German Property Federation (ZIA), representing 37,000+ companies across the whole value chain of the German real estate industry. Bolder joins from PwC Germany, which he represented in Brussels.
• Camille Vachet is the newest edition to consultancy #SustainablePublicAffairs. The former competition lawyer joins from Lysios Public Affairs.
• Aleksandra Palinska and Peter Norwood join financial regulation NGO Finance Watch as senior research and advocacy officers.
• Sheela Upadhyaya has joined FIPRA International as a special adviser in its health care practice.
• Daniel Pataki was named vice president of policy and regulation and head of Europe, Russia and CIS for mobile communications trade association GSMA. Pataki was previously the director general of ETNO, as well as the chair of the European Regulators Group (now BEREC) and chair of the European Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG).
• Joan Lanfranco is the new communication and outreach coordinator at the Brussels office of Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, the German green political foundation. He was previously EU communications project manager at agency GOPA Com.
• Nicolas Vignolles, former chief of staff of junior French Minister for Digital Affairs Cédric O, becomes managing director of the Syndicat des éditeurs de logiciels de loisirs (SELL), the influential video game lobby in France representing the interests of Sony, Microsoft Xbox and Ubisoft.
• Maud Sacquet, formerly at CCIA Europe and Mozilla, has joined APCO and will work on the DSA and AI, among other things.
• The European Biodiesel Board (EBB) elected Kristell Guizouarn for a second term as president and confirmed the appointment of Xavier Noyon as its new secretary-general.
• Steve Morgan will head FTI Consulting’s cybersecurity practice in London. He joined the firm from the U.K. government, where he was chief of security at 10 Downing Street.

11 September 2020

• Stavros Papagianneas has established a nonprofit called Steps for Europe (S4E) “to reinforce the European Public Sphere and promote the values of the EU.”
• Lawrence Muskitta moves on from BCW Brussels to join Facebook’s EU team as public policy manager for stakeholder engagement.
• Kyriakos Gialoglou joins Seawind Ocean Technology, a floating wind turbines startup, as director for government affairs. Gialoglou was previously a team leader at the European Commission and EU affairs director at Eurogas.
• Sofia Marchã has joined Biogen’s public policy & government affairs team as a director and lead for Alzheimer’s disease. She joins from the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations where she was a director on the public affairs team, leading on IP and incentives.
• As mentioned, David Simon is the new head of global regulatory affairs and government relations at German platform Delivery Hero.
• Oakhill Communications founders Craig Leviton and Lee Petar join Sard Verbinnen & Co (SVC) as managing directors and co-heads of its U.K. public affairs practice following the takeover of Oakhill by SVC.
• Rahul Venkit  joined FIPRA in Brussels as its communications and network marketing director.
• At Grayling, Sarah Scholefield assumes the role of chief executive (its first global CEO in five years) and Richard Jukes becomes its first global chairman.
• Patrick Van Eecke has joined law firm Cooley as head of its European cyber, data and privacy team, as well as vice chair of the firm’s global practice. He previously worked at DLA Piper as co-chair of its global data privacy and cybersecurity unit.
• Samuel Ribanský  joins Rud Pedersen Public Affairs in Brussels as a consultant, and Nora Lawton joins as a director. Lawton’s last role was as managing director of Weber Shandwick’s Brussels office. She has previously worked for Ogilvy and Edelman in both Dublin and London.
• David Berman, formerly head of group public affairs at Veolia, recently joined Air Liquide, the largest supplier of industrial gases and services, as head of public affairs for Europe.
• The Association of Mutual Insurers and Insurance Cooperatives in Europe (AMICE) appointed Oliver Schoeller as a director on AMICE’s board for a three-year term.
• Kieran Watkins leaves Kreab Worldwide to join Smiths Group plc as corporate affairs manager, covering the EMEA region from its Brussels office.

