Valentina Vezzali, Italian Sub-Secretary for Sport, was born in Jesi, Italy. Foilswoman, she is the most successful Olympic athlete in the history of Italian sport, having won nine medals, including six gold ones, during the five editions of the Olympic Games in which she has participated. She was flag bearer for the Italian team at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

A former member of parliament in the 17th legislature, her parliamentary activity focused particularly on the issues of sport, women's rights, physical education, health and nutrition.

  Statement

Bjørn Berge serves as the Council of Europe’s Deputy Secretary General since 1 March 2021.

As the Deputy Secretary General he is involved in a number of key areas of the work of the Organisation, including advising and overseeing the implementation of the Secretary General’s reform agenda, in line with the decisions and priorities of the Committee of Ministers.

His priorities include shaping the Programme and Budget, while ensuring that the Organisation’s activities have maximum impact in advancing democracy, human rights and the rule of law. He also oversees the Council of Europe’s staff policy, as well as other key areas of the work of the Organisation.

Before taking up his post, Mr Berge was for a period of four years Director General and Secretary to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

Between 2009-2017, he served as Director of the Private Office of the Secretary General and the Deputy Secretary General, helping to prepare, co-ordinate and implement a number of comprehensive reforms of the Organisation.

Mr Berge has over thirty years of international professional experience.

As a former Norwegian diplomat, he served as International Adviser to the Prime Minister and as Deputy Director of the Foreign Minister’s Cabinet responsible for all matters related to Parliament. He also served as speechwriter to three Norwegian Foreign Ministers.

Mr Berge has published several books on a range of issues relating to speech writing and speeches, as well as articles on the Council of Europe’s mandate and work.

He was a Fulbright Scholar and holds a M.A. in International Relations from the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, Washington D.C., USA.

  Statement

Philipp Müller-Wirth holds an MBA in Economics and Finance. His career in UNESCO since 1991 evolved around three areas: partnerships with the business community, institutional communication and branding, and sport policy. He coordinated the last two World Conferences of Sport Ministers: MINEPS V in Berlin, Germany in 2013 and MINEPS VI in Kazan, Russia in 2017 and chaired the revision of the International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport in 2015. As Secretary of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for Physical Education and Sport (CIGEPS), he is coordinating the implementation of the Kazan Action Plan.

Satu Heikkinen is Senior Ministerial Adviser in the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland. Her work focuses on international co-operation and ethical issues in sports. Ms Heikkinen has extensive experience of intergovernmental co-operation in the Council of Europe and UNESCO.

The speaker has not provided their biography. 

Independent researcher and adviser for policy making.

Founder of the Policy Research Centre Territoria for applied social sciences, public private policies (PPP methodologies) and CSR programs, operating in strict cooperation with universities, institutes for advanced studies and finance operators. Advisor and consultant to private companies and public institutions. He is a social scientist with a degree in Contemporary History at the University of Pavia and an episthemological background. He has specialized in promotion of local communities, the social role of sport, prevention and countering to crime. Former athlete.

Advisor to G20 Italian Presidency on Sport Integrity. Consultant to UNODC on sport and organized crimes issues for the Global Study on Sport and Corruption. Former Co-Chair of Action III on Sport Integrity of the UNESCO Kazan Action Plan. Former Advisor to the Italian Ministry for Sport on sport integrity matters, match-fixing and corruption, being delegated member to the European Commission Expert Group on Sport Integrity: since 2014 he has supported the international networking, the designing of policies and the coordination of intervention programs. Special relevance has the project “Anti-Match-Fixing Formula” co- funded by EC DG HOME, which has established a protected reporting system for sports, in cooperation with the High School ASAG of Catholic University. In this framework he has organized the 2014 Milan EU Seminar “Match-fixing: a key issue for sports integrity” under the Italian Presidency of the European Council. Within Italian MFA activities has supported the co-tabling, co-sponsoring and negotiation of UNCAC Resolutions 7/8 and 8/4 on sport and corruption at COSP7 in Vienna in 2017 and COSP8 in Abu Dhabi in 2019. In the field of sport integrity he has also designed and implemented for the Municipality of Milan a Code of Conduct for Grass-Roots Sports, led workshops in international conferences such as IACC in Brasilia 2012, contributed to the UNODC Resource Guide for Investigations in match-fixing, coordinated in Italy the European projects “Stop Match-Fixing”, AMATT, TPREG, DRAWS and SbS4MED since 2013 till 2021.

