Jury & Selection Committee

Sadi Petrela has been Executive Director of the Gjirokastra Foundation for the past 15 years, an organisation which has undertaken over 20 years of uninterrupted activity in culture conservation and development in the UNESCO site Gjirokastra in Albania. Previous to this role, Sadi Petrela has gained extensive experience in journalism, media ethics and history teaching.
Year on year, the Gjirokastra Foundation developed an intense and multifaceted activity in the conservation and development of the vast heritage in Gjirokastra (both town and surrounding area) and, in some cases, elsewhere in both Albania and neighbouring countries.
They have developed more than 50 projects, both large and small, covering almost all different areas of cultural heritage in Albania. Their fundraising and various projects with new innovative approaches have earned the Foundation a strong reputation at both national and regional levels.
The Foundation’s projects include, among others: the restoration and revitalization of traditional buildings; the preservation and development of traditional arts and crafts; creating a new historic museum of Gjirokastra and opening up a tunnel from Communist times as a tourist attraction; the development of traditional cuisine. The Gjirokastra Foundation uses a participatory approach and community involvement in culture heritage management, connecting the city with similar historic centres. Their activities are considered groundbreaking and example creating for Albania and the wider area, especially considering the difficult political, economic and social environment in which they are undertaken. Gjirokastra Foundation is a winner of European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Award in the category of Dedicated Service to Heritage for the year 2021.

Pedro Ponce de Leon is owner and founder of the “Pedro Ponce de León, Architects”, independent office since 1980, with a deep specialisation in cultural and architectural heritage activities; large experience in the intervention on heritage buildings and monuments, from the feasibility study or preliminary analysis to the study of causes of decay, structure design, construction and restoration techniques and materials. Executive Project Design and also, in close collaboration with multidisciplinary teams, in management works.

Providing technical assistance as well as control and monitoring of criteria, building procedures, planning and economic audit. With more than 50 design and executive projects developed in different countries (Spain, Cuba, Albania, Greece, Mali, Western Balkan countries, etc.

Vice-President of Europa Nostra since 2018. Polish Art Historian and Economist, Professor of Humanities, a member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the founder of the International Cultural Centre in Kraków, and was its director since its inception in 1991 until 2018. He is the head of the Department of Economic and Social History and the UNESCO Chair for Heritage and Urban Studies at the Kraków University of Economics.

He specialises in urban studies, social and art history, as well as the theory and protection of cultural heritage. Between 2016 and 2017 he was the President of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

He is a member of many organisations and associations including The Society of Friends of Kraków History and Heritage (operator of the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków), of which he is the current president. He is the author of over 500 academic works, including a number of books published in many languages.

Lesia Voroniuk – Ukrainian cultural curator, Ph.D. in political science, head of the NGO World Vyshyvanka Day. As the main curator or partner has implemented more than 70 projects in Ukraine and abroad. Among the largest – documentaries “Heritage of the Nation”, “Weaving way” “The nightingale sings”, arranging books and art albums, organizing exhibitions, workshops, fashion shows, diplomatic receptions, large-scale information and educational campaigns, festivals, and also reconstruction projects and photo projects. Winner European Heritage Awards/Europa Nostra Awards (winner in the category “Citizens Engagement & Awareness-raising” and the Public Choice Award).

Agni Petridou studied at the University of Florence receiving a masters degree in architecture. After that she studied urban conservation at the international center ICCROM in Rome and received a specialization diploma in restoration of monuments and sites from the school of architecture of the University of Rome.

She continued her studies at the University in Bristol UK from which she received a master’s degree in Town Planning. For 38 years she has worked for the Μunicipality of Nicosia and she has been the leader of the Nicosia Μaster Plan. The NMP bi-communal team, supported by international institutions was working for the preservation of the cultural heritage of the divided city of Nicosia.

Later, having the position of the director of the technical services of Nicosia municipality, she acquired a remarkable experience in urban rehabilitation and the management of large scale conservation projects. Four of these projects carried out by our team were awarded by Europa Nostra and by The Aga Khan Award for Architecture. During the last six years, she was coordinating the Zaha Hadid project for Eleftheria Square, a major urban design project in the moat of the Venetian walls.

Ece is an MA candidate in Cultural Anthropology at Uppsala University with a strong passion for cultural heritage, traditional arts and human rights. With a background in International Relations and Cultural Studies, she aims to work with policies protecting tangible and intangible cultural heritage and ensure their intergenerational transmission. Her other interests include the curation process of the World Heritage List, ethnographic films and heritage tourism.

