Speakers and moderators
Mariana Kotzeva
Mariana Kotzeva was appointed Director General of Eurostat by the European Commission on 1 March 2018. She is the first woman at the helm of Eurostat.
Ms Kotzeva joined Eurostat as an Adviser Hors Classe to the Director General in 2012. Two years later, in 2014, she was appointed Deputy Director-General.
Prior to joining the European Commission, Ms Kotzeva was the Head of Bulgaria’s National Statistical Institute. She also held a number of high-level consulting posts in the Bulgarian and foreign administrations, and led international projects for the United Nations and the World Bank.
Ms Kotzeva has a Master's degree in economics and a PhD in statistics and econometrics. She also has an Executive Education training at Harvard Kennedy School. Ms Kotzeva is an Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Dan Bogdanov
Dr Dan Bogdanov met his first significant security and privacy challenges while working on the data collection systems of the Estonian Genome Centre. This inspired him to start researching solutions for data sharing problems. He is the inventor of Sharemind, a secure multi-party computation system for collecting, sharing, and processing private data. Sharemind is a new kind of computer that can perform analytics and AI workloads without seeing the individual values. This achieves beyond-the-state-of-the-art data protection by design, and it is one of the technologies under consideration in Eurostat’s JOCONDE project.
Today, Dr Bogdanov is the Chief Scientific Officer at Cybernetica, the company that has built the secure data exchange and digital identity platforms for governments in Estonia, Malaysia, Ukraine, and Benin, among others. He is also the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Cyber Security at the Estonian Academy of Sciences.
Angelique Berg
Angelique Berg has been Director General of Statistics Netherlands (CBS) since 1 September 2020. One of her main tasks is to set out an approach that delivers on the 2024–2028 multi-annual programme (MAP). With this programme, the focus of statistical production is placed on societal challenges such as climate change, sustainability, the housing challenge, and poverty.
In addition, CBS aims to increase access to data, both open data and microdata. This is and will remain the focus of their policy: "The quality of our work must continue to meet the same high standards. I see societal relevance as essential to my work. At CBS, we work tirelessly to provide statistics that reflect the major challenges facing society. Now more than ever, providing facts that underpin public debate is of major importance."
Previously, Ms Berg held the positions of DG of Public Health at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and DG of Fiscal Affairs at the Ministry of Finance. She graduated in Public Administration from Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Georges-Simon Ulrich
Prof. Dr Georges-Simon Ulrich was appointed Director General of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on the 1st of October 2013. He studied Business Administration in Switzerland, the USA, and Australia, where he obtained his PhD at the University of Southern Queensland with a thesis on Stakeholder management and communication. He is also Professor in strategic management and research methods at the University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich.
Between 1992 and 2010, he worked as an entrepreneur, holding various management positions in market, social, and opinion research. From May 2011 to September 2013, he was Director of the LUSTAT statistical office in Lucerne. Georges-Simon Ulrich represents Switzerland on behalf of the FSO's areas of responsibility (official statistics, data stewardship and data science) in various national and international committees at Eurostat, OECD, and EFTA. Since 2022 he has been a member of the UN Statistical Commission's Bureau and since 2024 its Chair.
Jörg Decker
After finishing his studies in Social Sciences at the University of Osnabrück in 1999, Mr Decker kicked off his career at the Federal Statistical Office in the Unit for Higher Education Statistics. Shortly after, he transferred to the domain of business statistics for almost 20 years, where he oversaw statistics of agreed earnings and, eventually, energy statistics. In 2019, he moved to the International Relations Unit, where he was involved in the German Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2020. Since February 2022, he is the Head of Division for Planning and Coordination, International Relations, Political and Internal Communication.
Dominik Rozkrut
Dr Dominik Rozkrut is the President of Statistics Poland, the President of the International Association for Official Statistics, and a Vice-President of the Polish Statistical Association. He is a member of the European Statistical System Committee, OECD’s Committee on Statistics and Statistics Policy, and UNECE Conference of European Statisticians (CES), where he holds a Conference Bureau Chair function. He is the Co-Chair of the UNECE High-Level Group on Modernization of Official Statistics. At the UN level, he serves as a Co-Chair of the UN Working Group on Data Stewardship. Dr Rozkrut is also engaged in the UN Committee of Experts on Big Data and Data Science for Official Statistics, UN Network of Economic Statisticians, and Friends of the Chair Group on Social and Demographic Statistics. In his personal capacity, he served as a member of the European Commission Business-to-Government (B2G) Data Sharing Expert Group (2019–2020), and a European Commission Expert Group on Facilitating the Use of New Data Sources for Official Statistics (2021–2022). Starting in 2021, he became a member of the ISI Committee on Agricultural Statistics (ISI-CAS).
Dr Rozkrut’s career began and continues at the Department of Statistics and Econometrics at the University of Szczecin. He completed an internship at the University of Massachusetts, Lappeenranta University of Technology, and UNU-MERIT.
Anil Arora
Anil Arora, who was born in India, grew up in Alberta, and currently lives in Ottawa, has dedicated his professional career to partnering with the business sector, NGOs, academia, and all three levels of government, building a culture of innovation, successfully delivering complex and transformational digital solutions, strengthened consumer and citizen trust, and increased organisational relevance and impact.
Mr Arora was appointed as the Chief Statistician of Canada in September 2016, overseeing the country’s preeminent data agency, in charge of modernising its digital governance, technical and data infrastructure.