4 September 2020

• Dan Cooper relocates to Brussels to lead Covington’s European data protection practice as co-chair of the firm’s global Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice.
• The Association of Commercial Television in Europe announced that Miruna Herovanu and Erard Gilles are joining the audiovisual lobby as senior EU policy officers. Herovanu, who comes from press publishers lobby EMMA/ENPA, will lead ACT’s IP task force. Gilles, who’ll be in charge of the media and data task force, has previously worked for the RTL Group in Brussels.
• European business strategy and communications consultancy BOLDT opened up a new office in London with Jon Rhodes and Steve Earl joining as partners. Rhodes was most recently corporate affairs director at KPMG UK and Earl was previously U.K. managing director of APCO.
• Laure Alexandre is the newly appointed executive director of Seldia, the European Direct Selling Association. Alexandre previously worked for the European Advertising Standard Alliance and spiritsEUROPE.
• Jérémie Gallon assumed leadership of McLarty Associates’ Brussels office as of September 1, after three years leading AmCham France.
• Hans De Cuyper will succeed Bart De Smet as CEO of international insurance group Ageas as of October 22. De Smet will become the chairman of the group replacing Jozef De Mey who is stepping down.
• Access Info Europe Director Helen Darbishire is the new chair of the global civil society coalition to promote the implementation and monitoring of the U.N. Convention against Corruption.

28 August 2020

• Gregoire Verdeaux leaves Hering Schuppener, where he was a partner, to join Philip Morris International as senior vice president of external affairs as of September 1.
• Graeme Taylor, who used to head Syngenta Group’s European media team in Basel, has been appointed global head of public affairs at the crop protection giant. He previously worked at the European Crop Protection Association where he lobbied to keep glyphosate and other pesticides legal.
• Strategic communications consultancy Hering Schuppener is expanding its tech and transformation team in Berlin, bringing in Marie Fabiunke, Stephan Dörner, Carolin Döring and Robert Spönemann.
• Astrid Kasper has taken over the management of the corporate communications and public affairs at Software AG as of mid-August.

21 August 2020

• Casper Klynge, vice president for EU government affairs at Microsoft, has provisionally joined the executive board of DigitalEurope — replacing John Frank, who has relocated from Brussels to establish Microsoft’s new United Nations representation office in New York.
• Rud Pedersen Public Affairs has added two hires to its new office in Berlin: Rosa Taeuber, previously with FleishmanHillard Germany, joins as a consultant and Astrid Fastenrath as a research executive.
• Nina Schwab-Hautzinger will take over as head of corporate communications and government relations at chemical company BASF on November 1 .

31 July 2020

• This week, UPS promoted Laura Lane to chief corporate affairs and communications officer, overseeing public policy and government affairs, public relations, employee communications and the UPS Foundation. Lane will report directly to CEO Carol Tomé.
• Consultancy Fourtold has hired Sophie Goodall as a junior consultant, and Lydia Welham as a graduate consultant. Tomas Vitas also joins as a consultant following stints at Amazon EU, Invest Europe and POLITICO.
• Executive search and consultancy firm Dober Partners welcomes Helen Dunnett, Florence Ranson and Ashley Gwen Garcia to its team.
• Florian Döllner leaves his role as head of EU affairs for Bird to join Onfido as its director of global public policy.
• Rüdiger von Fritsch, Germany’s former ambassador to Warsaw and Moscow, becomes a new partner at management consultancy Berlin Global Advisors.

24 July 2020

• Kaarli Eichhorn, of Jones Day’s Antitrust & Competition Law Practice, has been elected as the new vice chair of AmCham EU’s board of directors for a two-year term.
• Afke Schaart, who leads European and Eurasian public affairs at the global telecom association GSMA, will join Huawei as senior vice president in September.
• Allied for Startups is bringing on former MEP Daniel Dalton as a senior adviser, and Benedikt Blomeyer has been promoted to EU policy director.
• Jacob Kirkegaard will join the German Marshall Fund’s Brussels office as a joint GMF-Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) senior fellow in economics as of September 1.
• Louise Day has joined Rud Pedersen Public Affairs in Brussels as a senior consultant.
• Data rights advocates, including lawyer Ravi Naik and former Mozilla fellow Mathias Vermeulen, have launched AWO, a new data rights agency with offices in London, Paris and Brussels.
• Corporate communication, public affairs and investor relations specialist Paloma Castro Martínez joins Euros/Agency Group as a senior strategic adviser.
• CAOBISCO, the European chocolate, biscuits and confectionery industry association, has appointed Muriel Korter as its new director general.
• Edelman UK appointed former MP Chuka Umunna as executive director and head of its Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) consultancy offer.