Creator and director of Sport4Impact Forum.

Creator and director of the Giorgio Ambrosoli Award.

Senior Partner of Transparency International Italy, former member of the National Commission for Integrity of the largest Italian corporate syndicate (Confcommercio).

Silvija Mitevska is an advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia on Sports. She is chairing the inter-sectoral group for the National Program for Physically Active Nation as well as the working group for gender equality in sport within the Olympic Committee of North Macedonia. She is a recognised expert in the field of sports diplomacy.

She holds a master’s in political science and human rights and has a vast experience in sport and civil society sector. Silvija is an emerging leader of Global Sports Mentoring Program supported by the U.S State Department and the New Leaders program supported by IOC.

László Földi, freelance trainer and consultant in the field of democratic citizenship and human rights education, and expert in education through sport, using sport as a tool for developing social and citizenship skills. Presently the coordinator and consultant of Democracy Reloading Strategic Partnership of the Erasmus+ EU Program. Formerly working for the Hungarian Erasmus + Youth national agency as director between 1998-2010. Between 2013-2017 he was the community manager of the No Hate Speech Movement of the Council of Europe.

Jason Whybrow has extensive experience across a range of sport integrity areas. He is currently the Director of the Sports Wagering and Competition Manipulation team with responsibility for Commonwealth policy development for sport integrity issues including wagering related corruption and evolving threats to sport. He engages with stakeholder across wagering issues, including sport organizations, wagering service providers, jurisdictional gambling regulators and international sport integrity multi-stakeholder initiatives. Jason’s experience consists of time as Director National Integrity of Sport Unit at the Department of Health, working on the Major Sporting Events Taskforce whole of Government coordination for AFC Asian Cup 2015 and ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Prior to this role Jason worked at ASADA and as a Racing NSW stipendiary steward across all areas of sports integrity. Sport Integrity Australia was established 1 July 2020 to provide a coordinated approach to all sport integrity matters for Australia and to engage with international partners to enhance the global response.

Claudio Marinelli is a Criminal Intelligence Officer for the Anti Corruption Unit at the General Secretariat of INTERPOL in Lyon (France), where he is the Project Manager of the INTERPOL Match-Fixing Task Force, a world-wide network of investigators dealing with manipulation of sport competitions cases. He is a Financial Investigator from the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza), seconded from Italy, and prior to joining INTERPOL, he was dealing with criminal and financial investigations both at national level in Milan and Rome as well as internationally within the International Police Cooperation Service, the INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Italy. Having reached a strong international aptitude and speaking three foreign languages, upon decree of the Head of Police and the General Director of Public Security, he was appointed as National Point of Contact in different international working groups and as International Expert for Italian Authorities. Claudio is graduate in Economy and Companies Legislation and is specialized at the Economic and Financial Superior School of Guardia di Finanza. He has been responsible for the management of numerous international case coordination and for the organisation, both at domestic and at international level, of workshops and seminars as trainer/speaker in a wide range of topics including money laundering, financial investigation, asset recovery and match-fixing. He is also author of professional books.

  Statement

Sophie Kwasny is the Head of the Sport Division of the Council of Europe (international organisation based in France) responsible for the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) and the promotion and implementation of ground-breaking legal instruments upholding the integrity and values of sport. Combating doping and the manipulation of sport competitions, and promoting an integrated safety, security and service approach at sports events are the key aims of the three Council of Europe Sport Conventions. She is a graduate of the Strasbourg Law University and has been working for the Council of Europe for over 20 years on a variety of topics ranging from data protection to prisons’ reforms, or from the independence of the judiciary to nationality law.

  Presentation

2019-present
Colonel, head of Division at the Italian International Police Cooperation Service (Ministry of Interior – Department of Public Security – Directorate for Criminal Police); Head of Italian Asset Recovery Office; Italian national contact point for the Anti-Match Fixing Task Force of Interpol; Coordinator of the Police and Customs Cooperation Centres (PCCC-PCC); Italian representative at the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre (IACCC).