He has helped shape the data and digital landscape domestically and globally, authored several papers, is a regular keynote speaker and lecturer, and a sought-after thought leader.
Arora has led large and complex organisations with multi-billion-dollar budgets and tens of thousands of employees and has earned numerous accolades. He mentors and sponsors individuals who can fully realise their potential professionally and personally. He holds a BSC (Petroleum Geology) from the University of Alberta (1985), a Graduate Certificate in Public Sector Leadership and Governance from the University of Ottawa (2009), is a Graduate of the Advanced Leadership Program at the Canada School of Public Service, with further studies in Computing Science and Management.
Geir Axelsen
Geir Axelsen has been Director General of Statistics Norway since 2018. He came from the positions of Deputy Director General and Director of Finance and Governance at the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). He has previously held the role of vice director in two different units in the Norwegian energy company Statoil (now Equinor) and served as Secretary of State (Deputy Minister) at the Norwegian Ministry of Finance and Assistant Director General in the Ministry’s budget department.
Mr Axelsen holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Oslo and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Tobias Thomas
Univ.-Prof. Dr Tobias Thomas is Director General of the Austrian Federal Statistical Office, Vice Chairman of the Austrian Council of Economic Advisors, and Professor of Economics at the Graz Schumpeter Centre (GSC) of University of Graz. He is a member of the UNCES Task Force on the Changing Role of National Statistical Offices in Data Ecosystems. From 2021 to 2023, he was also elected by the ESS member states to the Partnership Group (ESS-PG). He served as scientific expert at the Austrian Pension Commission (2019–2023), and member of the Commission Future of Statistics (KomZS, 2022–2024) for the strategic planning of the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis)
After studying economics at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn and Technische Universität Berlin, Thomas earned his doctorate summa cum laude from the Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, where he later also completed his habilitation. Thomas was visiting scholar at, among others, Columbia University in New York (USA) at the invitation of Nobel Laureate in Economics Joseph E. Stiglitz and Anya Schiffrin as well as at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance in Munich at the invitation of Kai A. Konrad.
Apolonija Oblak Flander
Ms Apolonija Oblak Flander has a master’s degree in social and political geography. During her more than 20-year career at the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, she has made significant contributions to the work and progress in various statistical fields, particularly in demographic statistics and population censuses, and in recent years in transport and tourism statistics.
She has been actively involved in cooperation within the European Statistical System and internationally. Ms Oblak Flander was a member of various Eurostat working groups, the Group of Directors of Sectoral and Environmental Statistics as well as of the ITF Statistics Group and of the UNECE Working Party on Transport Statistics. In 2024, she was designated as Chair of the OECD Working Party on Tourism Statistics for the second consecutive year and elected as member of the Bureau of the UN Statistical Commission at its 55th session.
Jennifer Banim
Jennifer Banim has been a member of the CSO’s Management Board since 2013. Before her appointment as Director General of the CSO in May 2024, she was the Assistant Director General responsible for Economic Statistics. Having joined the CSO as a Statistician in October 1991, Ms Banim has worked in several areas including Balance of Payments and Financial Statistics, Statistical Methodology, and Technology. She is also currently co-chair of the Executive Board of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) High Level Group on the Modernisation of Statistics.
Ms Banim studied at Dublin City University, graduating in 1989 with a BSc in Applied Mathematical Sciences and recently completed a Diploma in Strategy Development and Innovation at University College Dublin’s Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. She is a Designated Public Official under the Regulation of Lobbying Act 2015: see www.lobbying.ie
Markus Sovala
Dr Markus Sovala is Director General of Statistics Finland since 1 March 2021. His 5-year term extends until 2026. Previously he has held several senior civil servant positions in various departments of the Ministry of Finance and other ministries. He has also acted as a Prime Minister’s Economic Policy Advisor and Finland’s representative in the World Bank Group in Washington DC. Dr Sovala has led several Government ICT projects at a strategic level. In 2016–2019, he led a project aiming at establishing a semi-autonomous region around the City of Helsinki.
Dr Sovala is Doctor in Economics (University of Helsinki), and his expertise covers various fields and levels of government, including statistics, ICT, Data and Information Policy, budgeting, economic policy and forecasting, development, international relations, monetary union, industrial and structural policies, entrepreneurship, health, social services, public administration reforms, social security, labour market, and incentives.
Urmet Lee
Mr Lee has served as Director General of Statistics Estonia since August 2021. He governs Estonian data stewardship, is a keynote speaker in international data stewardship sessions, and has led the UNECE Task Force on Data Stewardship in 2021–2023 and the succeeding Task Force on the New Role of NSOs in Data Ecosystems from 2024.
He earned his Master of Public Administration from Hertie School of Governance in Berlin in 2013, and Bachelor of Arts on public administration from Tartu University in 1997.
Mr Lee has a long experience in auditing public sector of Estonia. He worked for 4 years as the Director of the National Audit Office of Estonia, with 10 years of previous experience as the advisor to the Auditor General and audit manager, conducted performance audits on the fields of public finance and economic policy. Since February 2023, he belongs to the European Statistics System’s Partnership Group. He is a member of the International Criminal Court Committee on Budget and Finance, having acted as vice-chair and rapporteur. Mr Lee is also a member of the academic advisory boards of public administration and technology governance in TalTech in Estonia. Until 2019, he was also the member of Estonian Statistical Council.
