Meet the Alumni Board
Meet the EIT Alumni Board
With a strong mandate to represent, guide and engage the cross-sectoral EIT Alumni community, representatives of the EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) alumni organisations are appointed as EIT Alumni Board Members on a mandate basis. Furthermore, in its efforts to foster the development of the leading community for young innovators and entrepreneurs, the EIT appoints in the EIT Alumni Board liaison EIT Alumni Officer, as well as an external Board Member.
EIT recognises the impact of young leaders in the EIT Alumni community for pan-European resilience and progress and acknowledges the importance of the EIT Alumni Board in providing a powerful platform for impact innovation, multi-stakeholder engagement and international cooperation.
In its work, the EIT Alumni Board ensures the development of the community and its alignment with the alumni KICs and EIT`s strategies and activities. As embedded in the 2023 - 2025 strategic objectives, the EIT Alumni Board members roles and responsibilities are an integral part of the EIT Alumni Strategic Development Framework and form an agile management system across three verticals (Alumni Nodes and Ecosystem Development, Partnerships and Identity, Engagement and Value Creation), one transversal (Financial Sustainability), the EIT Alumni Secretary General function and the EIT Alumni Officer.
EIT Alumni President
The EIT Alumni President, appointed by and reporting to the EIT Director represents over 12.000 alumni from all EIT KICs alumni organisations and leads the EIT Alumni Board. The role of the EIT Alumni President is to ensure the strategic steering, planning and forecasting of the EIT Alumni and provide effective representation of the entire community and vis-à-vis the EIT, the KICs and external stakeholders. The President also coordinates the activity of the EIT Alumni Board Members.
Anca del Rio (Term of office 2021- 2023)
Anca is a sociologist, health economist and thought leader in strategic development, public health and innovation governance. With a strong entrepreneurial drive for impact, digital transformation and positive change, she is fostering collective action between businesses, governments and the civil society for progress and a sustainable future. Anca puts great ambition in the advancement of need-led innovation, the meaningful adoption of technology and development of mission-oriented networks. As a lifelong catalyst and community builder in the innovation ecosystem, she is currently engaging young leaders with political and industry stakeholders to shape equitable and inclusive agendas for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. In her presidential role with the EIT Alumni, she oversees the strategic steering of EIT Alumni towards financial sustainability and global development by advancing cross-sectoral collaboration, a culture of growth and excellence and an impact mindset across EIT’s European and global network (USA, Israel, UK, China). Follow Anca del Rio on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Catherine Schreiber, EIT Alumni Board Chair (Term of office 2024-2025)
Catherine Schreiber brings extensive experience in entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership to her role as EIT Alumni Board Chair. With a passion for empowering others and fostering meaningful connections among changemakers, she is dedicated to driving the EIT Alumni community forward.
As co-founder and ex-Co-CEO of ADVITOS, a German deeptech medtech scale-up, Catherine led the company from a research start-up to a fully certified medtech company with 75 employees and a CE-certified multi organ support device for patients on the ICU. ADVITOS' success was recognized with the 3rd place of EIT Health Catapult 2019, EIC Accelerator blended finance support, and support from EIT Digital's Access2Finance program. Catherine is also the EIT Women Leadership Award Winner 2022 (nominated by EIT Digital).
In 2022, she launched a Mental Strength for Founders online training program, providing practical tools and coaching to help founders navigate the challenges of their entrepreneurial journey.
After the premature death of ADVITOS founder Bernhard Kreymann in 2022, she stopped her operational role at ADVITOS and after a sabbatical in 2023, now empowers entrepreneurs as advisor, coach, speaker and board member (www.munevo.de) .
She holds degrees in international business administration and mechanical engineering from TU Munich, with recent certifications as scale up Coach and Business Trainer, Coach & Change Management Consultant.
As EIT Alumni Board Chair, Catherine aims to foster encounter and collaboration, drive innovation, and create value adding opportunities for EIT alumni across all Knowledge and Innovation Communities.
Ioanna Nydrioti, Member of the EIT Alumni Board, EIT Alumni Community Representative (Term of office 2024-2025)
Ioanna is a Chemical Engineer with a Master's in Environmental Engineering and is currently pursuing her PhD at the National Technical University of Athens. She works as a Project Manager at White Research SRL, where she specializes in the implementation and proposal preparation of EU-funded research projects, particularly in the fields of environmental and energy systems.
