EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Analysis, Evaluation, External Relations
Employment Analysis
Joint seminar with CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
"Economic Adjustment and Changing Employment Structure"
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5 and 6th October, 2015, Crowne Plaza Hotel Brussels (Rue Gineste)
(Plenary Room "Vision", 8th floor)
Short biographies of speakers
Detlef ECKERT
Director, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
As Director for Europe 2020 & Employment Policies responsible for coordinating the DG's input
to the European Semester process, as well as a wide range of policies including: Employment
Services & EURES, Skills, Vocational Education Training, Youth, Restructuring and
Entrepreneurship.
Prior to joining DG Employment, he served as Director in Directorate General CONNECT and
Senior Advisor to the Director General of DG INFSO. Experienced also in non-EU environment,
Detlef Eckert was Director in Microsoft and worked for the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the
Federal State of Bremen (Germany).
Born in Germany, Detlef Eckert graduated from the University of Siegen with a degree in
Economics. He also obtained a Doctorate in Economics from the same university.
Olga MARTÍNEZ DE BRIONES
Ms Olga Martínez de Briones is an applied business economist who joined DG EMPL in 2008.
She is currently working in the unit responsible for Sectorial Employment challenges, Youth
Employment and Entrepreneurship. Her main responsibilities lie in the field of adaptation to
change and restructuring of companies and in the follow up of the Green Employment Initiative.
Günther SCHMID
Günther Schmid is retired Professor of Political Economy at the Free University Berlin (19902007) and Emeritus Director at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center (research unit Labour
Market Policy and Employment). He published – among others – the International Handbook
for Labour Market Policy and Evaluation (Edward Elgar 1996), and Full Employment in Europe:
Managing Labour Market Transitions and Risks (Edward Elgar 2008). He was member of various
national and international advisory committees, in particular the committee preparing the
German labour market reforms under chancellor Schröder. He holds degrees in political
science and economics and honorary doctorates at the Universities Aalborg (Denmark), Växjö
and Linnaeus (Sweden). For more information you are invited to visit his homepages:
www.guentherschmid.eu ; www.childdevelopmentfund.com
Zhang JUWEI
Dr. Zhang Juwei, professor and Director General of the Institute of Population and Labor
Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), vice-president of Population Association
of China, with rich working experiences in advising Chinese government including the State
Council, the National Commission on Population and Family planning, the Ministry of Labour
and Social Security, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) for policy
making on economic development and employment, training, labour migrations, aging and
social security etc. in China.
Research interests include labor economics and demographic economics. He earned many
academic awards, such as the Highest Economic Prize in China, the Eleventh Sun Yefang
Economic Prize in 2004, the Special Prize and the First Class Prize on Soft Science by the
National Commission on Population and Family Planning in 2006, etc.
Constantinos FOTAKIS
Mr. Constantinos Fotakis is an expert on employment and social analysis issues. Born in Athens,
Greece in 1952, Mr Fotakis studied Economics in the Economic University of Athens (BA) and at
York University (MA) in Toronto, Canada. He started his career in the Studies Directorate of the
Central Bank of Greece. He joined the European Commission in 1981. During the period 19852012, he worked on employment and social policy issues. From 2000 to 2005, he was Head of
the Unit "Social and Demographic Analysis". Mr Fotakis produced several papers and other
contributions focusing on the analysis of the social situation in the European Union, on the
implications of demographic trends in the labour market and on issues related to migration
trends and policies.
Jörg PESCHNER
Jörg Peschner, born 1968 in Geldern (Germany), is an economist specialised in macroeconomics, international economic affairs and econometrics. After his Doctorate, he joined the
German Labour and Social Affairs Ministry in 1998 as a specialist in the fields of social security
and economic affairs: quantitative analysis for the pension scheme, actuarial modelling and
policy planning. So far, as a German civil servant, he has been spending more than six years
working for the European Commission, DG Employment, as a Seconded National Expert in
various policy fields. In November 2014 he joined the Commission as an EU official.
He works (and will continue working) for DG EMPL's Employment Analysis department where he
deals with quantitative labour market policy assessment. One of his main projects is the
development of a regional socio-demographic electronic atlas for local labour supply projection.
The focus of his research lies on the conditions for economic growth vis-à-vis a shrinking
workforce, where he published the European Commission Working Paper on "Growth potential
of EU human resources and policy implications for future economic growth" last year together
with Constantinos Fotakis.
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Lin BAO
PH.D, associate professor, director of the Department of Population and Social Development
Research, Institute of Population and Labour Economics (IPLE), Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences (CASS) .
His research interest is: Population ageing and elderly support; Public policy on Population
Education.
Work experience:
Feb.2001-now, Institute of Population and Labor Economics (IPLE), Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences (CASS) ( Feb.2010-May 2012, postdoctoral study in Institute of Energy, Environment
and Economy, Tsinghua University)
May 2000-Feb. 2001 GEF/WBG/GOC (Global Environment Facility, World Bank Group,
Government of China) Renewable Energy Strategic Partnership Program Management Office.