2017-2019
Colonel, head of the Provincial Command of the Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza) in Trento (Italy).

2015-2017
Colonel, head of the Anti-Money Laundering Group at the Guardia di Finanza’s Anti Money Laundering Special Unit in Rome (Unit with anti-money laundering investigative competence at national level).

2010-2015
Lt. Colonel, head of the 1st Tax Evasion Investigative Group at the Guardia di Finanza’s Special Investigative Unit in Venice (Italy).

2008-2010
Major, attendant of the Guardia di Finanza’s High Specialization Course in Tax evasion and economic crime at the Guardia di Finanza’s Economic-Financial Police School in Rome.

2003-2008
Captain, head of Section at the 2nd Department of the Guardia di Finanza’s General Headquarters (International Police and Customs cooperation).

2000-2003
Captain, head of Guardia di Finanza’s Operational Unit in Trieste (Italy, Slovenian border).

1997-2000
Lieutenant, head of Guardia di Finanza Operational Unit in San Candido and Prato Drava (Italy, Austrian border).

1992-1997
Guardia di Finanza’s Academy in Bergamo (1992-1996) and Rome (1997).

Eric Bisschop is the Vice Federal Prosecutor of the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office and also Head of the Organised Crime Unit within this Office. This Unit deals with high level cases of organised crime, drugs, trafficking and smuggling of human beings, cybercrime, organised thefts, criminal motor gangs, financial crimes and match fixing.

He has a large international experience, as driving force behind 10 agreements on co-operation with foreign countries (Romania, Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, The Netherlands, Egypt and Brazil).

He is a member of the Belgian National Platform in the fight against match fixing in Sports, and widely considered as an expert in this domain.

Valérie Peano has developed solid know-how and unique competences in national/EU gaming and betting laws and regulations acting as full-time advisor to SOGEI, technological partner of the Italian Gambling Authority within the International Gambling Observatory established from 2004 to 2008.

Since 2009, she is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Association for the Studies of Gambling (EASG) and was appointed as its Vice-President between 2014 and 2018.

From 2015 to 2018, she was among the Experts group of the Italian Chamber of Deputies IV Permanent Commission (Finance) for gaming and betting matters.

Since 2015, she has been working on EU Commission anti-match fixing projects such as TPREG Training on Protected Reporting System for Professional and Grassroots Sport and AMATT Anti Match Fixing Top Training.

In 2021, she was among the Experts of the UNODC report, for the Money Laundering and Illegal Betting on Sports chapter.

She contributes to gambling and legal reviews both at national and international level and is a regular speaker at key gambling conferences at European level.

Corentin Segalen is responsible for the integrity of sports betting at the ANJ and coordinator of the French platform against the manipulation of sports competitions. On 25 November, he was elected Chair of the Group of Copenhagen, the international network of national platforms. After studying History and Criminal Justice Policy at the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics, he was an assistant to a Member of the European Parliament, then to a Member of Parliament before becoming the parliamentary and diplomatic adviser to the Minister of Sport in 2012 before joining the Gambling Regulatory Authority in 2015.

  Presentation

Salomeja Zaksaite earned a master's degree in law in 2008 and a doctorate in law in 2012 from Vilnius University in Lithuania. Her doctoral dissertation was titled "Cheating in Sports: Prevalence and Prevention Issues." Since 2006, she has worked as a research fellow at the Law Institute of the Lithuanian Centre for Social Sciences. She is currently a Chairperson of the International Chess Federation's Fair Play Commission and an Attorney-at-law. Salomeja Zaksaite has published numerous scientific and practical articles and conducted multidisciplinary research. Her research interests include criminology, sports law, and criminal justice.

Daniel Cooper is co-chair of Covington’s Data Privacy and Cyber Security Practice, and advises clients on information technology regulatory and policy issues, particularly data protection, consumer protection, AI, and data security matters, including the sport sector. He has over 20 years of experience in the field, representing clients in regulatory proceedings before privacy authorities in Europe and counseling them on their global compliance and government affairs strategies. Dan regularly lectures on the topic, and was instrumental in drafting the privacy standards applied in professional sport. He has also advised the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) on privacy regulations relating to doping procedures.