Ioanna's journey in the EIT Community began through her participation in the LEADERS – Women Innovators in Manufacturing initiative and the Boost Up Competition of EIT Manufacturing. Additionally, she served as a Water expert in the Cross-KIC initiative "Finding innovative solutions for water scarcity in Southern Europe."
With her strong academic background and hands-on experience in stakeholder engagement and research dissemination, Ioanna brings valuable expertise to the EIT Alumni Community. She is passionate about fostering collaboration and enhancing engagement within the community, aiming to unlock its full potential for innovation and growth. Ioanna is committed to expanding the EIT Alumni.
Bilyana Nikolova, Member of the EIT Alumni Board, EIT Alumni Community Representative (Term of office 2024-2025)
Bilyana Nikolova is a dedicated entrepreneur and innovator with a strong commitment to addressing global challenges through technology and innovation. She co-founded two start-ups tackling water scarcity, achieving impressive results, including saving 3 million cubic meters of water, 1.5 million kWh of energy, and 3 Tonnes of CO2 emissions, as well as restoring the water supply to a town, struggling with water regime for several years.
An EIT Climate-KIC and EIT Food Alumni Community Member, Bilyana holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Montesquieu and a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from the American University in Bulgaria.
Bilyana is strongly convinced of technology's power to deliver sustainable solutions and generate real, measurable impact. Her motivation for joining the EIT Alumni Board Community is driven by her desire to contribute with her entrepreneurial spirit, strategic insight, and commitment to fostering innovation across Europe.
Miriam Irle, Member of the EIT Alumni Board, EIT Community Initiatives - Alumni Representative (Term of office 2024-2025)
After a few years of leading entrepreneurship projects for students in Malawi, Indonesia, India and Vietnam, Miriam kick-started the Alumni Community of EIT Health in 2017. Linguist and communication specialist by trade (M.A.), Miriam is now Head of the EIT Health Innovators Community and cross-KIC EIT Alumni Lead. In her free time, chances are you will find Miriam on one of Bavaria's beach volleyball courts or hiking in the Alps.
Lucrezia Collu, Member of the EIT Alumni Board, EIT Community Initiatives - Alumni Representative (Term of office 2024-2025)
Innovation Analyst at EIT Digital with extensive experience in researching the impact of digital technologies in the agritech field. She holds a BSc in Economics and a MSc in Management. At EIT Digital, she is responsible for implementing EU funded projects and overseeing education activities focused on addressing the gender gap in the digital sector. Additionally, she managed CONNECT 2023 in Barcelona for the EIT Alumni network.
Loris Valero-Leconte, Member of the EIT Alumni Board, EIT Community Initiatives - Alumni Representative (Term of office 2024-2025)
Loris Valero-Leconte is the EIT Community EDU-Cluster Manager at EIT Manufacturing, France. He holds a Master's degree as a Policy Officer in European and International Affairs from the Centre International de Formation Européenne and a BBA in Marketing and Business Development from SKEMA Business School.
Passionate about the higher education sector, Loris began his career in business school admissions before joining EIT Manufacturing as a Master and Doctoral Officer. He later transitioned to stakeholders and programme management as a RIS Hubs Manager, coordinating initiatives to develop local innovation ecosystems in the manufacturing sector for RIS countries. In his current role, he supports actions between EIT KICs to enhance education in Europe.
EIT Representative EIT Alumni Community Manager - Agnes Molnar (Term of Office 2022-2026)
Agnes joined the EIT in 2010 and contributed to the advancement of the Institute’s agenda through the preparation, development and implementation of the strategy and policy processes. Throughout her journey, she worked closely together with the EIT Governing Board, the Executive Committee, the EIT Director and EIT Management supporting the deployment of the strategy and steering of the operational activities.
With her academic accomplishments in economics, European public affairs, international finance and marketing, she successfully contributes to the development and coordination of the EIT Alumni Community. Leveraging an outstanding, international background from previous collaborations with EuropeAid Cooperation Office of the European Commission and The Open Society Foundations, Agnes brings a lot of passion and a future-oriented vision to the EIT Alumni Board, ensuring its impact and outreach within the broader EIT ecosystem. Agnes' personal interest lays in cultural and creative initiatives and industries. You can follow Agnes on LinkedIn.
Have a great idea for developing the Alumni Community? Want to get in touch with the Board?
Send us a message at eit-alumni@eit.europa.eu
Or contact us via the EIT Alumni social media channels.