Keynote Speakers
PhD in Economics from the Technical University of Lisbon, Master’s degree in Economics from Nova School of Business and Economics, and Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Nova School of Business and Economics. President of Statistics Portugal since November 2024. From 2014 to 2024, he was Chair of the Working Group for the Development of Macroeconomic Statistics of the Statistical Council. From 1999 to 2024, he worked in the Economics and Research Department of the Banco de Portugal, serving as Head of Unit in the Portuguese Economic Division from 2006 to 2024. Visiting Associate Professor at the Nova School of Business and Economics and Visiting Professor at Católica Porto Business School. He was also a Visiting Associate Professor at ISCTE Business School. From 2022 to 2024, he was a member of the Steering Committee of the Euro Area Business Cycle Network in collaboration with the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Author of numerous research articles published in international scientific journals.
Athanasios C. Thanopoulos has been serving as President of the Hellenic Statistical Authority since 2016. On 30 September 2025, the European Commission appointed him Deputy Director-General of Eurostat, with the appointment to take effect shortly. He chaired the Partnership Group of the European Statistical System from 2022 to 2024. His previous professional experience spans economic policy-advising, research and university teaching. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh, postgraduate degrees in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics from the Toulouse School of Economics, and a BSc in Economics from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Christophe Demunter has a long-standing experience in official statistics, first at the statistical office and central bank of his native country Belgium, but since 2004 at Eurostat. He worked in several statistical domains, including labour market statistics, national accounts and information society statistics. Currently, he is coordinating tourism statistics. As such, he has been for many years a reference person for tourism statistics in the European Commission and at international level, and has been actively involved in innovative initiatives, for instance on the use of mobile positioning data and data from accommodation platforms. Christophe holds degrees in applied economics, criminology and European law.
Dr. Damir Krešić is Managing Director of the Institute for Tourism, Croatia’s leading public scientific institute dedicated to tourism research and consultancy. With over 20 years of experience in destination management, strategic planning and sustainable tourism development, he has led a number of national, regional and local tourism projects, building strong expertise in the dynamics of tourism sector and collaboration between public and private stakeholders.
He holds a Ph.D. in Tourism and a degree in Finance from the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Zagreb. Dr. Krešić has published extensively in academic and professional journals and contributed significantly to tourism policy-making as a member of different tourism working groups and as a former member of the President’s Economic Affair Council. He is currently a member of the Scientific Council for Tourism and Space at the Croatian Academy of Science and Arts.
Dr. Daniel Vorgrimler has been head of the “Strategy and Planning, International Relations, Research and Communication” department at the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (Destatis) since 2019. After completing his doctorate in economics, he joined the Office in 2002, where he has since assumed leading roles in the fields of administrative burden measurement and industry, construction and energy. In addition to his responsibilities at the Federal Statistical Office, he has been a member of the German Data Forum (RatSWD) since 2020 and Deputy Chairman since 2024. He was also appointed Deputy Chairman of the German Statistical Society in 2024. Furthermore, throughout his career he has accepted various teaching assignments at the University of Mainz and the Fresenius University of Applied Sciences.
Mr Caruana has been working at the National Statistics Office since 2005, and currently occupies the position of Director General. Prior to his current tenure, Mr Caruana worked as Director of Social and Regional Statistics and as manager of the Living Conditions and Culture Statistics Unit, also at the NSO. Mr Caruana also worked as an expert in social statistics, supporting variour countries develop new domains in social statistics, in line with European Regulations’ requirements.
In 2019, Mr Caruana was also nominated as Census Officer. During his career at the NSO, Mr. Caruana has worked and directly supervised various statistical projects, including the European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey, the Household Budgetary Survey, Demographic Statistics, Labour Market Statistics and Tourism Statistics.
I have been the President of the National Institute of Statistics since 30 May 2024. From 2023 to May 2024, I served as Acting President of ISTAT. Prior to this, I had already served as a member of the Council and as Director of the Department for Statistical Production of ISTAT. From 2006 to 2024, I held the position of Full Professor of Economic Statistics at the Department of Economic and Social Sciences, Faculty of Economics “Giorgio Fuà”, Polytechnic University of Marche. In addition to my role at the University, I have served as President of the Course Council for “Data Science for Economics and Business”. From November 2014 to October 2020, I held the position of President of the Italian Society of Demography, Economics and Statistics, after which I completed two terms in the role. I have authored approximately 120 scientific publications.
Geir Axelsen has been Director General of Statistics Norway since 2018. Axelsen came from the position of Deputy Director General and Director of Finance and Governance at the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV). He has previously held the role of vice president in two different units in the Norwegian energy company Statoil (now Equinor) and served as State Secretary (deputy minister) in the Norwegian Ministry of Finance and Assistant Director General in the Ministry’s budget department.