17 July 2020

• The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) appointed Wouter Gekiere as the head of its Brussels office, succeeding Nicola Frank who has moved to a new position within the EU.
• Shada Islam, Lionel Barber and Constanze Stelzenmüller have joined the European Policy Centre’s Strategic Council. Islam also becomes a senior adviser to the EPC’s Europe in the World program.
• DigitalEurope Director General Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl has been selected by NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg as one of 12 members of a new external high-level advisory group on emerging and disruptive technologies.
• Ben Butters is the new CEO of Eurochambres, succeeding Arnaldo Abruzzini who has held the role with the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry for 21years.
• Alberto Nardelli is leaving BuzzFeed to join Bloomberg as its new correspondent at large for Europe.
• EU business association smarten elected a new chairman of the board, Andreas Flamm from Entelios. Vincent Minier from Schneider Electric also joins as a board member.
• London-based techUK elected the following new board members: Jessica Lennard (Visa), Elizabeth Kanter (Tiktok) and Zoe Cunningham (Softwire Technology). Additionally, Jaspal Bhogal (Intel Corporation) and David Meads (Cisco UK & Ireland) join as members of the main board, with Gordon Wilson (Advanced) and Tim Crofts (Leidos) re-selected as directors.
• Re-sale clothing patform Vinted has appointed Luca Bresch as director of public affairs for Europe.

10 July 2020

• Dow shakes up its government affairs team for the Europe, Middle East, Africa & India (EMEAI) region with the following appointments: Dennis Kredler currently director of Dow EU Government Affairs and head of the Dow Brussels EU office, becomes director of government affairs for Europe. Howard Chase, currently senior director of government affairs for Dow EMEAI, becomes senior adviser and remains based in Horgen, Switzerland. Richard Ayton, currently director of Dow UK and Ireland Government Affairs, extends his responsibilities to cover government affairs in the Middle East, Turkey, Africa and India.
• Tech consultancy Access Partnership announced the launch of its new advisory board with the initial appointments of Ed Vaizey, Mike Senkowski, Nancy Victory, Simon Bax and Stephen Pattison.
• IBM appointed Spanish executive Marta Martinez as general manager for EMEA.
• Luca Cassetti has been appointed as secretary-general of Ecommerce Europe. He will also continue in his old job as the lobby’s director of EU public affairs.

26 June 2020

• Former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Good Lobby founder Alberto Alemanno join the board of trustees of the Friends of Europe think tank. Mogherini’s intention to join was approved by the Commission . They are among the 29 new members, which include former Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, other commissioners, MEPs and more.
• Victor van Hoorn will be the new executive director of sustainable investment association Eurosif from August 28. He is joining from Hume Brophy in Brussels, where he is currently the head of financial services.
• Pauline Bastidon leaves the logistics industry to join spiritsEUROPE in Brussels as director of trade and economic affairs.
• Trade association Cosmetics Europe elected Hervé Toutain (L’Oréal) to take over from Loïc Armand as president, with Charles François Gaudefroy (Unilever) and Ronald Van Welie (NCV) staying on as vice presidents and Isabelle Martin (Estée Lauder) remaining treasurer.
• The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, an independent organization set up by Facebook, Google and others to combat online extremist content, appointed Nicholas Rasmussen as executive director.
• European Plastics Converters reelected Renato Zelcher (CEO of Crocco SpA) as its president for 2020-2022.

19 June 2020

• DigitalEurope elected Hilary Mine, VP and market unit leader for the Nordics, Baltics and Benelux at Nokia, as its first female president. Julian David, CEO of techUK, was reelected as vice president.
• After eight years, Simos Piperidis has left his role as Cambre’s media and policy communications director to join the European Council’s press office.
• As of June 1, Joanna Dupont-Inglis is the new head of European public affairs for industry association European Bioplastics.
• Barry McKeon joins DigitalEurope as a senior policy manager working on trade and competition, while Raphaëlle Hennekinne joins as his counterpart on the sustainability team. Aida Khalilova has been hired as the organization’s new communications officer.
• Eurosmart, an industry association for manufacturers in the security industry supply chain, has been selected to join the EU’s Stakeholder Cybersecurity Certification Group and will send Stéfane Mouille as a representative.
• Stormy-Annika Mildner will become the new executive director of the Aspen Institute Germany in Berlin as of January 2021, replacing Rüdiger Lentz, who  is now a senior adviser at Rud Pedersen Berlin.

