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Brussels Team

Who is who? Sorcha Edwards (Secretary-General), Julien Dijol (Policy Director), Edit Lakatos (Senior Policy Officer), Johanne Philippe (Policy Assistant), Alice Pittini (Research Director), Dara Turnbull (Research Coordinator), João Gonçalves (Director of Innovation), Clara Mafé (Innovation and Project Оfficer), Aurore Leconte (Finance Officer), Margherita Marinelli (Junior Project and Innovation Officer), Diana Yordanova (Communications Director), Andreea-Alexandra Nacu (Communications Junior Officer), Abderrahim Khairi (Membership and Events Coordinator)
Who is who? Sorcha Edwards (Secretary-General), Julien Dijol (Policy Director), Edit Lakatos (Senior Policy Officer), Johanne Philippe (Policy Assistant), Alice Pittini (Research Director), Dara Turnbull (Research Coordinator), João Gonçalves (Director of Innovation), Clara Mafé (Innovation and Project Оfficer), Aurore Leconte (Finance Officer), Margherita Marinelli (Junior Project and Innovation Officer), Diana Yordanova (Communications Director), Andreea-Alexandra Nacu (Communications Junior Officer), Abderrahim Khairi (Membership and Events Coordinator)

Housing Europe established a Secretariat in Brussels in 2001.

Since then the team has been steadily expanding and is responsible for the coordination of the day-to-day running of the organisation. There are 3 key strands around which the activities are developed: 

Policy Formulation & Advocacy | Knowledge Sharing & Networking | Research


Sorcha Edwards Secretary General

Sorcha is responsible for the institutional relations and the overall coordination of the Secretariat’s work. At the same time, Sorcha is the face of Housing Europe in Brussels and also makes the link between the Board and the rest of the organization’s structure.

E-mail
+32 (0)2 541 05 68

Policy

Julien Dijol - Deputy Secretary General & Policy Director

Julien coordinates the policy work of Housing Europe, monitoring all relevant political developments and drafting the position papers of the organisations. Julien coordinates the work of all Committees and makes the link between them and the day-to-day work in Brussels. Julien also represents Housing Europe in various events, delivering a wide range of presentations.
E-mail
+32 (0)2 541 05 64

Edit Lakatos - Senior Policy Officer 

Edit is part of the policy team, focusing especially on European Funding. She is monitoring all sources of EU financial means that can support the public, cooperative and social housing sector and is responsible for all relevant publications and the respective online portal. Edit is leading on the work of the Working Group on Housing Systems in Transition and also involved in Housing Europe partnerships.
E-mail
+32 (0)2 541 05 62

Johanne Philippe Policy Assistant

Johanne supports Housing Europe's work with the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, more specifically, with the organisation of an upcoming EU-wide conference on housing in Liége in March 2024. She holds a M.A. in European Studies specialised in Public Policy and Administration from Maastricht University, and a Master’s Degree in European Politics from the Institute for European Studies, during which she wrote two master’s theses about social housing from an EU perspective. During her studies, she also worked as an intern for the Brussels office of our French member, l’Union Sociale pour l’Habitat (USH).
E-mail

Research

Alice Pittini Research Director 

Alice leads the daily work of the European Social Housing Observatory, coordinating comparative studies, thematic briefings and articles. As the go-to person for facts and figures around housing in Europe, she delivers presentations in various events that try to make a reality check with what happens on the ground. Alice also works closely with the Chair and the Vice-Chair of the Observatory.
E-mail
+32 (0)2 541 05 66

Dara Turnbull - Research Coordinator

Dara is the Research Coordinator at Housing Europe, bringing together various strands of our work. This includes the preparation of research for the Observatory, coordinating knowledge sharing with and between our members, as well as working with our Innovation & Projects manager in ensuring the successful participation of Housing Europe in a number of EU level projects. An economist by training, Dara also brings five years of expertise in the area of finance to bear on analysis of issues concerning the financing of social housing and of national and EU funding schemes related to the provision of non-market housing solutions.
E-mail
 

Innovation

João Gonçalves - Director of Innovation

João Gonçalves coordinates Housing Europe’s innovation team, aiming to drive positive change and fostering new ideas for the development of housing solutions, services or business models that tackle the challenges of public, social and cooperative housing providers, namely within strategic partnerships with members as well as industry, academia, or government stakeholders.
An urban planner by training, João brings in more than 15 years innovation experience in a diversity of organisations including a university, a consultancy and a business association. He is a native Portuguese speaker and speaks English fluently.
E-mail

Clara Mafé - Innovation and Project Officer

Clara Mafé works as Innovation and Project Officer at Housing Europe. She manages and develops EU-funded projects related to the decarbonisation and climate adaptation of social housing neighbourhoods including positive energy districts; circular retrofits; integrated district renovation and sustainable mobility. Her mission is to make cities more liveable, sustainable and fair places for people through innovation. Before joining Housing Europe in 2020, she gained experience in user-centred innovation in smart city projects through Living Labs at the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL). She holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Valencia (Spain) and an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Birmingham (UK).
E-mail

Margherita Marinelli - Junior Project and Innovation Officer

Margherita joined Housing Europe in October 2022 and now works mainly on projects related to social justice in the green transition which touch upon topics, such as energy poverty and housing exclusion. Additionally, she is determined to help improving cooperation and knowledge exchange in the sector by moderating the mentorship programme and the online community group within the European Affordable Housing Consortium (SHAPE-EU) and facilitating members' access to funding opportunities at the European level. Her background consists of a mix of social and environmental sciences as she holds a BSc in International Studies from the University of Trento in Italy and a MSc in Environmental Policy from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Her previous working experiences in the academic and NGO sectors revolved around environmental sociology and inclusive conservation. Margherita speaks Italian and English and is currently learning French.

E-mail

Finance

Aurore Leconte - Finance Officer 

Aurore is taking care of the finance and administration of the European Affordable Housing Consortium: Sustainable Housing for Social Impact, SHAPE-EU project which is coordinated by Housing Europe. After commuting for 10 years between France and Germany for both studies and work, Aurore worked until 2015 at a European membership-based association as Finance and administration manager. Before joining the team, she specialised further in the non-profit sector and European projects at a tax and accounting consultancy for 5 years. Aurore's mother tongue is French, she’s fluent in English, German, and speaks Italian.
E-mail

Communication & Membership

Diana Yordanova - Communications Director

Diana is leading the external and internal communications work of Housing Europe, including the organisation’s online presence, press relations, event curation, and European projects-related communication activities. She is the go-to person when it comes to journalists’ queries, curating the organisation’s publications, and preparing the monthly newsletter.
E-mail
+32 (0)2 541 05 61

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Andreea-Alexandra Nacu - Communications Junior Officer

Andreea joined Housing Europe in 2021 and took on the mission of supporting the team in its activities related to different European projects through the Horizon2020 programme. She is also responsible for various daily communications tasks. Coming from a background of foreign languages studies, she has dived into the field of digital communications. Having Romanian as a mother tongue, she also speaks English and French. 
E-mail
+32 (0)2 541 05 61

Abderrahim Khairi Membership and Events Coordinator

Abderrahim is the Membership and Events Coordinator of Housing Europe, focusing on membership engagement, expansion of the Housing Europe family and ensuring that public, cooperative and social housing providers make the most out of being a part of a rich Pan-European network. In addition to that, he is also coordinating the organisation of internal and external events of the Federation. Abderrahim speaks no less than five languages - Italian, Arabic, English, French and Spanish.
E-mail
+32 (0)2 541 05 63