Speakers 6.4.2022

Rach Colling is Head of Communications at the European Forest Institute. Rach joined EFI in 2011, and has been responsible for the development of EFI’s policy support communications, as well as managing and developing digital communications tools. She has over 20 years’ experience in science communication, and prior to joining EFI ran a successful communications business working with UK government agencies and universities. Before that, Rach worked for BBC News Online as a journalist, as well as in communications/marketing for various UK universities. She has a masters’ degree in international relations from Cambridge University and trained as a journalist in the UK. 

Tomáš Krejzar studied forestry at the Mendel University in Brno, Czechia (graduated in 1995) and obtained Ph.D. in tree physiology at the same university in 2001. Since 1999, he has been working at the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic in the Forestry Section. He is the Director of the Department of Forest Policy and Economics. Forest policy, forest-related international affairs, staid aid in forestry, forest-related research and communication belong to principal agendas he has been dealing with. He has been active in the European Network Integrate, which is focused on the integration of biodiversity conservation into sustainable forest management, since its establishment in 2017 and was its second chairman. He was a member of the Bureau of the UN Forum on Forests since May 2016 to May 2018. Now he is involved in the preparation of the Czech EU Presidency in the second half of 2022 in the field of forests and forest management.

Jørgen Bo Larsen is professor emeritus (Forest Ecology and Silviculture) at University of Copenhagen. Former, he was professor (Forest protection) at Göttingen University, Germany.

His research covers silviculture, genetics and forest tree breeding, gene conservation and gene ecology, forest ecology, eco-physiology, provenance research and forest protection with the objective of understanding processes and functions of forest ecosystems to facilitate the development of sustainable forest management approaches.  He has been instrumental in developing and applying close-to-nature forest management in Denmark.

He has served on the Board of several international forest research organizations including European Forest Institute (EFI, Board chair), International Forestry Research Center (CIFOR) and World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF).

Claudia Olazábal is holder of a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Radiochemistry from the University of Strasbourg and a Master’s degree in Science from the University of Texas at Austin. She worked for three years in the Sustainable Resources - Consumption and Waste Unit, then became Head of the Soil Sector dealing with the development of Community policy on soil protection. She was for 4 years the Deputy Head of the Biodiversity Unit and since 2013 she is Head of the Land Use & Management Unit. All these positions are held in the Directorate General for the Environment of the European Commission.

Janez Potočnik is the current ThinkForest president. He is also Co-Chair of the International Resource Panel and Partner at SYSTEMIQ. He is an economist and former politician from Slovenia. He worked in the Government of the Republic of Slovenia as the Head of Negotiating Team for Accession of the Republic of Slovenia to the European Union and then as Minister without portfolio responsible for European Affairs. Mr. Potočnik was a Member of the European Commission from 2004 to 2014, initially responsible for the Science and Research and later responsible for the Environment. He was appointed as a Co-Chair of the IRP hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2014. In 2013, he received the United Nations Champions of the Earth Award.

Helga Pülzl is Assistant Director for Policy Support of the European Forest Institute and responsible for the Policy Support Facility and its Trust Fund. Her main research interests are in European and international forest governance and policy change, bioeconomy perceptions and sustainability indicators development. She coordinates the IUFRO Working Party 9.05.01 on bioeconomy policy and holds a Phd and master’s degree in political science from the University of Vienna.

Eckart Senitza studied forestry at the Vienna University for life sciences and graduated win an PhD in silviculture in 1987. - After working at the Austrians Land Owners Association he returned to his home near Feldkirchen (Carinthia) in 1991. He started running a consulting bureau for forestry and simultaneously took over the family estate with 850 ha of forests, farmland, hunting & fishing, timber trade & transports, hydroelectric etc. He is the president of Pro Silva Austria since 2012 and continues with a strong team and more than 500 member (2022). Since 2014 he was vice president of “Pro Silva” and took over the presidency in 2017. Pro Silva is a European organisation which promotes close to nature forestry and continuous cover forest systems. 

Margarida Tomé, Forest Engineer, is Professor at Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, where she teaches Forest Inventory, Forest Modelling and Forest Management. She coordinates the Forest Resources Inventory and Modelling Group (ForChange), one of the research groups of CEF (Forest Research Centre). The group has a strong focus on the transfer of knowledge to end-users by developing technological applications that might integrate and make useful the research results. Planted forests, with exotic or native tree species, have been an important research topic of the group. Conversioersidade de Lisboa, where she teaches Forest n to complex forests, ecosystem services, non-wood forest products and creation of resilient landscapes are among the more recent research interests. Margarida has been a close partner with EFI, as well as with IUFRO where she was Division IV coordinator for the period 2006-2014 and co-chair of the IUFRO Task Forces “Sustainable Planted Forests for a Greener Future” (2015-2019) and “Resilient Planted Forests Serving Society & Bioeconomy” (2019-present).