Axelsen holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Oslo and a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Prof. Dr Georges-Simon Ulrich was appointed Director General of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) by the Federal Council on 1st October 2013. He studied Business Administration in Switzerland, the USA (University of Virginia, Darden Business school) and Australia, where he obtained his PhD at the University of Southern Queensland with a thesis on Stakeholder management and communication. He is also Professor in strategic management and research methods at the University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration Zurich.
Between 1992 and 2010 Mr Ulrich worked as an entrepreneur, holding various management positions in market, social, and opinion research. From May 2011 to September 2013, he was Director of the LUSTAT statistical office in Lucerne. Georges-Simon Ulrich represents Switzerland on behalf of the FSO’s areas of responsibility (official statistics, data stewardship and data science) in various national and international committees at Eurostat, OECD and EFTA. Since 2022 he has been a member of the UN Statistical Commission’s Bureau and since 2024 its Chair.
Prof. Marek Cierpiał-Wolan earned his PhD in economic sciences in 1999 and completed his postdoctoral degree in 2023, also holding postgraduate qualifications in statistics. He served as Director of the Statistical Office in Rzeszów from 2008 to 2024 and became President of Statistics Poland in 2025. He is a professor at the University of Rzeszów, specializing in statistical inference and econometrics, with research interests in econometric modeling, big data, and data integration. His international experience includes fellowships and lectureships at universities in the UK, USA, China, and South Korea. He has led and participated in numerous research projects, including those on AI in official statistics and refugee health, and is actively involved in several European and UN statistical expert groups. Prof. Cierpiał-Wolan is a prolific author and editor, and plays leading roles in several scientific associations and editorial boards, contributing to the development of regional and international statistical communities.
Mr Marek Rojíček has been with the Czech Statistical Office since 2001, when he graduated with a master’s degree from the Prague University of Economics and Business. His professional focus has been on macroeconomic statistics, particularly national accounts. He contributed to the implementation of European national accounting standards at the Czech Statistical Office ahead of the Czech Republic’s accession to the European Union. His scientific work focuses on examining the role of economic structures in the transition process from cost-oriented to quality-oriented competitive advantage, as well as analysing the macroeconomic and structural impacts of globalization of economic flows. This was also the subject of his doctoral thesis. As part of his pedagogical activities, he participates in teaching macroeconomic analysis at the Faculty of Economics of the Prague University of Economics and Business. He is the author and co-author of several dozen scientific articles, textbooks, and research studies. He has been the President of the Czech Statistical Office since March 2018.
Dr. Markus Sovala is Director General of Statistics Finland from March 1, 2021. His 5 years term extends until 2026. In this capacity, he’s Member of The European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) and its Partnership Group (PG). Previously he has held several senior civil servant positions in different departments of the Ministry of Finance and other ministries. He has also acted as a Prime Minister’s Economic Policy Advisor and Finland’s representative in the World Bank Group in Washington DC. Dr. Sovala have led several Government ICT-projects at strategic level. In 2016-2019, he led a project aiming at establishing a semi-autonomous region around City of Helsinki. Mr. Sovala is Doctor in Economics (University of Helsinki) and his expertise covers various fields and levels of government, including: statistics, ICT, Data and Information Policy, budgeting, economic policy and forecasting, development, international relations, monetary union, industrial and structural policies, entrepreneurship, health, social services, public administration reforms, social security, labor market and incentives.
Nadim Ahmad is Deputy Director at the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), helping to drive momentum in the development of integrated policies that look holistically at people, places and firms, and, in doing so, better policies for better lives, and resilient and sustainable economic growth.
In his role, Mr Ahmad provides intellectual leadership and quality control to ensure that the OECD is at the forefront of policy thinking in the domains covered by CFE. Mr Ahmad joined the OECD in 2000. Before joining CFE in 2020, he worked in the OECD’s Statistics and Data Directorate, where he led international efforts to better account for globalisation, entrepreneurship and business performance, and, in particular, the role of MNEs and SMEs in global value chains, and the OECD’s Directorate for Science Technology and Innovation, where he developed the OECD’s first estimates of carbon dioxide emissions embodied in international trade.
Prior to joining the OECD, Mr Ahmad worked in the UK’s office for National Statistics (1996-2000) and the UK’s Ministry of Finance (1993-1996).
Mr. Laimer is a highly experienced statistician specializing in Tourism and Travel Statistics. After completing courses in Export and Tourism at the University of Economics Vienna and studying Geography at the University of Vienna, he began his career at Statistics Austria in 1993 and became responsible for the official “Tourism and Travel Statistics” in 1998. Currently, he serves as Deputy Director of the Directorate “Spatial Statistics,” overseeing various statistical domains, including tourism, road safety, energy/environmental and agricultural statistics.