12 June 2020

• Avisa Partners hired Sylvain Fort, the former communication director of Emmanuel Macron, as a senior partner.
• Rüdiger Lentz, the executive director of the Aspen Institute Germany, joins Rud Pedersen Berlin as a senior adviser.
• Transparency International EU announced its new board last week, chaired by Daniel Eriksson, with Geneviève Pons and Monika Ebert as vice chairs. They are joined by Fabian Zuleeg and Alessandro Gianesini.
• The European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations (EFCA) elected Artelia’s CEO Benoît Clocheret as its newest president, succeeding Kevin Rudden, CEO of GARLAND Consulting Engineers.
• Elisabeth Hoffmann left APCO Worldwide in March, joining Danish company VELUX as its EU representative in Brussels.
• Shradha Abt, previously senior specialist in energy and climate policy at the BASF group in Brussels, has been promoted to deputy head of the Brussels office.
• Brussels-born consultancy GPLUS has officially become Portland. It started operating under the London-based political consultancy and strategic comms brand on June 4. GPLUS has offices in Brussels, Berlin and Paris, while Portland has a footprint in the U.K., the Middle East, Africa, the U.S. and Asia.

5 June 2020

• After five years, Paweł Świeboda leaves the Commission’s in-house think tank, the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), to join the Human Brain Project ⁩and become founding CEO of EBRAINS.
• After nine years, Shada Islam — a 2017 alumna of POLITICO’s Women Shaping Brussels list is leaving her job as director for Europe and geopolitics at Friends of Europe to work as an independent analyst-adviser covering Europe, Asia, Africa and other geopolitical puzzles.
• Flint Global has hired Stephen Kinsella, former co-leader of Sidley Austin’s global antitrust team, as a specialist partner.
• Klaas Knot, president of De Nederlandsche Bank and vice chair of the Financial Stability Board, has joined the Group of Thirty (G30) — whose members include former President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi.
• Aurélie Bladocha Coelho, the former director for communications and public affairs at the FTTH Council Europe, is the organization’s acting director-general as of June 1, during the interim period before a new DG is appointed.
• Jérémie Gallon, currently managing director of AmCham France, will join international strategic advisory firm McLarty Associates as senior director and take over leadership of the Brussels office in September. Anne Ludwigs will become deputy head of the Brussels office.
• The deputy secretary-general of the European Dairy Association (EDA) and secretary-general of the European Whey Processors Association (EWPA) Bénédicte Masure will retire after 25 years in the industry, handing over the leadership of the EWPA to Alexander Anton, who has been heading the EDA for the past seven years.
• Geysha González has been hired as senior director for programs and strategy at the Center for European Policy Analysis. She previously was the deputy director for policy partnership at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and is also a Freedom House alum.
• Ben Schroeter moved to the Dutch digital platform Booking.com in Amsterdam as director of global public affairs as of June 1. Schroeter comes from Hering Schuppener Consulting, where he was most recently managing director in Berlin.
• Björn Ulvaeus, of ABBA, has been appointed president of CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers.

29 May, 2020

• Hill + Knowlton Strategies this week appointed Philippe Maze-Sencier as its global chair of public affairs, as of June 8. Maze-Sensier leaves McLarty Associates, where he served in leadership positions in the business advisory firm’s Brussels and DC offices.
• Hill + Knowlton Strategies also appointed Kelli Parsons as its global chair of corporate affairs, as of June 15.
• Acumen’s Max von Olenhusen and Nikos Manaras join founders Elaine Cruikshanks and Giles Keane as partners. The firm’s third founding partner Abigail Jones transitions to a new role as head of communications at IFPMA. And former European Parliament adviser Matthew Hogarth will join Acumen as an account manager in June.
• Aura Salla started her new gig as EU lobbyist-in-chief for Facebook on May 18. As a former member of Jean-Claude Juncker’s in-house think tank, she had to get permission from the Commission before starting her new gig. According to Salla, she is not allowed to lobby projects she was personally responsible for in the European Political Strategy Centre, or Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s new personal think tank — called Inspire, Debate, Engage and Accelerate Action (short for I.D.E.A., in case you were wondering why the tortuous name).
• Richard Harrington joined APCO Worldwide as a senior adviser and member of APCO’s International Advisory Council (IAC). Harrington was a former U.K. minister for business and industry.
• Ex-U.K. Labour MP Emma Reynolds joins financial services lobby TheCityUK as head of public affairs, policy and research. She is a former Labour Party spokeswoman for Europe and was on the House of Commons Brexit and health committees.