Petr graduated from the Pharmaceutical Department of the Charles University followed by a doctoral degree in pharmacology (1985). In 1989, he started developing business for ICI Pharmaceuticals in Czechoslovakia and moved to the UK for ICI/Zeneca in 1992, where he worked in various positions for the UK as well as for a number of European and Asian markets. In 1998 he became the Managing Director for Zeneca in Finland. Consequently he acted as the Managing Director for AstraZeneca, Novartis and Baxter in CZ/Slovakia. When completing the restitution process of inherited estate at the turn of the century, he gradually moved to its management. He joined the Czech Association of Castle and Manor Houses

Owners (AMHZ), was elected to the Board and consequently as Vice-President in 2013. He is currently serving his fourth term as Vice-President. Petr is actively representing AMHZ at the European Historic Houses Association (EHHA) meetings, as well as at other national Association meetings e.g. Austria, UK, NextGen. He was also presenting at the international cultural heritage conference in Dublin in June 2017. In 2018 he was elected to Europa Nostra’s Council. He initiated and consequently completed establishment of Europa Nostra’s Representation in Czech Republic in 2019 of which he is the Head.

Alexandra Stoica is the deputy director of restoration at the National Heritage Institute (NHI) and is actively involved in heritage and adaptive reuse projects concerning Romania’s protected sites and historic structures.
Her previous experience in nongovernmental and startup heritage projects includes Monumente Uitate (Forgotten Monuments) for the inventory of castles and manor houses (2010-12), Adopt a House in Roşia Montană at coordinating working sites and project design (2010-15), and the Calup urban regeneration project repurposing vacant spaces in Bucharest (2015-18). She earned her architectural education in Bucharest (2010) and specialized in preservation in Rome, Italy (2013).
During the pandemic, she established her architectural practice and continues to assist private projects that preserve heritage landmarks in her hometown of Brașov. She has been a part of the NHI team since 2021, being responsible for implementing Romania’s National Program of Restoration for Historical Monuments and directing NHI activities on two UNESCO site restoration projects in development until 2024.
She has served on various commissions and working groups within the Ministry of Culture since 2016, reviewing projects for NHI heritage stamp funding beginning in 2020 and assisting with UNESCO listing processes for Rosia Montană (2016-17, 2022-23) and Brâncuși works (2022-23). Her most recent research focuses on energy-efficiency tools for historical structures in Romania and how to associate quality principles with interventions on contemporary uses of heritage properties.

University professor Oliver Reisner, born 1964 in Hannover, Germany. Studied Eastern European, Middle and Modern History and Slavic Studies in Göttingen. Doctorate in Eastern European History for Education in Georgia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Research associate at the Humboldt University Central Asia Seminar as coordinator of the post-graduate program “Central Asia-Caucasus” (2000-2003). Research stays in Tbilisi, Georgia. Head of Human Rights Program of World Vision Georgia (2003-2005) and Project Manager at the Delegation of the European Union in Georgia (2005-2015) in charge of education, research and culture. Since 2015 Professor of European and Caucasian Studies, since October 2016 Jean Monnet Professor at the University of Ilia University. Publications on the history and presence of Georgia and the Caucasus among others on interethnic relationships, social and cultural history such as on remembering and forgetting or how to deal with the Soviet past in Georgia, the forms and consequences of Europeanization in the Caucasus, and the history of Caucasian research between science and politics. Since 2015 he is the president of the non-governmental “Association for the preservation of German cultural heritage in the Caucasus” implementing several projects with German and Georgian authorities to preserve material cultural heritage.

After law school and the Ecole du Louvre, Pâquerette joined the French Heritage Foundation, managing a tax incentive program for private heritage restoration. She expanded the Foundation in the South East,
focusing on financial development. With experience in local governments and freelance fundraising, she joined Acta Vista in 2014, overseeing partnerships, communications, and development, while implementing educational and cultural initiatives. In September 2021, Group SOS appointed her Executive Director of Acta Vista, BAO Formation, and La Citadelle de Marseille: three entities operating in Fort D’entrecasteaux.
Pâquerette has a strong background in managing educational, training and back to work programmes related to heritage restoration industry, especially for people with limited access to training opportunities and labour market. In the latter years, she has also impulsed discovery programmes for young people to introduce them to ancient masonry and craftmanship related to heritage restoration.
Recently, she initiated European and Mediterranean projects to carry out this work at a larger scale and start to cooperate with other international actors in this field.

Brixhita Deda is an architect and heritage consultant. She studied Sustainable Heritage at The Bartlett, UCL’s Faculty of the Built Environment. In 2020, she joined Ecocietystudies to research the post-conflict collective memory in Kosovo and address the reuse of the buildings through a participatory process. Brixhita encourages active citizenship to advocate for heritage preservation.

Emine Nurcan Yalman is an archaeologist with 30 years of professional and academic experience in prehistoric archaeology and heritage studies. Her heritage work to date has focused on researching the diversity of community understandings and perceptions of various forms of tangible and intangible heritage in different countries (Turkey, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, UAE). She also has a rich portfolio of archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork projects. These include excavations of prehistoric sites and the ethnoarchaeological research of vernacular settlements. She is a longstanding member of the European Association of Archaeologists (joined in 2004; executive board member 2013-2016; member of the committee for the European Archaeological Heritage Prize 2019-present).

Angelos Kottas is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Architecture of Thessaloniki while his research focuses on Mediterranean cities and heritage management. He has worked at important European institutions and got involved in various cultural projects linked with youth programmes, public space, urban identity, memory, and museums.

Dr. Hakan Shearer Demir is an expert in the field of human rights and democratization, with a specific focus on sustainable development, displacement, local governance and cultural heritage. Dr. Shearer Demir has worked with non-governmental organizations as well as inter-governmental organizations, including the Council of Europe, the European Union, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Labor Organization. He has MA in international and intercultural management from SIT Graduate Institute and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Strasbourg, where he is also an adjunct faculty member. His recent work has focused on local development initiatives, heritage inclusion, refugees and migration, integration and governance with particular attention to the co-construction of communities following displacement.

Marius Müller studied German and Spanish Law, Art History and Modern and Contemporary History (2020 Grado en Derecho; 2018 First State Exam in Law; 2016 B.A.). He completed a PhD at Bonn University with a dissertation on the interdisciplinary exploration of the interactions of law with the public sphere regarding the concepts of artistic significance. Having served as Founding President of ESACH (European Students’ Association for Cultural Heritage) he became a member of the “Heritage Communication” working group of the DNK and of ICOMOS Germany. Since August 2021 he has been working as Judicial Service Trainee i.a. on postings with the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin and the European Commission in Brussels on issues of cultural policy.

While practicing architecture, Grace Emely’s passion for heritage grew stronger and became part of her since. She accomplished her master’s in Urban Management and Development at Erasmus University Rotterdam, with a thesis focused on World Heritage Sites’ impact on social and economic development. She is a freelancer and volunteer engaged in the numerous activities of the heritage industry.

Flora Baquelaine has been coordinator of the Culture and Tourism Commissions in the European Association for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) Euroregió Pirineus-Mediterrània for 10 months in 2023.
She is currently team member of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya’s research project “Franco’s regionalisme from Catalonia: centripetal practices and discourses” (PID2021-125227NB-I00), an activity that she combines with the task of collaborating lecturer in the Master’s Degree in Cultural Management at the UOC-UdG.

She has been working as an architect 40 years, running her own studio since 1997 and been teaching at different universities since 1999 with a professor’s post from 2006. She has been working internationally as well, for almost 10 years in Bosnia Herzegovina with restoration of war-damaged monuments and with the establishment of The Commission to Preserve National Monuments, as stipulated in the Dayton Peace Agreement.
At the moment, she is teaching both at Dalarna University where she also participates in some applied research projects, as well as at Chalmers University in Gothenburg. Otherwise she runs her architect’s studio where she has mainly been occupied with restoration projects of listed buildings, state monuments such as Örebr castle and all buildings on Skeppsholmen, the island in front of the Royal Palace in Stockholm.

Architect (IUAV) PhD in Conservation of Architectural Heritage (Milan Polytechnic), he was for a long time an official architect at the ABAP Superintendency for the Municipality of Venice and its Lagoon, where he took on various coordination roles, such as that for the UNESCO site “Venice and its Lagoon” and was in charge of the restoration of important public buildings in Venice like Marciana National Library, Gallerie dell’Accademia, the Jesuit Church and the bell towers of Venice.

Since 2021 he has been RTD B researcher at IUAV in Venice and now he is assistant professor in Architectural Restoration. He carries out teaching activities at IUAV and at the Cà Foscari University of Venice. He carries out study and research activities on historical buildings in Venice, Cultural Heritage and climate change. He has participated in international conferences and is the author of several scientific publications. He sits on numerous scientific committees of journals and is a member of associations dealing with Cultural Heritage, such as Green Building Council Italia and ICOMOS Italia.

Michiel Purmer studied Human Geography, specialising in Historical Geography at Utrecht University. In 2000, he began working for Natuurmonumenten, a Dutch NGO that manages more than 100.000 HA of nature reserves, including a broad array of cultural heritage: archaeology, country estates, historical buildings and cultural landscapes. As senior heritage specialist he is an advisor on cultural heritage for this society in the field of landscapes, archaeology and parks and gardens. Michiel Purmer also represents Natuurmonumenten in the broad field of cultural heritage in The Netherlands, working, for example, with other nature conservation organisations, the Dutch Heritage Agency and universities.
Michiel Purmer defended his PhD thesis at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2018. The thesis, entitled Het landschap bewaard (The landscape preserved), studied Natuurmonumenten as an heritage organization, with focus on historical cultural landscapes in historical perspective.
Michiel Purmer guest lectures at universities and previously held a position at Groningen University. He regularly publishes on heritage and landscape, but also on other fields of interest like numismatic and clay pipes.
He is member of the National Consultation Panel on Heritage of the Netherlands, member of the Committee Landscape History of the Limburgs Geschiedkundig en Oudheidkundig Genootschap (LGOG), board member of the Dutch Network Historic Cultural Landscape (Netwerk Historisch Cultuurlandschap), chair of the Numismatic Study Group of the Amsterdam Museum.

Since studying ethnology, her work has been focused on cultural heritage. Her master at Ethnology was based on an internship in World Heritage Center, UNESCO, in Paris. She wrote about the criteria for world heritage. Following her master’s degree, she worked as a consultant at UNESCO. After UNESCO, she worked in Europa Nostra at the Secretariat in The Hague.
Following Europa Nostra, she led communication for the Danish Royal Household – an example of living cultural heritage. Since 2008 her focus has been the role of museums in protecting and raising awareness of cultural heritage, first at the Danish National Agency for Culture and currently as Head of Collections of the National Museum of Denmark. A key focus is classification, repatriation and sharing the cultural heritage – through loans or digitalization. She grew up on a farm, is married, and has two sons.

Adam is Care of Churches Team Leader at the Diocese of Gloucester, UK. He is passionate about conservation management, building conservation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings. He holds a BA in History of Art with Material Studies, and an MA in Principles of Conservation, both from UCL. Adam is a Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) and a full member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC).

Architect born in Mostar 30th April 1975.

She is a founder and curator of ADA, Center for Architecture, Dialogue and Arts in Mostar. She studied in Morocco (Rabat), Sarajevo and Denmark (Horsens) and she holds MA and MSc from the Faculty of Architecture at the Sarajevo University.
Senada is PhD candidate at the same University with the thesis „Urban reconstruction in continuity“.

She has worked in the post war reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Mostar historic city core. From 2000 until 2004 she worked within Foundation of Aga Khan Trust for Culture (Office in Mostar) and City Institute for protection of
cultural heritage.

Currently she works as Senior Adviser within Urban Planning Department of the City of Mostar. She speaks English, French, Italian and Spanish.

Architect from the Polytechnic School of Madrid since 1974. Expert in vernacular architecture and construction systems. For more than 45 years she has managed 2 proprietary studios and has developed more than 1,500 projects for private clients. A very important part of his professional development has been in the field of architectural restoration and rehabilitation, especially in civil architecture. 1991/1994 Architect responsible for the EU LEADER I Program of Portodemouros (Spain) – A depressed rural and agrarian territory is recovered through the recovery and enhancement of vernacular architecture 1991/1994 Projects and works of the Rio Lor Association with European funds in the Caurel region (Lugo) A depressed rural and agrarian territory is recovered through the recovery and enhancement of vernacular architecture.
Life member of Europa Nostra since 2001. 2002 Europa Nostra Award Torre do Monte MANOR (Padron/ Spain) Prolific critical columnist on architecture and built heritage. Lectures on vernacular architecture.
From 2003/2009 she restored in Santiago de Compostela, with her own family funds, the biggest paper factory of Galicia dated from 1792. Since 2009 The industrial building has been converted into one of the best hotels in Spain and is part of the Relais & Chateaux Network. It has created more than 50 permanent jobs and A Quinta da Auga is a benchmark for its meticulous and careful rehabilitation.