An active member of several international working groups, Mr. Laimer has contributed to projects with EUROSTAT, OECD, and UN Tourism, including work on Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) and methodological frameworks related to tourism statistics. He has provided consultancy on tourism statistics in multiple countries and has presented at numerous international conferences.
Related to TSA he was engaged as a consultant for the European project 2008/2009 related to TSA; since 2013 he is one of the experts assessing the three annual Eurostat publication “TSA in Europe”. Since 2019 he is being acting as the course leader within the European Statistical Training Programme (ESTP) related to TSA.
Mr. Laimer has been member of the UN Tourism Committee on Statistics since many years; he was chairing the Committee in 2016 and 2017, since 2018 he is Co-Chairing with Spain (until 2023) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Since 2016 he is being been leading the Working Group of Experts on Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism.
In addition to his professional work, Mr. Laimer teaches Tourism Management at the University of Linz and the University of Applied Sciences for Management and Communication in Vienna. He is a member of the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism.
Raimonds Lapiņš is Director General of the Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia since 1 February 2024. Prior to this, he was Deputy State Secretary at the Ministry of Economics, where he managed EU investment aid programs and helped shape national policies on economic structure, entrepreneurship, and innovation. With exhaustive experience in public administration, international cooperation, and financial management, Raimonds’ work also emphasizes the integration of sustainability dimension into economic policy. Under Raimonds’ leadership, the CSB prioritizes, between other, a user-centered approach to developing robust data frameworks that enable more effective and sustainable policymaking.
PhD in Tourism. More than 25 years of experience in the tourism sector in the areas of strategy, market intelligence, tourism policy and innovation. Senior Director for Strategy & Knowledge Management at Turismo de Portugal and Chairman of OECD Tourism Committee. Vice-Chair of the UN Tourism Committee on Statistics.
Tourism Expert in several workgroups from international organizations such as EU, UNWTO, OECD, ETC and WEF.
Invited Professor at Nova School of Business and Economics, Nova Information Management School and Universidad Europea das Canarias.
Linkedin: https://pt.linkedin.com/in/sergioguerreiro74
Twitter: @Serg_Guerreiro
Tourism has always been at the heart of the professional career and interests of Tonči Glavina, the Minister of Tourism and Sport of the Republic of Croatia.
Before being appointed to this important political position, he served two terms as State Secretary for Tourism and spent many years as the director and a member of the Management Board of Eklat in Split, a company specializing in destination management with a focus on children’s and youth tourism.
From 2014 to 2017, he was the director of the Klis Business Incubator, an organization founded and owned by the Municipality of Klis, responsible for the municipality’s development strategy and its implementation, with a particular emphasis on tourism and destination management, project management, grant funding applications, and entrepreneurship development.
Tonči Glavina completed his education in the United States, earning an MBA from Wesley College in Dover, Delaware.
Valdis Dombrovskis has been the European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, as well as Implementation and Simplification, since December 2024. His portfolio includes the coordination and implementation of the EU’s economic policies, as well as overseeing the reduction of administrative burden and ensuring better implementation of EU rules.
From 2019 to 2024, he served as the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for An Economy that Works for People, and was also in charge of Trade. He previously served as Vice-President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019, overseeing the Euro and Social Dialogue, as well as Financial Stability, Financial Services, and the Capital Markets Union.
He was Latvia’s longest-serving head of government with three terms as prime minister. He has been Finance Minister, Member of the Latvian Parliament and European Parliament.
Before politics, he was chief economist at the Bank of Latvia; research assistant at Mainz University, the Institute of Solid-State Physics in Latvia and University of Maryland.
Valdis Dombrovskis was born on 5 August 1971.
Ann Carton has been working at the Flanders Statistics Authority since 2016. She is responsible for the coordination of the Statistics Flanders network and represents Statistics Flanders at the interfederal (Federal state Belgium and the regions) and international level. From 2001 until 2018 she was project leader of the annual survey Socio-cultural shifts in Flanders and the Belgian contact person for the International Social Survey Programme. From 1989 until 2001, she was a research collaborator within the Department of Sociology, Data Collection and Analysis Division at KU Leuven. She studied sociology at KU Leuven and obtained her PhD in Social Sciences from KU Leuven in 1999, with the title “An interviewer network: elaboration of an evaluation procedure for interviewers”.