22 May 2020

• Simone Ceruti will join APCO Worldwide as a senior director in Milan on June 1. Ceruti worked on consumer affairs at consultancy BOLDT.
• Bernt Bieber, the senior vice president of direct sales at Siemens Healthineers, was elected  president of COCIR, the European Coordination Committee of the Radiological, Electromedical and Healthcare IT Industry. Bieber takes over from Jan Kimpen, the chief medical officer at Philips, for a four-year term.
• Zoom Video Communications Inc. has hired Josh Kallmer away from the Information Technology Industry Council to serve as its first lobbyist in Washington. H.R. McMaster joins its board of directors.
• BCW appointed Jan Warp as managing director of digital innovation for its Europe & Africa region. He will be based in Munich, Germany.
• Disney’s head of streaming Kevin Mayer will become TikTok’s CEO and COO of the Chinese app’s parent company ByteDance.
• The French Federation of Telecom has elected Orange’s Secretary-General Nicolas Guérin, who will replace Arthur Dreyfuss from Altice France, as president from June 15.
• Patrick Kammerer is now director of public affairs, communications & sustainability for Coca-Cola in Central and Eastern Europe.

15 May 2020

• Francesca Stevens takes the helm at EUROPEN, the European Organization for Packaging and Environment, as its new managing director as of June 1.
• Paul O’Donnell, chief executive of Ogilvy EMEA, has been voted in as the new president of the European Association of Communications Agencies (EACA) for a two-year term.
• Vanessa Chesnot joins the European Container Glass Federation (FEVE) as a product policy manager. She was previously head of the Energy & Environment practice of Grayling Brussels.
• Rauno Heinonen has been appointed as a senior adviser for BOLDT based in Helsinki.
• Daniel Schübel will represent the parallel distributors lobby Affordable Medicines Europe starting next week after three and a half years working at the German Medical Association’s Brussels office.
• Bernt Bieber, the senior vice president of direct sales at Siemens Healthineers, was elected president of COCIR, the European Coordination Committee of the Radiological, Electromedical and Healthcare IT Industry.
• Gerhard Cromme, formerly the chairman of the supervisory boards at German  Siemens and ThyssenKrupp, is joining the board of directors of battery maker Highview Power.

8 May 2020

• Frans Stokman joins Cefic as the new executive director of Petrochemicals Europe, one of its industry sectors.
• William Parker, a senior government affairs adviser in technology and digital issues, joins the strategic communications segment of FTI Consulting as a managing director in the Brussels office. Parker was most recently senior director of government affairs for the EMEA region at Dell Technologies.
• Former Eni energy and climate lead Vincenzo Conforti will join engineering giant ABB as head of government relations and public affairs for the European Union. He succeeds Folker Franz, who has taken the role of leading EU government and institutional relations at ABB’s Power Grids business.
• Gunnar Bender will become TikTok’s new director of public policy in Germany on August 1. Bender comes from Amazon and has also previously worked at Facebook.
• Jasper Nagtegaal has been named managing partner at Dr2 Consultants, succeeding Marlene ten Ham, who will return with her family to the Netherlands.
• Aura Salla has been appointed Facebook’s head of EU affairs in Brussels, starting mid-May, the company said. Salla worked for Jean-Claude Juncker’s in-house think tank, the European Political Strategy Centre, and previously worked for then-Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen.
• Olaf Zapke, the long-standing editor-in-chief and managing director of Thomson Reuters in Germany, will join Hering Schuppener Consulting in Frankfurt as of August.
• Eveline Metzen, who currently runs the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany, will become the head of government affairs and public policy in Germany, Austria and Switzerland at Google starting July 1.
• Alessio Grassi has left his job as director at FTI Consulting, and joined Akamai Technologies as a public policy manager.

