The Executive Secretariat Team
Barbora NOVOTNA SVOJSE
Partnership Officer
barbora.novotna@wapes.org
Bio:
Along the way, she’s gathered a wealth of expertise in employment, social, skills, youth policies, mobility and ESF+ programme management. Building partnerships and networks, and coordinating activities at the EU and international level, like mutual learning events and conferences, has been both a joy and a privilege. Joining the WAPES executive secretariat feels like closing the circle of the exciting parts of her professional journey.
Pierre-Alain Vandewalle
Communication Officer
+32 2 235 72 57
+32 2 235 72 59 communication@wapes.org
Bio:
Pierre-Alain joined WAPES Executive Secretariat in February 2015.
Initially Pierre-Alain went for a three-month internship in Venezuela for his degree in Communication. However he decided to stay in this country for 12 years.
In 2014 he returned to Belgium. Developing a passion for audiovisual and cultural work, Pierre Alain first collaborated on the creation of a community television in a popular district of Maracay in Venezuela. Then together with his Venezuelan wife, he created a non-profit Socio-Cultural organization called “Fundación Socio-Cultural AUTANA” of which he was the director for 10 years. The Fundación organizes free workshops for audiovisual production, films and documentaries projections in popular neighborhoods called “barrios”, produces video reports and helps other organizations to emerge.
Pierre-Alain also holds a degree in education with mention in Cultural Development from the Experimental Nacional University “Simón Rodríguez” in Caracas, Venezuela. In his last position he worked for two years as a communication expert for the National Experimental University for Security “UNES” for the Aragua and Carabobo regions in Venezuela.
Pierre-Alain spends his leisure time with his two children helping them discover the Belgian culture.
Nicole CLOBES
Consultante +32 2 235 72 50 nicole.clobes@wapes.org
Bio:
Nicole joined WAPES Executive Secretariat in March 2023.
Nicole is seconded by the German Federal Employment Agency.
In the German Public Employment Service (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) she has been working in various positions such as Placement Officer, Vocational Advisor, Team Lead and most recently at the European Representation of the German Federal Employment Agency.
Nicole has been living and studying in the USA for a couple years. Since 2021 she lives together with her family in Belgium.
Nicole holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and a Master’s degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Ulf NORMAN
Consultant +32 2 235 72 56 ulf.norman@wapes.org
Bio:
Ulf joined the WAPES executive secretariat in October 2023.
Ulf is seconded by Arbetsförmedlingen, the Swedish public employment service.
At Arbetsförmedlingen, he has held a variety of positions, including consultant, key account manager, international coordinator, project manager and international business manager (interim). Ulf lived and worked in Tunisia and France from 1988 to 2001 before returning to Sweden. He joined Arbetsförmedlingen in 2006.
He studied at Stockholm University, for example.
French with EU studies, French, culture and society and Interculturality and communicative competence.
Amandine MOIGNARD
Projects Director +32 2 235 72 55 amandine.moignard@wapes.org
Bio:
Amandine joined the WAPES Executive Secretariat in June 2023 as Projects Director.
After studying international relations in Paris (France), Amandine chose Madrid (Spain) to complete her studies with a Masters in international cooperation and project management. It was here that she began a career in managing development projects with a consulting firm and then with a Spanish public foundation that promotes peer-to-peer technical cooperation for public administration. She then worked for 2 years in Bamako (Mali) for a family planning NGO, before finally returning to Europe, first in Paris with an experience with France Médias Monde and then in Brussels.
It was her experience at SOCIEUX+ that introduced her to the work of public employment services and made her want to join the WAPES family.
Fumie HIGASHIRA
Joint-Project Coordinator +32 2 235 72 58
wadafumie@Skype fumie.higashira@wapes.org
Bio:
Fumie joined the secretariat during September 2021. Fumie joined WAPES in September 2021. She is a seconded official from MHLW (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan) to WAPES, as a coordinator of Japan-WAPES Joint Project.
In this project (2021-2023), she works with Cambodian PES (the National Employment Agency). She is going to develop a performance assessment framework based on the recommendation report of the 1st phase of the project. She has been engaged with career guidance measures to help practitioners including those in the PES, as well as planning training sessions in the International Training Center of ILO (2013-2015). She also has a Master of Arts in Lifelong Learning and Career Studies.
She enjoys flower arrangement (Sogetsu school of ikebana) and is looking forward to visiting museum of fine arts and ballet spectacles in Europe.
Thierry HUORT
Consultant +32 2 235 72 54 thierry.huort@wapes.org
Bio:
Thierry joined the secretariat at the beginning of January 2020 .
Thierry HUORT has been seconded by Pôle emploi, the French public employment service, to WAPES since January 2020.
For more than 35 years in the employment service, he has held various positions from employment consulting to management to human resources project management.
Since 1997, Pôle emploi has also entrusted him with missions in the context of international cooperation. In this respect, he has been involved in various countries/regions: Albania, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, New Caledonia and Morocco, for which he led a Morocco-European Union institutional twinning project for the benefit of ANAPEC (Morocco PES) in cooperation with Arbetsformedlingen (Sweden PES) and GVG (Germany Assoc.).
Born in Algeria, he lived in Ivory Coast until the age of 18. After initial technical studies (Electronics), and resuming on-the-job studies, he holds a University Diploma in Educational Sciences (DUPHA “Human Potential and Learning”).
Oussama LAKHMIRI
Consultant o.lakhmiri@anapec.org
Bio:
Born in Fez, the spiritual and scientific capital of Morocco, where every alleyway in the medina tells a story going back more than 1230 years, he finds himself immersed in his environment. He went on to study political science and international relations to broaden his horizons and gain a better understanding of socio-political phenomena.
An enthusiast of lifelong learning, he favors action-based training, which yields better results in the workplace in terms of usefulness and skills acquired. With over 25 years’ professional experience, including 21 years with the Moroccan Public Employment Service ANAPEC, he has risen through the ranks with the latter since its creation, managing numerous projects considered complex, given the diversity of themes, participants and locations involved in each one. Projects that also require a mastery of project management techniques and international cooperation mechanisms. Nevertheless, these projects are very successful.
He has held a number of positions of responsibility in the Trade, Job Market, Marketing and Communications. His current position within the Moroccan PES is “Head of Communication and Institutional Relations Division”, which is part of ANAPEC’s strategic processes.