According to Chambers UK, his "level of expertise is second to none, but it's also equally paired with a keen understanding of our business and direction." It was noted that "he is very good at calibrating and helping to gauge risk."

Dan is qualified to practice law in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Belgium. He has also been appointed to the advisory and expert boards of privacy NGOs and agencies, such as Privacy International and the European security agency, ENISA.

  Statement

Head of Office the Analysis Project Corruption within the European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC) at Europol. In its current role, Sergio D'Orsi is managing Europol’s response on fighting Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) involved in all forms of corruption, and supporting EU Member States and Europol’s Operational Partners in their major corruption investigations.

Sergio joined Europol in 2011 and covered different roles since then within Europol’s Operations Department.

Previous professional experience for over 20 years as a senior team leader investigator within the Italian National Police (Polizia di Stato), engaged in complex investigations against organised crime, particularly focusing on Mafia-type criminal syndicates.

Sergio has an extensive experience as international investigator and Expert on serious and organised crime and counter-terrorism within EU Civilian Crisis Management Missions (CSDP) and United Nations Peace Keeping Operations, particularly related to the Balkan region, covering different positions.

In that context, Sergio has led various operational Task Forces responsible for investigating serious and organised crimes, including high-level corruption, murders, trafficking in human beings.

Holds a Master Degree in Sciences of Public Administration (MSc) from the State University of Turin, Italy.

  Statement

Tatiana Mesquita Nunes works for the Brazilian General Attorney Office since 2009 and is the President of the Brazilian Unique Antidoping Court since 2018. She worked for the Sports Ministry in 2015-2016 to give legal advice on the Olympics and other issues related to the Brazilian sports policy. She also worked for the General Attorney Office Anticorruption Division from 2017 to 2019 and was appointed as Brazilian representative on the IPACS steering committee, also occupying a chair on Task Force 3 of IPACS. She holds a master’s degree from São Paulo University on constitutional law and sports integrity.

  Presentation

Stefano Caneppele is associate professor in criminology and deputy director of the School of Criminal Justice of the University of Lausanne (UNIL), where he teaches criminological courses including Sport, Crime, and Integrity. His research interests focus on crime analysis, crime prevention, security, organized and economic crime. He has been active in the field of sporting integrity since 2017, cooperating with the Council of Europe (EPAS) on the development of a database on alleged cases of corruption in sport (DACCS). In 2018, he has been appointed as board member of the UNIL Interdisciplinary Centre for Sports Research which, among its objectives, aims at attracting, consolidating, and applying new research competencies in the sports field by facilitating exchanges and collaborations between researchers within and outside UNIL. From 2019, he is part of the scientific committee of the UNIL Certificate in Advanced Studies on the Regulation of Global Sport. This certificate is intended for participants who are interested in the management of units of global sports organizations and face the challenges of global sport. In the field of research partnerships, he acts as principal team investigator for UNIL in the Erasmus+ project Evidence-based Prevention of Sporting-related Match-fixing (EPOSM), led by colleagues from the University of Ghent. Prof. Caneppele has been invited speakers to several conferences on sporting integrity. He is also part of the Conference Scientific Committee of the 2022 Sport&EU Conference which will be hosted in Lausanne in 2022 (16-17 June) and, since 2018 he is Associate Editor of the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, a peer-reviewed journal published by Springer. Among his recent academic contributions on sporting integrity: “An overview of corruption in sport around the world” (2021, written with Giulia Cinaglia and Fiona Langlois, in Restoring Trust in Sport, published by Routledge), “Match-fixing in European Football After Covid-19: A country vulnerability index” (2021), and “Those who counter match-fixing fraudsters: Voices from a multistakeholder ecosystem” (2020, written with Fiona Langlois et Pim Verschuuren).

As an International Affairs Officer, Izadora Zubek is in charge of developing the AFA’s bilateral and multilateral international relations. Under the joint authority of the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Budget, the AFA is a nationwide service whose mission is to support public and private actors in preventing and detecting corruption and related offenses. To this end, the AFA provides guidance to both government and business entities and monitors the effectiveness of anti-corruption compliance programs implemented by these entities.

