Brussels Team

Who is who? Sorcha Edwards (Secretary-General), Julien Dijol (Policy Director), Edit Lakatos (Senior Policy Officer), 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 (Project Assistant), 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

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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

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

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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 coordinates Housing Europe’s participation in partnerships and projects with the aim to, on one hand, influence innovation policy at the EU level and, on the other hand, provide input and facilitate exchange for the social, cooperative, and public housing sector on its social and technical innovation path. João also leads the delivery of Housing Europe’s innovation strategy.
An urban planner by training, João brings in more than 10 years project management experience in a diversity of organisations including a university, a consultancy and a business association.
E-mail

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Clara Mafé - Innovation and Project Officer

Clara works mostly with Horizon 2020 projects related to the energy transition through innovation actions on sustainable plus energy neighbourhoods and circular deep renovation in the housing sector. Besides, she also coordinates our work on the Affordable Housing Initiative and the New European Bauhaus to position public, cooperative, and social housing sector at the forefront of affordable, citizen-driven and design-led building renovation. Before joining Housing Europe in 2020, she gained experience on user-centred innovation, co-creation and Living Labs at the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL). She holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Valencia (Spain) and a MSc in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Birmingham (UK). Clara’s mother tongue is Spanish, she speaks fluent English and is currently learning French.
E-mail

Margherita Marinelli - Project Assistant

Margherita joined Housing Europe in October 2022 as a project assistant, mainly focusing on the EU Affordable Housing Initiative. She is currently working on the development of the Handbook of Best Practices of Affordable Renovation and the Mentorship Program. She also contributes to the maintenance of the website and the coordination of events. Her strong passion for environmental and social justice emerges from her previous working experiences as a student assistant for the MSc course “Sociological Perspectives on Environmental Change” at Wageningen University and as an intern in Inclusive Conservation at WWF International. She holds a MSc degree in Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University (Netherlands) and a BA in International Studies from the University of Trento (Italy).

E-mail

Finance

Aurore Leconte - Finance Officer (part-time)

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

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. Thanks to several experiences as an intern within NGOs, she is familiar with the challenges faced by the sector.

E-mail
+32 (0)2 541 05 61

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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