27 March 2020

• Flint Europe is growing its Brussels team. Dan Brinkwerth joins as partner and COO Europe, and Padraig Nolan joins as a senior team member in the Brussels office with a particular focus on digital tech and financial services.
• Julien Pontier joins Brussels and Paris-based consultancy Euros / Agency as deputy managing director.
• Luiz de Mello from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has joined the advisory council of the Energy Efficient Mortgages Initiative.
• Hering Schuppener Consulting has hired Thomas von Oehsen as managing director of its capital markets consulting practice in a newly-created role.

20 March 2020

• Dominique Morel will be joining BOLDT as a partner in Zurich as of June. Morel was previous a partner with KPMG Switzerland for 10 years.
• David Storer has joined the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA) as the director of research, innovation and new mobility as of March 16.
• Monique Meche will oversee Twitter’s public policy, government and philanthropy efforts worldwide. Meche has previously worked for Waymo, Netflix and Amazon.
• Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, DigitalEurope’s director general, has joined EIT Digital’s supervisory board.
• Chris Dobson, former president of Speyside, is now executive partner at public affairs and reputation consultancy Kesarev.
• Sarah Chander has joined European Digital Rights (EDRi) at the Brussels office as the new senior policy adviser.
• Former journalist Simon Taylor is now a senior adviser at Rud Pedersen Public Affairs.
• Claire-Marie Healy joins the Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) think tank as project manager for digital and mobility.
• Jeremy Galbraith, managing partner at BOLDT, has been named the 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year for Public Relations in Western Europe by European CEO Magazine.

13 March 2020

• Chinese telecom giant Huawei is reshuffling its communication department in the EU office in Brussels. Yingying Li, who led communication as director for Western Europe since 2017, left to take up a role in the Shenzhen headquarters. Her replacement is Kevin Lichenyu, who officially started the role earlier this month.
• Robin Koch is now director of policy communications at Facebook after over seven years at Microsoft, most recently as director of communications, corporate external and legal affairs.
• Richard Sterneberg leaves GPlus Europe, where he was a partner for 11 years, to join global law firm DLA Piper to leads its global government affairs team in Brussels.
• Paul Walton is the newest senior fellow at Friends of Europe, working on the new alliance with Africa and international partnerships.
• Guy Parker has started as senior director in the BCW Brussels sustainability team. With 20 years of experience, he was previously at Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council, and prior to that at the European nuclear energy industry association, DG Enterprise & Industry and AmChamEU.
• Andrei Goldis has been promoted to associate director in APCO Worldwide’s London office. Goldis is currently on a one-year secondment in APCO’s Tokyo office, but continues to work closely on EU matters, connecting Japanese companies to the EU institutions.
• Andrew Canning joins BEUC as a senior communications officer. He was previously press and communications manager at WindEurope.
• Claire-Marie Healy joins the think tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) as a project manager for digital and mobility. She was previously at GSMA.
• Regine Kreitz, the head of communications at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, will join EU climate innovation initiative EIT Climate-KIC as of May 1 as director of marketing and communications and a member of the executive board.

6 March 2020

• Giorgio Botta, previously a policy assistant at the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), joined the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) as a regulatory policy adviser.
• Hanover’s Alison Woodhouse, Barbara Cooreman and Gary Cleland will lead its new 360° unit, helping clients embed sustainability practices into all aspects of their business strategy.
• Eleftheria Koukkou joined the international corporate affairs and communications team at Ogilvy Social.Lab as an account executive.
• Kolja Gabriel, head of the Brussels liaison office of the Bundesverband deutscher Banken (Association of German Banks), is now responsible for international affairs in addition to European politics as of March 1.

