Social Enterprise: Make It Happen! A renewed commitment Keynote speakers Welcoming remarks Martin SIECKER, President of the Section for the Single Market, Production and Consumption (INT) at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Martin Siecker has been elected president of the INT section in 2013. In 2002 he joined the European Economic and Social Committee, since then he has been a member of the Consultative Commission for Industrial Change, the INT section, the NAT section (also responsible for sustainable development) and he has been a member of the Sustainable Development Observatory from the start in 2004 to 2010 when he moved to the Internal Market Observatory. Martin Siecker started his professional career in the early seventies as a journalist for "de Volkskrant", a nationwide progressive newspaper in the Netherlands. In 1981 he joined the union for industrial workers as editor of the members' magazine. In the years that followed he experimented with audio-visual techniques to communicate with members and after the merger with three other unions to the current union for multiple industrial and services branches in 1998 he became a national officer for the agricultural sector, responsible for negotiations on collective labour agreements in several branches of the sector. Opening session Introduction: State of play and EU Institutions' commitment Ariane RODERT, Vice-President of Various Interests' Group, EESC Ariane Rodert is the Vice-President of Group III of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Board Member of the EESC INT-section and the EESC representative in the European Commission expert group on social enterprise (GECES). As a Swedish member of the EESC she represents Forum for Voluntary Social Work and Famna, which gathers civil society organisations in the social sector as well as not-forprofit social and health care providers. Ariane s key area of expertise in the EESC and at European level is social
enterprise, social economy and social innovation for which she has drafted several opinions. She is currently the Project Coordinator for the EESC follow-up initiative "Social Entrepreneurs Make It Happen", which is the EESC s continuation of the Strasbourg Event "Social Entrepreneurs Have Your Say!" She holds a Master of Science degree in Business and Economics from the University of Stockholm. Jens NILSSON, Member of the European Parliament, Social Economy Intergroup. Jens Bertil Georg Nilsson (born 25 September 1948) is a Swedish politician. He was elected a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 2009 election, taking up his seat on 1 December 2011 on an additional seat to Sweden after the Treaty of Lisbon had entered into force. Jens Nilsson was born in Västervik and raised in Gävle. He is trained as a youth pedagog and was Chairman of the Council of Östersund Municipality 1997-2009. He was elected chairman of the Jämtland party district of the Social Democratic Party in 2007. Jens Nilsson is co-president of the Social Economy Intergroup. He was one of the co-founders and the first president of REVES (European Network of Cities and Regions for the Social Economy). He was elected as Mayor of the City of Östersund 1997 2009. He was a member of CoR between 1999 and 2010. Nadine MULLER, Responsible for Social and Solidarity Economy, Ministry of Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy in Luxemburg. Nadine joined the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social and solidarity economy in November 2014. Nadine has previously worked in the private sector in France and in Italy. Since she has joined the Ministry she has finalised the draft of the Luxemburgish law for social enterprises, she is preparing a project for an incubator for social enterprises and she also works on the Luxemburgish Presidency program for social economy.
Michel CATINAT, European Commission - DG GROW Michel Catinat is a civil servant with the Commission of the European Union, having joined in 1986. Since the 1 st of June 2015, Michel Catinat is Head of the Unit F2, clusters, social economy and entrepreneurship, at DG GROW. Michel Catinat has been Head of Unit "Key Enabling Technologies and Digital Economy", Directorate General for Growth. Amongst other duties, he has been in charge of the European policy on "Digital transformation of industries and enterprises" and on "Key Enabling Technologies". Previously, Mr Catinat was Head of Unit "Sustainable development, climate change and competitiveness" and has also been Head of Unit responsible for the Information Society and the Information Technologies. He has been involved in the definition and implementation of measures to support the emergence of the Information Society in Europe. He carried out the economic analysis of the European Single Market Policy. Before joining the Commission, Mr Catinat held a number of posts as economist in the French administration services in the Economic Planning Office (Prime Minister) and in the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs).
Panel 1 - Financing social enterprise for sustainability and scaling-up James HOPEGOOD, Policy Analyst, Asset Management Unit, European Commission - DG FISMA James is a policy analyst in the asset management unit of DG Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union at the European Commission. He is the policy lead in the team responsible for the European Social Entrepreneurship Fund Regulation and he represented the Commission on the impact measurement working group of the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce. He is a seconded national expert from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority where he works in the policy area of the Strategy and Competition Division. Prior to working in regulation James was a journalist writing on financial issues for a number of UK newspapers. Felix OLDENBURG, Director Europe, Ashoka Felix Oldenburg serves as Europe Co-Leader and Director Germany for Ashoka, the world's first and foremost association of leading social entrepreneurs, with 2,700 Ashoka Fellows in 70 countries. An entrepreneur and expert at the interfaces of the social, business and political sectors, Felix has launched a number of national and international programs at Ashoka that accelerate the spread and impact of social innovations. Before joining Ashoka, Felix started an online business and worked for management consulting firm McKinsey&Company in London. As director at a political consultancy, he pioneered citizen consultations for governments and foundations, including the European Citizens' Consultations in 27 countries. He speaks and publishes on social entrepreneurship, citizen engagement, and corporate social responsibility. Felix studied Philosophy at the universities of Bonn, Tübingen and Oxford and acquired an Executive Master in Policy Management in Washington DC (Georgetown).
