3) Education, Training & skills

Sara originally trained as an architect and holds an MSc in Architectural Conservation. She began her professional career working for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) where she undertook various roles including running the casework and education teams and leading the Europa Nostra award-winning Faith in Maintenance training project.
She then spent time with the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), where she was Head of Historic Environment – providing advice and strategic direction to the Board and Executive on grant giving, and policy issues and building strategic relationships with historic environment organisations across the UK – before moving on to become CEO of Icon (the Institute of Conservation) and leading the organisation through a digital transformation as well as publishing a new long-term strategy with a renewed focus on skills and accreditation.
Sara is currently CEO of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting but retains her passion for heritage. She is a trustee of the National Heritage Science Forum, the Chair of the BEFS Places of Worship Forum, the Chair of Historic Buildings and Places, and the Chair of Europa Nostra UK.

Jermina Stanojev, PhD, is an independent expert in the field of cultural heritage and international cultural relations. She is a postdoctoral researcher at Uppsala University with a focus on circular economy and cultural heritage and holds a PhD in participatory and integrated governance of cultural heritage in the Western Balkans. She is currently appointed as an individual expert by the European Commission to the “Commission’s expert group on cultural heritage”. Her work focuses on culture-led, sustainable, regional development, policy design and evaluation for trans-disciplinary challenges through different governance frameworks and geopolitical levels. Since 2009 she is an advisor on the role of cultural heritage in international cultural relations within the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance and since 2016 supports the European Union in engaging in international cultural relations within the framework of the EU strategy for international cultural relations through Cultural Diplomacy/Relations Platform of the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, with a global geographical mandate, under which, among others, developed recommendations “European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018: International Perspectives”. She has established competences and wide experience in fields of international cultural relations and cultural heritage working with different international organisations and institutions (UNESCO, European Commission, Goethe-Institut Brussels, European Cultural Centre Foundation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia etc.). She has an extensive experience in research, policies and numerous projects such as the EU Horizon 2020 project, “Circular models Leveraging Investments in Cultural Heritage Adaptive Reuse”, Erasmus + HERITAGE-PRO, the report of the Structured Dialogue with the EC on “Skills, Training and Knowledge-transfer in the Traditional and Emerging Heritage”, the OMC working group of Member States’ experts report on “Fostering cooperation in the EU on skills, training and knowledge transfer in cultural heritage professions” etc.

Victor Boye Julebæk, Ph.D., is an accomplished architect and academic who combines a deep theoretical foundation with practical experience. He studied architecture at both the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, grounding his approach in the rigorous architectural traditions of Denmark and Switzerland. He serves as an assistant professor at the Royal Danish Academy and is head of the Master’s Programme for Cultural Heritage, Transformation, and Conservation. In his teaching, research and practice, there is a focus on both the theoretical and the hands-on, applied perspectives of the conservation and transformation of architectural heritage with an emphasis on material practices, cultures, and ecologies.

Dr. Marine Mizandari has been co-chairing the National Trust of Georgia since 2017.
With 30 years of professional experience, her career spans scientific research in cultural heritage and the implementation of projects across Georgia and Europe.
Her extensive background includes high-level management roles, such as ministerial management and policy development. She has advised the Georgian government on strategic documents and served as the first Deputy Minister of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia from 2012 to 2014.

Charles Personnaz is a historian and civil servant, having spent most of his career in the field of cultural heritage both at the French Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Culture. He has been the Director of the National Heritage Institute (INP – Institut National du Patrimoine) since 2019.
Charles Personnaz has a special interest and commitment to the preservation of Christian heritage in the Middle East. He has authored several books published in France about Byzantine and Greek history and cultural policy.

She has been working as an architect for 40 years, running her own studio since 1997 and has 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 the 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 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.

Lorenzo Venezia was born in Vibo Valentia, Italy on 17 August 1992. He studied law at the University of Milano Bicocca and wrote his final dissertation on the role of Interpol in the operations of cultural objects restitutions when illegally exported. He then completed a one-year master’s programme in “Cultural Property Protection in Crisis Response” at the University of Turin with a final project on the use of QR codes inside cultural institutions to raise awareness in the public about illicit art trafficking. Lorenzo is currently working on a research project at C-Ship of the ICHEC Brussels Management School which is focusing on the relationship between local communities, environmental issues and cultural centres in the Region of Brussels. In December 2024, he will start a PhD on corporate financial management and crisis prevention at Universitas Mercatorum with a focus on digital transition in European non-profit cultural organisations as a tool for crisis prevention and the case study of ENCATC.
He has been a member of ESACH since June 2023 and in May 2024 he started to collaborate as Editor.