Speaker and Panelist bios

Hanna Autere

Counsellor of Education, Finnish National Agency for Education

Hanna Autere works as a Cousellor of Education in the development of vocational education and training at the Finnish National Agency for Education. Presently her specific responsibilities lie on internationalization of Finnish vocational education and training, learning outcomes approach, ECVET and European cooperation. She is a member of the ECVET Users group. Hanna Autere coordinates Finnish VET providers’ networks working with countries outside of EU e.g. China, India, Japan, Canada, Russia and developing countries.

Alessio Baldaccini

Associate Education Officer, UNHCR

Alessio’s work centers on youth and secondary education, increasing refugee access to national education systems and promoting youth engagement. Before joining UNHCR in 2018, Alessio worked with AVSI Foundation in Burundi and Mozambique as both Head of Field Office and Education Coordinator, designing, managing and monitoring different projects ranging from early child development to transition to livelihoods, both in urban settlements and rural areas. He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from University of Bologna.

Jon-Hans Coetzer

Coordinator of the Online Learning and Education Pillar, Peacekeeping Training Programme, Division for Peace, UNITAR

Jon-Hans Coetzer joined the Peacekeeping Training Programme in February 2019 as Coordinator of the Online Learning and Education Pillar. Prior to joining UNITAR, Jon-Hans has served as the Chief Academic Officer of the EU Business School Group with campuses in Geneva, Montreux, Barcelona, and Munich. He also served as Chief Academic Officer of Glion Institute of Higher Education, as Academic Dean of IHTTI. He has over 20 years of experience as a senior academic leader in higher education.

Tobias Erbert

Programme Coordinator for Qualifications and Employment Perspectives for Refugees and Host Communities in Ethiopia Programme (QEP), GIZ

Tobias Erbert is coordinating a programme on qualifications and employment prospects in Ethiopia (QEP). The programme is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ. It seeks to expand inclusive vocational training and employment opportunities for refugees and Ethiopians in the country. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s first integrated vocational college – Nefas Silk Vocational College – is supported through the programme.

Diana Carolina Guarín Martínez

Advisor, National Instructors School, Directorate of Vocational Training

Diana has a profound believe in the transformative role that a high-quality education has in every person’s life, for that reason she has been working at the National Training Service (SENA) for the past 7 years developing national and international cooperation projects, focused on training, transfer of technology, pedagogy and culture of peace, in order to strength SENA’s training offer. She has also worked over 4 years as diplomatic officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, in particular at the Division of Cooperation – Coordination of Official Development Assistance.

Kim Holm

Head of Sales East Africa at Festo Didactic SE

Kim Holm joined Festo Didactic in 1986. Has worked with educational projects. Technical education on all levels, both formal and informal education has been created. He has worked as a lecturer at the Arcada University of Applied Science. Since 2013 focus has been on skills development through technical education in the East African countries. He initiated the first multinational WorldSkills Competition in 2016 in Dar es Salaam followed by the second edition in 2018 in Kigali.

Jenni Huopainen

Project Manager, Omnia the Joint Authority of Education in the Espoo Region

Jenni is a social psychologist and a teacher in societal and working life skills. Her latest projects in Omnia are related to phenomenon-based learning, work-based learning and the ethics of AI. Jenni is working actively with OEP to make the best of the Finnish vocational education and pedagogic methods for global learners.

Mergim Jahiu

Skills and Employability Officer, ILO

Mergim Jahiu works as a Skills and Employability Officer at ILO, focusing on skills and migration as well as on apprenticeship and work-based learning. Before his current position, he has worked as an advisor and project manager at the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training – SFIVET, active in several development cooperation projects. He has several years of experience in policy and implementation of VET in Switzerland both at canton and at federal level, as well as in partner countries.

Mervi Jansson

CEO, Omnia Education Partnerhips (OEP)

Ms. Jansson is the CEO of OEP, a Finnish company partnering with public and private sector customers seeking sustainable solutions for upskilling and reskilling, job creation and education sector professional development. Her national and international work has focused on system-level reform, innovation and capacity building. She is currently working on models for scalable skills development, including using AI and visual learningenvironments.

Tomi Järvinen

Director of International Cooperation, Strategy and Program Development, Finn Church Aid (FCA)

Tomi Järvinen, Ph.D. has more than 15 years of senior leadership experience in multicultural contexts and organizations. Tomi started his career in Rwandan refugee camps back in 1996. Ever since he has worked tirelessly to improve the quality of education and livelihoods for people in fragile contexts.

Evariste Karambizi

Director, Division for PeaceManager, Peacekeeping Training Programme Unit, UNITAR

With over 25 years of international experience in humanitarian relief and reconstruction, including 20 years within the United Nations System, Mr. Evariste Karambizi has been serving as an appointed Manager of the Peacekeeping Training Programme Unit at UNITAR since 2009. In 2016, he became the first Director of the newly created UNITAR Division for Peace.