Géry COOMANS
Géry Coomans, Ph.D., is labour economist and demographer.
He is former Directeur de recherches at the Paris Institut des Sciences Mathématiques et
Economiques Appliquées. Géry is also former expert, often consulted by the European
Commission, DG Employment and Social Affairs; Géry is the author of the "Atlas of Prospective
Labour Supply 2005" Géry retired in 2014.
Thomas BENDER
Head of Unit: External Relations, Neighborhood Policy, Enlargement, IPA Employment, Social
Affairs and Inclusion Directorate General, European Commission
Thomas Bender, PhD, has joined the European Commission in 1994 to work on education and
training policies. Since 1997 he works with the Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Directorate General (DG EMPL).
He planned and managed European Social Fund programs in Ireland, England, Northern
Ireland, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Netherlands, and was dealing with the preaccession instrument IPA in Croatia. He was also in charge of analyzing national employment
policies in the context of the European Employment Strategy as well as national strategic
reports on social inclusion and protection within the Open Method of Coordination.
From 2007 to 2012, he has been Head of Unit in charge of ESF co-ordination, legislation and
policy, preparing the EU structural funds legislation for the budgetary cycle 2014 - 2020.
Since July 2012, he is in charge of the DG EMPL unit dealing with external relations,
neighborhood policy and enlargement, including the instrument for pre-accession in Croatia,
Turkey, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Montenegro.
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Peter HAVLIK
Peter Havlik is Research Economist and former Deputy Director at The Vienna Institute for
International Economic Studies (wiiw) and Guest research scholar at the International Institute
for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). His main research areas currently cover economic
transition in Central and Eastern Europe, foreign trade, competitiveness, EU integration, EURussian relations and analysis and forecasts of macroeconomic developments.
He is also country expert for Russia and the Newly Independent States (NIS) at wiiw. During his
career he participated in and coordinated various large projects, for instance ‘Industrial
Restructuring in the NIS: experiences of and lessons from the new EU Member States
(INDEUNIS), funded by the EU Sixth Framework Program (2005-2007), on ‘European energy
security‘ (2008-2010) and ‘Trade integration in the CIS‘ (2011-2012) for the OENB Jubilee fund.
He has also contributed to and coordinated various chapters of the EU
Competitiveness Reports (2003, 2009, 2012, 2013) and recently coordinated the Work Package
‘Economic Developments and Structural Change in the Process of Transition and EU
Membership‘ within the international FP7 research project GRINCOH.
Zhang TAO
Dr. Zhang Tao is research fellow of Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) and director of
economic modeling division at Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics (IQTE),
member of Chinese Association of Quantitative Economics (CAQE), and member of Academic
Committee of Pangoal Institution. Zhang Tao works in macroeconomics, econometrics,
economic modeling and forecasting. He has published widely such as "Combining Forecast—
Theory, Method and Application(2008)", "Economic Development, Personal Income Tax
Adjustment and China’s Urban Household Income Disparity (2014)", "An Agent-based Microsimulation for Evaluating Income Distribution Policies in Complex Adaptive System"，"The
Effects of China's Stimulus Policies and Their Transmission Channels (2011)"”
Janos VARGA
Janos Varga is an economic analyst at the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs
of the European Commission.
He carries out model-based impact assessments using European Commission's QUEST3 dynamic
stochastic general equilibrium model.
He has published on EU structural reform, economic integration and regional policy issues.
Nicolas GIBERT-MORIN
Nicolas Gibert-Morin was head of the office of László Andor, the European Commissioner for
Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion in the Barroso II Commission. Before that, Nicolas was
head of unit in charge with Italy, Denmark and Sweden in the same Directorate General. In
January 2015 he took over the post of the head of unit in charge with Employment Analysis.
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Wei ZHONG
Wei Zhong, a Senior research fellow in institute of economics, Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, who is also the director of economic development research division, the director of
China economic transition and development center of Institute of economics, CASS.
He got his MA degree from Economic school in Peking University in 1991, then he join the
institute of economics, CASS. In 2003, he got his Ph. D degree from department of economics of
the graduate school of CASS.
Since 1996, he involved in income distribution and relevant issue research. His main research
interest includes: income distribution, labor market, regional economic development, etc. And
have done a lot of policy research for different ministries and central government.
He involved in several international collaboration projects, and made presentation in
international academic workshops and conferences. He has ever been a guest research fellow in
India-China institute of the New School (2007-2009) and visiting professor in Nagoya
University(2009).
GAAITZEN DE VRIES
Gaaitzen de Vries is assistant professor of economics at the University of Groningen. He
participates in various international programs funded (among others) by the the European
Commission in the areas of production fragmentation and structural change.
He has been a consultant and advisor for various organisations including the United Nations, the
Asian Development Bank, and the OECD. His research has appeared in international journals,
including the Journal of Regional Science, Economic Policy, and the Journal of Economic
Perspectives.
Konstantinos POULIAKAS
Konstantinos Pouliakas is an Expert on Skills and Labour Markets at the European Centre for the
Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop). He is the agency’s main researcher on skill
mismatch and supports its skills anticipation projects. In 2014-2015, he designed, managed and
analysed the first Cedefop European Skills and Jobs Survey.
Before joining Cedefop he held posts at the University of Aberdeen (UK) and the University of
Cyprus and enjoyed brief stints in policymaking at the Bank of Greece and HM Treasury. He
frequently publishes in peer-reviewed journals of Economics.
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Egbert HOLTHUIS
Egbert HOLTHUIS has the Dutch nationality and has Masters Degrees in Business
Administration and Geography. Before joining the European Commission in 1993 he worked
respectively in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch Organization for Applied
Scientific Research TNO. He started his career for the European Commission working in the
Commission's Delegation in Tchad as an economic counsellor. In DG Enterprise he worked
respectively in the Steel and Chemicals Unit in the latter he was concerned with developing
new legislation on chemicals (REACH).
Upon joining DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion in 2004 he was involved in
monitoring the employment and social situation of the European Union (e.g. in the
Employment Analysis Unit) as well as in coordinating and monitoring national employment
policies in the context of the Lisbon and the European Employment strategy (e.g. with a special
focus on migration and the assessment of crisis measures). Egbert is now the Head of Unit in
the Social policies, Innovation and Governance Unit that coordinates EU Member States'
policies in the context set by the Europe 2020 Strategy on smart sustainable and inclusive
growth.
Yuan ZHAOHUI
Yuan Zhaohui was born in 1971. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics. He is Associate Researcher,
Industrial Relations Research Center at the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. He is mainly
engaged in research of Labor economics and Labor Relations. He published many journal articles
in recent years, such as "Research on the contradiction of labor relations in Chinese Enterprises"
or "Study on labor dispatch in China".
Wenshu GAO
Professor Wenshu Gao completed his Ph.D. in economics at the Institute of Finance and Trade
of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2003 and subsequently joined the Institute of
Population and Labor Economics of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, where he has been
since. In 2008/2009, he was a visiting scholar in the Economics Department of Monash
University, Australia and in 2012 he was a visiting researcher in the Economics School of Nagoya
University, Japan.
Prof. Gao is now the chief of the Division of Human Resource Research of the Institute of Population
and Labor Economics at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and has research interests in
employment, social security, internal migration, income inequality and human resource
management, on which he has published many papers in such peer-reviewed journals as Journal of
Development Study, Applied Economics Letters, Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, China
Economics Review etc. And he has finished such projects as “Internal Migration and the Rural-Urban
Income Gap in China” funded by the National Social Sciences Foundation of China, “The New
Generation of Young Migrants: New Face, Hukou Reform and Job Market Integration” funded by the
International Labor Organization, “A Study on the Rural Pension System in Chengdu” funded by the
World Bank, and “The Income Inequality in Western China” funded by the Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences, etc.
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Enrique FERNÁNDEZ‐MACÍAS
Enrique is a Research Manager in Eurofound, Dublin. He has a PhD in Economic Sociology by the
University of Salamanca, and his main research interests are job quality, occupational change
and the division of labor. He has participated and coordinated several large‐scale European
projects on job quality and structural change, such as the European Working Conditions Survey
and the European Jobs Monitor. Before joining Eurofound, he worked as researcher and
lecturer in the Departments of Applied Economics and Sociology of the University of Salamanca.
Some of his recent publications are "The Transformation of the Employment Structure in the EU
and USA" (Palgrave), "Measuring more than Money: the Social Economics of Job Quality"
(Elgar), "Job Polarization in Europe? Changes in the Employment Structure and Job Quality,
1995‐2007" (Work and Occupations) and "E pluribus unum? A critical survey of job quality
indicators" (Socio‐Economic Review).
Ettore MARCHETTI
Ettore Marchetti, Administrator at DG EMPL, social protection systems unit, is currently working
on pension reforms and active ageing.
His principal interest is demography and population ageing.
Sonia JEMMOTTE
Is a Seconded National Expert from the UK who co-authors and edits DG Empl's Employment
And Social Situation Quarterly Review, she also works on Youth and Migration files, for example
managing the Youth Guarantee contract for gathering and analysing Member States' data on
the youth guarantee.
Sonia is a Social Researcher in UK and designed and managed several employment policy
evaluations for example the 'Families with Multiple Problems evaluation, the ESF ex-ante
evaluation, Local Housing Allowance, The Cost of Administering Housing and Council Tax Benefit
research and evaluation projects.
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