The Board is the executive body of the Association and is responsible for the day-to-day management and implementation of the General Assembly’s decisions. For example, it manages relationships with key external stakeholders such as the European Commission, drafts the budget of the network, and manages and allocates funds where needed. The Board supervises the Secretariat.
Currently, the Board consists of:
- Ms. Ana Garcia (PT), Chair
- Mr. Jean-Luc Perrin (FR), Vice-Chair for Projects
- Ms. Kristina Rabe (DE), Vice-Chair for Administration
- Mr. Marco Falconi (IT), Team Leader Expert Team Water and Land
- Mr. Jaakko Vesivalo (FI), Team Leader Expert Team Industry and Air
- Mr. Helge Ziolkowski (SE) Team Leader Expert Team Waste and TFS
- Ms. Martine Blondeel (BE), Team Leader Expert Team Cross-cutting
- Mr. Alfred Dreijer (NL), Team Leader Expert Team Nature Protection
- EU Presidency
Ana Garcia is currently working as Inspector Director of the Unit for Cooperation and International Affairs, IGAMAOT, Portugal. She is an Environmental Inspector at the General Inspection for Agriculture, Sea, Environment and Spatial Planning (IGAMAOT, Portugal) and holds a PhD in Environmental Sciences on the theme “Implementation of Environmental Legislation”. Working with IMPEL since 1999 she has participated as a national representative in IMPEL Projects in different areas, namely on Nature Conservation, Industry and Air, Waste, Water, is the Portuguese national coordinator since 2015 and was IMPEL vice-chair in 2017-2018. In December 2021, she was elected IMPEL Chair.
Kristina Rabe. After studies of law and political science in Kiel and Geneva and internships in prosecution, courts and administrations in Germany, Kristina Rabe added a stage at the European Commission and Master Studies on European Law at the EUI in Florence. Next was a service contract with the European Commission (DG Env). She then entered public service at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Protection and Nuclear Safety. Her responsibility has covered EMAS, the post – Rio process, radiation protection, Impact assessment, cross-sectoral aspects of environmental criminal law and cross-cutting questions on implementation. Since 2006 she has been the German National IMPEL Coordinator, in November 2019, she was elected IMPEL Chair and in December 2021, she was elected IMPEL Vice-Chair for Administration. She also is a member of the EU Environmental Compliance and Governance Forum and supports the Commission’s Environmental Compliance Action Plan through participation in several informal expert groups.
Marco Falconi is working as a Technologist at ISPRA (Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) and is the IMPEL Water and Land expert team leader. He holds two masters – one in Environmental Science and a second one in Geology.
Marco has international experience with projects with the United Nations in the Balkan countries and in the GEO6 assessment. He is one of the EIONET National Reference Center for Soil. In ISPRA he is the coordinator of the “Soil and Land” chapter of the annual Urban Areas Report. He is also the scientific coordinator of Remtech Europe, an annual conference on contaminated sites. He teaches Environmental Assessment at the Polytechnical University of Marche and at the University of Camerino.
Jaakko Vesivalo is working as a Leading Environment Expert in the inspection unit of the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment for Southeast Finland (KASELY). He joined the IMPEL family with the IED Implementation project in 2015 and is the Industry and Air expert team leader since 2021. Jaakko has international experience with development aid projects in Nepal, Lao PDR, and RSA in the area of environmental management. He holds M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from the Technical University of Berlin and a B.Sc. in Social Anthropology from the Free University of Berlin.
Helge Ziolkowski is working as a Senior Adviser on Waste Shipments for the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. He joined the IMPEL Waste and TFS family in 2010 and since then he has participated in many different projects for the Swedish EPA. Helge was elected at COP 12 as a member of Basel ENFORCE for 2016/17. He was the head of the TFS department in the federal state of Saxony for the last 3 years and he finally returned to Sweden in May 2021. He has experience in TFS and waste classifications, wastewater, and landfill. Helge is the Waste and TFS expert team leader for 2022/23. He holds a graduate degree in chemistry from the Technical University of Dresden.