Jury & Selection Committee

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).