Prior to joining the AFA, Ms. Zubek held the position of International Project Officer at the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP), an independent public body responsible for promoting integrity among public officials and regulating lobbying in France. She also worked at the BRICS Policy Center, a think tank based in Brazil, as part of a research project on nuclear governance funded by the Hewlett Foundation, and at the European Commission, where she assisted in the preparations for the European Solidarity Corps program.

Ms. Zubek holds master’s degrees in Political Science and International Relations from Paris II Panthéon-Assas University and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

Alexandre Husting is the attaché for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport at the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the European Union and the adviser on International and European affairs for the Luxembourg Ministry of Sport. He is the Chair of the EPAS Governing Board and the Member representing Luxembourg in the Drafting Group on the Macolin Convention on the manipulation of sports competitions. 

September 2021- Present:
Member of the Advisory Board, Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) EUROPE

April 2021- September 2021:
Elected Chair of the Advisory Group on International Cooperation within the Committee on Safety and Security at Sports Events (T-S4), Council of Europe

January 2021- Present:
Elected Member in WADA Finance & Administration committee

May 2019- Present:
Member of advisory board of Traditional Sports and Games Council (TSG)

June 2018 - Present:
Elected Member of the Bureau of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS), Council of Europe

November 2018- June 2021:
Deputy member of WADA Foundation Board

August 2017-September 2021:
Ministry of Youth and Sport, Bulgaria, Director of European Programmes, Projects and International Cooperation

Pâquerette Girard Zappelli has been the IOC Ethics and Compliance Officer since September 2002. She is in charge of updating the IOC Code of Ethics, as well as implementing provisions, including the rules regarding betting on the Olympic Games. Pâquerette also investigates and submits the cases related to possible breach of ethical principles to the IOC Ethics Commission with a view to recommend sanctions to the IOC Executive Board; and supports the Olympic Movement regarding the fight against attempts to harm the integrity of sport and the prevention of risks of corruption. Furthermore, Pâquerette was a judge in France from 1983 to 2002. She was also President of the International Association of Judges (IAJ) from September 1998 to October 2000; and President of the European Association of Judges (EAJ) in September 1994, a mandate which was renewed in September 1996. She has written a number of publications in the field of French law and the international judiciary.

  Statement (only available in Italian)

Ugo Taucer was born in Savona on August 7, 1962 and lives in Rome.

Prefect since September 11, 2018, since October 26, 2018 he holds the position of General Prosecutor of Sport at the Italian National Olympic Commitee.

After obtaining a degree in Political Sciences, he was Head of Cabinet of the Prefecture of Savona since 1995 and then moved to Rome in 2004.

He first became Head of the Organizing Secretariat of the Central Commission for the definition and application of special protective measures in favor of justice witnesses, then Chief Technical Staff of an Under-Secretary of State at Interior Ministry and, subsequently moving to Milan in 2013, he assumed the position of Head of Cabinet of the Prefect of that city, dealing with Expo Milan 2015 event preparation from safety, security and anti-mafia prevention point of view.

Returning to Rome in 2015, he was appointed Sub-Commissioner of Roma Capitale, with powers to Urban Planning, Public Works and Infrastructure, Contracts, Procurement and Relations with the National Anti-Corruption Autority and Head of Cabinet.

In 2016 he assumed the role of Vice-Prefect in Anti-mafia Control Office by Interior Ministry for post-earthquake reconstruction in central Italy.

Over the years, he has produced publications on immigration issues and the relationship between this phenomenon and religion, on new poverty, on the social role of adult education and also on issues concerning the specific professional sphere, dealing with the operational coordination between police forces, the legal-social evolution of the figures of collaborators and witnesses of justice, the role of mediation of the Prefect in social conflicts, the anti-mafia controls implemented to protect the EXPO Milan 2015 event and, more recently, wrote on "Safeguarding policies" in sport and on "Match-Fixing" prevention and prosecution.

He has also participated in important research and didactic activities on the same topics, both in the academic and public administration fields, and continues to combine his professional activity with a great interest in law, social and sport research.

  Presentation

With 15 years of experience in Sport for All as a coach, volunteer, programme and event coordinator and project manager, Keri McDonald is presently employed as the Business Development and Fundraising Manager for TAFISA. As well as completing a Bachelor of Arts (Sport Management) and Master of Science (Sport Policy, Management and International Development), Keri has worked across the public, not for profit and educational sector in the UK and Australia to increase sport and physical activity opportunities for all citizens, with a strong emphasis on marginalised groups and vulnerable populations. Keri is also a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh, investigating the evolvement of Sport for Development and Peace in the South African context.

  Statement

Rowland Jack founded I Trust Sport in London in 2013, a sports governance and compliance company dedicated to improving international sports governance through collaboration.

Rowland supports International Federations, institutions and other organisations on consultancy projects that have improving sports governance as their aim.

Recent projects include governance reviews of International Federations and support for the International Partnership Against Corruption in Sport (IPACS) Governance Benchmark, which is currently under development.

Rowland has given lectures on governance at universities and spoken at international conferences. Starting in 2020, he has been leading courses for the Sports Governance Academy in the UK.

In 2015-16 he worked in-house at UK Sport, the national high performance sports agency, helping to develop the Code for Sports Governance in the UK.

Before taking on his role as a sports governance consultant he worked in sports marketing and communications for more than 10 years in several countries, including at six editions of the Olympic Games, summer and winter. A particular highlight was managing the News Desk in the Main Press Centre during the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino.

Rowland has degrees from Oxford University and Loughborough University. He is also a Director of Governance United Ltd.

The speaker has not provided their biography. 

Since 2008 Stanislas Frossard has been the Executive Secretary of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS), which is an intergovernmental platform of co-operation of the Council of Europe on Sports policies. He has led EPAS and has been its Executive Secretary since its creation. EPAS currently counts 40 member states and 29 partner sports organisations. It organises ministerial meetings of the Council of Europe every second year. EPAS coordinated the negotiation of five recommendations of the Committee of Ministers to member States of the Council of Europe, and the preparation of an International Convention on the manipulation of sports competitions. Mr Frossard started his career in the Council of Europe in 2003 as an Administrator in charge of the monitoring of the Sports Conventions Unit (Anti-doping and Spectator Violence Conventions), as well as the cooperation with the World Anti-doping Agency, UNESCO and Sports Federations in this area. Before joining the Council of Europe Secretariat, Mr Frossard had various positions as an NGO leader, trainer and consultant in the areas of youth, refugees and environment. He managed a national referendum campaign to defend asylum rights for the Swiss Refugee Council in 2002, and he has been Chief Executive of national Youth NGOs. Holder of a degree in economic and social sciences from the University of Geneva, with specialisation in international issues at the Graduate Institute of International Studies (Geneva), he also holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from the Swiss Graduate School of Public Administration (Lausanne).

Francine Hetherington Raveney is an expert in the fields of gender equality, co-productions, communication and sport. She obtained a Master’s in Women’s Studies at Oxford University and then went on to carry out doctoral studies in France. Since 2000, she has worked in a number of international organisations, including WHO Europe and the Council of Europe, where she is currently Deputy Executive Secretary for EPAS with a special focus on gender equality, anti-discrimination work, managing the EPAS consultative committee and the mapping of sports facilities. In 2012, she founded and was Executive Director of the European Women’s Audiovisual Network. Between 2014 and 2020 she managed the gender equality working group for Eurimages and oversaw the adoption of the Council of Europe Recommendation on Gender Equality in the Audiovisual Sector (2017) and other gender-related work. She is also an advocate for well-being through sport, and sport as a preventative health measure.

Bringing his 28 years of experience in international diplomacy, Mr. Alberini was appointed Deputy Political Director and Principal Director for the United Nations and Human Rights for the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Alberini was first involved in Middle Eastern diplomacy when he was appointed the commercial counsellor at the Italian Embassy in Libya in 1994. As part of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Alberini was the chairman of the 2009 Global Partnership Working Group during the Italian G8 Presidency. He has also worked in the Italian Embassy in the United States as minister counsellor from 2014 to 2018.