28 February 2020

• BCW CEO Karen Massin will be Google’s new head of government affairs and public policy in Brussels as of May.
• Brett Kobie, formerly the EMEA digital public affairs lead at FleishmanHillard, is the new strategy and creative director at Bump, a creative agency specializing in creating “experiences” such as escape rooms. So far, Kobie is working with clients looking to stand out in the European Green Deal conversation.
• Max Müller, currently a member of the executive board and chief strategy officer at DocMorris N.V., will take over as Bayer’s head of public affairs for Germany and EU as of May 1.
• Stephan Schraff, head of Bayer’s Berlin office for public affairs, will take over as the pharma giant’s head of public affairs and sustainability in Brussels.
• Volker Koch-Achelpöhler, who currently heads Bayer’s EU office for public affairs, will stay in Brussels to manage public affairs and sustainability crop science issues for the EMEA region from April 1.
• Michaël Cloots joined IBM as an external relations professional in Brussels earlier this month, managing the EU policy communications efforts for IBM’s EU team. Cloots was previously at FTI Consulting.
• The Wall Street Journal’s Emre Peker left Brussels (and journalism) to join the Eurasia Group in London as a director in the Europe team.
• Former German MEP Peter Simon is now the representative of the German Savings Banks and Giro Association (DSGV) to the European Union.
• Sabina Ciofu is now head of EU and trade policy at techUK, a trade association of tech companies in the U.K. She was previously with the European Parliament for nine years.
• Facebook’s former sustainability chief Bill Weihl has launched an organization called ClimateVoice to help employees at big companies press their bosses for more aggressive policies to fight climate change.

21 February 2020

• Bart Devos has been named European director of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA)’s new permanent office in Brussels. Devos previously worked for Samsung Electronics as European manager for sustainability. He’s also been an adviser to the French National Assembly, and an adviser on strategy development and stakeholder engagement to several international organizations.

14 February 2020

• Jenna Luchman has joined RISE as account director, leading the corporate purpose advisory firm’s work on the EU Green Deal. Luchman was previously at Weber Shandwick.
• Christina von Westernhagen recently joined Johnson Controls as director of government relations for Europe. Over the last 20 years in Brussels, von Westernhagen has worked for SC Johnson, Dow Chemical and the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU.
• Robin Manning, a former civil servant at the U.K.’s agriculture department, will take the reins next month of the British Agriculture Bureau (BAB) in Brussels, which represents the interests of four British farmers’ associations in the EU.
• Sarah Lenczner, former account manager at BCW Brussels, has moved to Qualcomm as manager for government affairs.
• Maria Wetterstrand is Miltton Europe’s new managing director as of March 1. Miltton Europe is the Brussels branch of Miltton Group, which is one of the leading consultancy companies in the Nordic region

7 February 2020

• David Simón-Santiñán has left Grayling and is moving on to Uber as head of public policy for southern Europe.
• Vincent de Dorlodot is the new head of Bertelsmann’s Brussels liaison office as of February 1
• Arvind Krishna, IBM’s head of research and development, will replace Ginni Rometty as the tech company’s new CEO in April.
• Senior adviser and co-founder of Cambre Associates Aart van Iterson is leaving the group after nearly 14 years to join Brussels-based communications and graphic design agency Morris & Chapman as managing director and partner. Van Iterson will also step down from his role as managing director at the boutique headhunting firm Rtesian Resources; Ian Burns will take over as managing director.
• Carlien Scheele is the new director of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), taking over from Virginija Langbakk, who led the institute since its inception in 2010.
• Virginia Janssens has been appointed managing director of PlasticsEurope as of March 2020. Janssens has been the managing director of the European Organization for Packaging and the Environment (EUROPEN) since 2012.
• Henrik Henriksson, CEO of Scania, is the newly-elected chairman of the Commercial Vehicle Board of Directors of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA). Henriksson takes over from Gerrit Marx, president for commercial and specialty vehicles at CNH Industrial.
• Guillermo Beltrà, who oversees Access Now’s policy team, will join the Open Society European Policy Institute as EU digital policy lead in March.
• The Costa Group has appointed Rossella Carrara as its vice president for external relations and sustainability.

31 January 2020

• Susan Danger, CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU, has been elected as chair of the AmChams in Europe network.
• Goran Gotev joins The Software Alliance/BSA in Brussels as senior policy manager. Prior to joining BSA, Goran was senior manager of EU government affairs at Symantec in Brussels.
• Andrea Corazza, former senior director at FTI Consulting, started a new professional chapter at Biogen as head of the Brussels liaison office, public policy and government affairs.
• Rosa Balfour, a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States will become the director of Carnegie Europe as of April.

24 January 2020

• John Frank, currently the vice president of EU government affairs for Microsoft, will relocate from Brussels to establish Microsoft’s new United Nations representation office in New York.
• Tech Ambassador Casper Klynge of Denmark will join Microsoft as the new vice president of European government affairs, based in Brussels
• Former Swedish MEP Cecilia Wikström, is now an adviser to the PR agency Prime, which is part of the global network Weber Shandwick.
• John Duhig has joined the BOLDT team as its newest partner in Brussels.
• Valeria Fagone has been appointed senior director in FTI Consulting’s healthcare team as of this week. Fagone is the former senior director of government affairs (EMEA) at medical device company Medtronic.
• Wai Hoi Tsang and Bogdan Bătrîn also joined FTI recently as senior directors within its corporate reputation team.
• Eurelectric has hired Bruce Douglas as director for business development and communications. Douglas was deputy CEO of SolarPower Europe for the past five years.
• Ogilvy Social.Lab makes three additions to its EU team: Paid social director Agustin Prats, social media strategist François Faggianelli and campaign manager Jonathan Lundberg.
• The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) selected ÖBB CEO Andreas Matthä to be acting chair of its management committee.
• Daniele D’Angelo has joined energy company Eni’s team in its EU representative office. He was previously at Engie’s European affairs department, in charge of public affairs and communication (H/t Parliament Magazine).

17 January 2020

• Bendt Bendtsen, former Danish deputy prime minister and EPP member of the European Parliament until May 2019, has joined the Brussels office of global law firm K&L Gates LLP as a senior policy adviser in its public policy and law practice.
• Grégoire Verdeaux leaves Vodafone Group to become a partner of Hering Schuppener, and lead the firm’s EU corporate affairs team and the Brussels office.
• The world’s largest cruise industry trade association, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), named Julie Green as vice president of strategic communications.
• Jill Warren and Morten Kabell have been appointed as European Cyclists’ Federation’s new co-CEOs.
• Samuel Laurinkari, head of EU affairs at eBay, will head to Helsinki in March to lead the global public policy team at Wolt, a food delivery company mainly active in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
• Shiraz Dromi, former senior adviser for EU trade policy and agriculture affairs at the Israeli mission to the EU, joined Hume Brophy’s agri-trade advisory team.
• Ioanna Charalampopoulou, a European Commission veteran, joins the public affairs team of COCIR, the European Trade Association representing the medical imaging, radiotherapy, health ICT and electromedical industries.
• Thorsten Muschal, member of the executive committee of Faurecia, officially took over as president of the European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA) as of January 1.
• Peter Kurth is the new president of the Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services (FEAD) and Valérie Plainemaison becomes secretary-general. Outgoing president Jean-Marc Boursier remains vice president, along with Cesare Spreafico.

10 January 2020

• Jean-Marc Leclerc is now the head of EU affairs at IBM’s government and regulatory affairs office in Brussels. IBM also expanded its team with two new hires: Gerrit Steinfort, who was previously digital adviser at Orgalim, and Amélie Coulet, who was a director at APCO’s Brussels office.
• Viktoria Vajnai is the newest junior partner at Dr2 Consultants.
• Ornella Cosomati has joined the PepsiCo EU public affairs team. Ornella previously worked for BCW in Brussels and for the European Crop Protection Association.
• Bruce Daisley, Twitter’s vice president for Europe, announced on Twitter that he was leaving the company after eight years to take some time off.
• Think tank GLOBSEC is opening an office in Brussels next week, which will be headed by Alexandra Martin.
• BOLDT hired Michael Kambeck as partner to set up and lead its German subsidiary.
• Noam El Mrabet left Interel to become a policy manager at Eurometaux.

• Elisa Cencig left the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) to join the Financial Conduct Authority’s international department as EU withdrawal policy adviser.
• Quentin Deschandelliers is joining the Federation of European Publishers as a legal adviser. He was very active on the copyright reform in the last mandate, as his MEP Marc Joulaud (EPP) was the file’s rapporteur in the culture committee.
• New additions to Rud Pedersen Public Affairs: Ilaria Lojodice joins as a senior consultant from Hume Brophy. Laura Vanderstraeten, from IndustriAll, joins as executive coordinator.
• Chen Lichtenstein, current president and CEO of ADAMA, will be nominated CFO of the newly formed Syngenta Group, a holding company which represents the consolidated agricultural assets of ChemChina and Sinochem.