Elinor DE PRET, European Venture Philanthropy Association Elinor joined EVPA in March 2014 as Public Affairs Manager. Elinor has almost 10 years of public affairs experience, including her work for the European Commission (in China) and for an EU public affairs consultancy in Brussels (focusing on telecom, ICT and competition). Her experience is coupled with a strong interest and an extensive network in the social investment space. Elinor is involved in SI2 Fund, a Belgian impact fund providing growth capital to European for-profit social enterprises, as well as in the first Belgian social impact bond (SIB) and she s a member of the Belgian Ashoka Support Network (ASN) since 2010. She holds a Master degree in Business Engineering, a Master of Arts in European Economics from the College of Europe, attended the Oxford Impact Investing Executive Programme and completed the Certificate in Management of Social Enterprises at the ULg. Alain COHEUR, Social Economy Europe Alain Coheur studied at the Faculty of Medicine, at Public Health School (specialization in hospital management) and at the Faculty of Social and Economic Science. He started his career at the University Hospital of Liege. In 1991, he joined the Belgian National Union of Socialist Mutual Health Funds (research department). He took part in the management of the Belgian healthcare system by being a member of the Insurance Committee of the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance and in the National Council for hospitals of the Ministry of Public Health. Since 1997, he coordinates different cross border healthcare projects between Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany and Luxemburg financed by the European funds, Interreg. Between 1998 and 2002, he was a projects manager at the International Association of Mutual Health Funds (AIM), still now a member of the Board of Directors. In 2002, he came back to the Belgian National Union of Socialist Mutual Health Funds, Solidaris, as Director for European and International Affairs. Since 2004, he is a Member of the bureau of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) and vicechairman of the Technical Commission on Mutual Benefit Societies. In 2007, he was elected as President of the Belgian Non-Governmental Organisation "Solsoc" and in 2008, elected as President of the European platform "Social Economy Europe". In 2013, he was appointed by the European Commission as a member of the consultative multi-stakeholder group on social business
(GECES) and recently renewed. Since, 2014, he is a member of the board of Director at the Belgian Agency for Development. Developing an ecosystem for mutual health organisations During the main part of his career, Alain Coheur has been in charge of various positions in the development of social economy organizations and mainly mutual benefit society. He strongly believes in mutual health organisations as a model of governance for the economy and for development countries. In a more general perspective and beyond its quantitative importance, in recent decades the social economy has not only asserted its ability to make an effective contribution in solving the new social problems, it has also strengthened its position as a necessary institution for stable and sustainable economic growth, matching services to needs, increasing the value of economic activities serving social needs, fairer income and wealth distribution, correcting labour market imbalances and, in short, deepening and strengthening economic democracy when it s possible. Panel II - Job and business creation / unleashing the potential of the sector Marie ZVOLSKÁ, member of the EESC An EESC member since 2004, Marie Zvolská belongs to the Employers Group and is a representative of the Union of Czech Production Cooperatives and the Confederation of Employers' and Entrepreneurs Associations of the Czech Republic. She is a legal advisor and an expert in labour law, social affairs, social economy and cooperative legislation. She is a member of the SOC (Employment, Social affairs and Citizenship) section, and the ECO (Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion) section. A member of the Social Economy category, she has worked on the opinions dealing with the social economy and cooperatives (Diverse forms of enterprise, Cooperatives and restructuring) and is a member of the Social entrepreneurship project group.
Valentina CAIMI, Policy & Advocacy Adviser, SOCIAL PLATFORM Valentina works with the Director for the preparation and follow-up of Steering Group meetings. She is responsible for the policy and advocacy work in different policy areas including social economy. She represents Social Platform in the GECES group. Valentina previously worked for thirteen years on EU social policies and project management in NGOs, social economy organisations, local authorities and vocational training institutions. Heather ROY, Social Services Europe As well as being a Board member of Social Services Europe Heather is Secretary General of Eurodiaconia (www.eurodiaconia.org) which brings together churches and Christian organisations concerned with social services and social justice across Europe. With over 30 000 service providers in 32 European countries Eurodiaconia is the largest network of its kind. The network is particularly concerned with poverty, inequality, the provision of social and health care services and the identity of church based/christian motivated social action and services. Eurodiaconia is based in Brussels Belgium. Professionally Heather has worked with homeless young people in Glasgow, Scotland and then with an international youth organisation focused on the engagement, participation and education of girls and young women before joining Eurodiaconia in 2008. She has extensive experience of the development of civil society in Europe, including Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and has worked on partnerships with other parts of the world including the Arab world. Until May 2015 Heather was President of Social Platform, the Europe wide network of Social NGO s. She is currently a board member of Social Services Europe and the International Society for Research in Diaconia and Christian Social Practice and is on the Advisory Board of several European level projects on social and economic policies.
Risto RAIVIO, European Commission - DG EMPL Risto Raivio works as senior expert in European Commission's Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. He is part of a team focussing on social entrepreneurship. Previously Mr Raivio worked in the European Commission's DG Education and Culture, where he was successively in charge of the Europe for Citizens programme, vocational education and training policy and DG's cooperation with the OECD. He has also worked for the Committee of the Regions, an EU body representing local and regional authorities. During the fall semester 2011 Mr Raivio was a visiting EU fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and conducted a study on community colleges' role in supporting local skills development. Mr Raivio holds a PhD in social sciences from the University of Tampere in Finland. He has been an elected local councillor in his home town, Pirkkala (FI).