Amanda Kelleher

International Education Director, Luminus Education

Amanda has considerable experience in human capital development in the Middle East and an excellent understanding of learning and development and of designing and implementing large-scale technical and vocational programmes in a variety of cultures. Amanda is currently on the Senior Management team at Luminus Education with a primary focus on design and development of solutions to meet both market and donor requirements.

Maren Kroeger

Tertiary Education Officer, UNHCR

Maren Kroeger works as Tertiary Education Officer at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Education Section of the Division of Resilience and Solutions based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She oversees UNHCR’s portfolio in Tertiary Education and is the Global Manager of the DAFI scholarship programme. She also represent UNHCR in the Connected Learning in Crisis Consortium. Ms. Kroeger holds a Diploma in Social Work and a Master’s degree in Gender Studies.

Regine Le Roux

Managing Director, Reputation Matters

Regine is a corporate reputation specialist. She completed her Communication Management Honours Degree Cum Laude at the University of Pretoria in 2001 and completed her MCom within a year. Regine founded Reputation Matters in 2005 specialising in reputation research. She is very proud of the team’s most recent accolades of winning SABRE Africa awards in 2018 and 2019 for research and evaluation. Regine is the author of: Reputation Matters, Building blocks to becoming the business people want to do business with.

Jens Liebe

Senior Programme Expert , UNESCO-UNEVOC

Mr. Jens Liebe is a Senior Programme Expert at UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for TVET. He leads the UNEVOC Network Secretariat, is in charge of the UNEVOC TVET Leadership Programme, leads the "Bridging Innovation and Learning in TVET" project, and acts as Regional Focal Point for Europe, CIS and North America. Beyond, he provides the Head of UNESCO-UNEVOC with strategic and management support. Prior to joining UNESCO-UNEVOC, he served as Assistant Director of the UN-Water Decade Programme on Capacity Development (UNW-DPC) and as Senior Scientist at the Center for Development Research (ZEF).

Caphas Mugabi

Senior Area Manager and TVET Specialist, Finn Church Aid (FCA)

Caphas Mugabi works as a Senior Area Manager and TVET specialist in Rwamwanja Refugee Settlement. He has extensive experience in working in a managerial position in the education sector. Caphas has a key role at the TVET institution in Rwamwanja, which is based on the Finnish Vocational Education model.

Aape Pohjavirta

Chief Evangelist and Founder, Funzi

Aape Pohjavirta is the Chief Evangelist and Founder of Funzi, a mobile learning service with a global footprint. Aape is also an active entrepreneurship coach, lecturer and speaker at conferences, in universities and in entrepreneurship programs.

Mika Pyykkö

Project Director, Impact Investing, Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra

Mika Pyykkö leads development operations in terms of impact investment. His team works also in terms of economy of well-being and social outcomes contracting connected to the Finland’s EU Presidency during Autumn 2019. Mika has worked in Finland and abroad, particularly as a champion of health and well-being promotion and preventative action. He has also been engaged in the development of collaboration between the public, private and third sectors.

Mikko Sallinen

Head of Learning Experience, Omnia Education Partnerships (OEP)

Mr. Mikko Sallinen, Master of Arts (Art Education) is an expert in practice-based and collaborative learning and has contributed to the Finnish national curriculum as well as to a number of local curriculums of educational institutions. He also works in WorldSkills, a worldwide organization promoting technical and vocational education and training through competitions, as deputy chief expert in 3D digital game art.

Nikhil Seth

United Nations Assistant Secretary-General,Executive Director, UNITAR

On 8 June 2015, Mr. Nikhil Seth was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as UN Assistant Secretary-General, Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. Before assuming the post of the UNITAR Executive Director, Nikhil Seth was the Director of the Division for Sustainable Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) at the United Nations Secretariat in New York. In this role he served as head of the Rio+20 secretariat and of the secretariat for the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States.

Svenja Vollmer

Team Leader, Youth and Women Empowerement, Peacekeeping Training Programme, Division for Peace, UNITAR

Ms. Svenja Vollmer is heading the programmatic work in the area of Youth and Women Empowerment in Fragile Contexts and is leading capacity building initiatives in fields such as Youth Entrepreneurship for Peace, Female Leadership for Sustainable Peace, Addressing Conflict Related Sexual Violence as well as Prevention of the Use of Children as Soldiers.

Ville Wacklin

Senior Program Manager, Finn Church Aid (FCA)

Ville Wacklin works as a Senior Program Manager at Finn Church Aid. For the past five years, he has been working in fragile context in Africa, Middle East and Asia developing and managing education and livelihood programs on entrepreneurship, tertiary education and creative industries.

Charley Wright

Connected Learning Specialist, UNHCR

Charley Wright's work focuses on leveraging digital technologies for improving access to quality higher education for refugees and the forcibly displaced. He has previously worked with the Aga Khan Development Network in Central Asia and served as head of a TVET college in Saudi Arabia, creating pathways to livelihoods for rural youth in the power generation, distribution, and supply industry. He has 11 years of experience in international education at all levels, across Europe, Asia, and the MENA region. Charley holds an Ed.M. in International Education Policy from Harvard University.

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