Ms. Apolonija Oblak Flander was appointed Director-General of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia in April 2024. She holds a master’s degree in social and political geography. In her master’s thesis, she studied national and ethnic minorities. Ms. Apolonija Oblak Flander has been employed at the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia for 25 years. In 2001 she became Head of the Demographic Statistics Section. Between 2014 to 2020 she was the Head of the Transport, Tourism and Information Society Statistics Section and developed significant expertise in tourism statistics. In 2021 she was appointed Director of Environmental Statistics and in 2023 Acting Director-General. Ms Oblak Flander has been very active within the European Statistical System as well as in the international environment. She is the member of the ESS Partnership Group, the Chair of the OECD Working Party on Tourism Statistics and the Chair of the ITF Transport Statistics Working Group. She is also the Vice-Chair of the Bureau of the UN Statistical Commission and the member of the Bureau of the UNECE Conference of European Statisticians.
Clara is the Director (a.i.) of the Statistics, Standards and Data Department at UN Tourism, the United Nations specialized agency for tourism. With 16 years of experience in tourism statistics, she leads the Organization’s work on developing international standards, compiling international datasets, and supporting countries in strengthening their statistical capacities. Under her direction the Department also serves as secretariat to the UN Tourism Committee on Statistics and the Expert Group on Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism, promoting the integration of tourism within the broader UN statistical system.
Clara represents UN Tourism in key international fora, including the United Nations Statistical Commission, the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities, the Committee of Chief Statisticians of the UN System, the UN Committee of Experts on Environmental Economic Accounting, and the OECD Working Party on Tourism Statistics. She holds a Research Master’s degree in International Economics and Business (cum laude) and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Management from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Elena Manzanera Díaz holds the position of President of the NSI in Spain since August 2022. Graduate in Economics and Business Sciences from the University of Seville. She entered the Senior Statisticians Body of the Junta de Andalucía by competitive examination in 1994 and has a Doctoral program in “Methodology and Analysis of the Andalusian Economy” in the Department of Applied Economics II of the Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences of the University of Seville. She previously carried out a variety of functions at the Statistical and Cartography Institute of Andalucia, including the post of Director. She was Head of the Studies Service of the General Directorate of Andalusian Studies and head of the Tourism Planning and Analysis Service in the General Directorate of Tourism Planning.
Mrs Inga Masiulaitytė-Šukevič is the Deputy Director General of the State Data Agency (Statistics Lithuania) with more than 20 years of experience in statistics and technical cooperation. Among her daily responsibilities Mrs. I. Masiulaitytė-Šukevič coordinates the production, development and dissemination of transport and tourism, social and demographic, labor, agricultural and environment statistics. She is also responsible for international cooperation in the aforementioned domains.
Ms Lidija Brković, the Director General of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (CBS) which is the main institution responsible for the creation, distribution, and coordination of the Republic of Croatia’s official statistics, has been on this leading position since 2019 and acts as the primary spokesperson for the country’s statistical system before international and European statistical authorities.
Prior to that, Ms Brković worked for more than ten years at the Croatian National Bank, serving in expert and advisory roles in accounting, monetary, financial, and general statistics. She began her career in 2005 at the Ministry of Defense. Through years of valuable professional experience, Ms Brković has accumulated knowledge and skills in various areas of public finance and statistics. She graduated from the Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb, where she also completed postgraduate specialist studies in Financial Institutions and Markets and successfully defended her thesis on the topic “The Impact of the Global Crisis on the Pension Fund Industry in the World and in the Republic of Croatia”. In recognition of her contribution to the development of official statistics, she was elected as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) in the mandate period from 2025 to 2027, where she will represent the IAOS at the International Statistical Institute (ISI).
Maja held various positions in the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs between 1996 and 2016. Based in Brussels from 1999 until 2011, she was responsible for horizontal coordination of the Croatian accession negotiations. In 2011, she moved back to Zagreb and was responsible for setting up and management of the system of national coordination of European Affairs. In 2015 she became Assistant Minister for Europe in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. On 1 December 2016, she became Deputy Director-General in the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, responsible for coordinating the activities related to investment, innovative and sustainable transport, in support of the Commission President’s priorities.
Mariana Kotzeva was appointed Director General of Eurostat by the European Commission on 1 March 2018. She is the first woman at the helm of Eurostat.
Ms Kotzeva joined Eurostat as an Adviser Hors Classe to the Director General in 2012. Two years later, in 2014, she was appointed Deputy Director-General.
Prior to joining the European Commission, Ms Kotzeva was the Head of Bulgaria’s National Statistical Institute. She also held a number of high-level consulting posts in the Bulgarian and foreign administrations, and led international projects for the United Nations and the World Bank.
Ms Kotzeva has a Master’s degree in economics and a PhD in statistics and econometrics. She also has an Executive Education training at Harvard Kennedy School. Ms Kotzeva is an Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria.