Who we are

Stephi Boehm

People & Culture Manager

Stephi previously worked for a climate tech startup in Berlin, as the People Team Lead. Her focus was on recruiting new talent, onboarding, training & development of team members as well as employee retention. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business Administration from the Vienna University of Business and Economics and has a keen interest in helping create inclusive work environments, where everyone feels welcome and supported.

David Dresen

Campaigner

David joined BFF in March 2023. He has a BA in philosophy, politics and social sciences, is studying economics part-time and worked as a maths teacher.
He grew up knowing that his hometown Kuckum in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) would be destroyed for the Garzweiler II open cast lignite mine. Encouraged by the resistance in the Hambach Forst, David was part of founding ‘Alle Dörfer bleiben’ (all villages remain) in 2018 together with local residents and people from the climate justice movement. As one of the faces of the local resistance, he was part of ensuring that his village and four others were saved from destruction and that the coal phase-out in NRW was brought forward to 2030.
David supported lawsuits of local residents and contributed in many ways to the resistance against the destruction of Lützerath. Lützerath’s fate became known worldwide in January of 2023 – when amid huge protests the village was destroyed for the mining of climate-damaging lignite. Apart from his activist work, David is now working with BFF to bring about an earlier coal phase-out in eastern Germany.

Robyn Hamilton

Content creator

Robyn joined the team in 2023 as a Content Creator. She holds two Master’s degrees; one in Advertising from Technological University Dublin, and one Digital Journalism from Goldsmiths University, London. Originally from Dublin, Robyn is now based in Sweden and is excited to be bringing her skills and experience as a content marketer to the team. She is passionate about using cutting edge storytelling methods to engage audiences and create lasting positive change. She speaks English, French, Irish, and is currently learning Swedish.

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Tara Connolly

Campaigner

Tara has over 10 years of experience in EU energy policy and energy transition campaigning. She studied European Studies at Trinity College Dublin and Sustainable Development at the Technological University of Dublin. She worked for Greenpeace’s European Unit for over seven years as EU energy policy assistant, advisor and finally EU energy policy director before joining Friends of the Earth Europe as a gas campaigner and later Global Witness as a senior EU Gas Campaigner. She has sat on the board of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland and the Sustainable Water Network, Ireland’s network of NGOs working for water protection. She speaks English, French, Spanish, Italian and Irish.

Julia Pazos

Communications Officer

Julia is a communications professional with a background in digital marketing and journalism. For the past three years, she has worked in various NGOs on the topics of migration, collective impact, and digital education. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Global Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and is a US-German national based in Berlin.

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Claire Smith

International Campaigner

Claire joined the EBC secretariat in November 2022 as an International Campaigner. She previously worked for the Australian Government and UK Government, focusing on strategy development, strategic communications campaigning and international partnership building across a wide range of policy issues including climate change; clean energy transition; and international aid. Claire holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations, a Master’s degree in Strategic Communications, and has a keen interest in how to apply behavioural science communications to advance the global energy transition and respond more effectively to climate disasters.

Michal Zablocki

Communications and Campaign Consultant

Michal joined EBC Secretariat in October 2022. Before he worked for several years in campaign, media and policy teams at the environmental organizations ClientEarth and European Climate Foundation. He was a long time Polish Press Agency journalist: among others climate and environment reporter in Warsaw and foreign correspondent in Prague, Bratislava and Moscow. He’s also a member of Central-Eastern European policy think-tank Visegrad Insight, where he takes care of CEE’s green agenda.

He has an MA degree in linguistics from the University of Wroclaw, spent an academic scholarship at the University of Turin and speaks five foreign languages. In his free time he loves hiking and enjoys nature.

Kerem Gogtas

Operations Manager

Kerem has completed his Bachelor’s degree in translation and Interpretation in Istanbul. After taking part in some TV/Cinema production with various agencies, he decided to come to Germany to further his studies and to specialize in political science. He obtained a Master’s degree in European Studies in Europa-Universität Flensburg Germany where he wrote his thesis about Energy Transitions and their impact on European Integration. He is passionate about climate justice, energy transitions and fair social changes. He can speak Turkish, French, English and German.

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Brigitte Alarcon

Campaigner

Brigitte Alarcon has joined the Europe Beyond Coal Secretariat as a Campaigner to look after our Finance and Utilities work.

A French national, Brigitte holds a MSc in Political Science and a MSc in Environmental Law from the University of Aix-Marseille. Aside from a brief stint with an environmental consultancy, she has built her career working for NGOs on issues ranging from animal welfare to human health to sustainability.

A passionate environmentalist, she worked for seven years at WWF-UK: first in a role in which she sought to advance the adoption of sustainable diets in the EU ; she then was responsible for engaging with WWF’s corporate partners on issues including sustainable finance and climate change.

In her spare time, she enjoys diving, dancing and playing chess.

Anthimos Chatzivasileiou

Campaign Coordinator

Anthimos joined the EBC secretariat in May 2022 as the Campaign Coordinator. He holds a bachelor’s degree in International and European Affairs and a master’s degree in human rights. He has almost 18 years of working experience in policy advocacy, communications and project management. He started his career as political advisor for members of the Greek parliament and a European Commissioner. Following that period he dedicated his career in passionately pursuing environmental protection working with WWF Greece for more than 7 years. He speaks Greek, English, Italian and a bit of French.

Leonard Heberer

Energy Data Analyst

Leonard has been working on how to apply data analysis in a climate and energy context for several years. For example, he wrote his thesis about intra-country impacts of climate change on income inequality. After finishing his master’s degree in Environmental and Resource Economics at the University of Kiel, he worked for several years in energy trading, weather and demand forecasting, as well as power plant scheduling before joining EBC. Hence, he has a diverse experience of dealing with energy markets as well as all kinds of commodities, from renewables over gas and coal to hydro power.

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Loukia Goni

Digital Engagement Officer

Loukia is a passionate digital communications professional combining theoretical and technical expertise in communication and marketing fields and a keen interest in people-powered campaigning. Prior to joining our team in November 2019, she worked for Greenpeace Greece for almost 8 years, first as a Web design & Digital Mobilisation Specialist and then as a Digital Mobilisation Manager, focusing on developing impactful digital engagement strategies. She studied Mass Media and Communication in Athens and holds a MSc in Design & Digital Media from the University of Edinburgh

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Alexandru Mustață

Campaigner

Alexandru has a Bachelor’s degree in European Studies and International Relations from the National School for Political Science and holds a Master’s degree in Environment Engineering from the Polytechnic University, both in Bucharest. He worked for a year at IYNF, the youth organisation of Naturfreunde International. Moving back to Romania, he worked as a coal campaigner for Bankwatch for six years. Concerned with the social impact of climate action, Alexandru led one of the first just transition campaigns from Central and Eastern Europe, started in 2016. He also coordinated the Bankwatch Network just transition campaign in 7 countries from 2017 until 2021, when he joined Europe Beyond Coal.

Cyrille Cormier

Campaign strategist

Cyrille studied Aeronautical engineering in Toulouse and London. He worked for seven years in the industry before engaging in environmental campaigning within various political parties and non-profit organizations. After Fukushima’s nuclear accident in March 2011, Cyrille joined Greenpeace as a climate and energy campaigner where he mainly worked on energy transitions and nuclear safety. In 2020, Cyrille authored his first book on climate politics in France before joining Europe Beyond Coal secretariat in 2021 as a campaign consultant. He speaks English, French and Spanish.

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Nilay Vardar

Communications Consultant

Nilay studied Journalism at Galatasaray University and holds a masters degree in Disability Studies from the University of İstanbul. She worked as a journalist at Bianet news website for 7 years with a focus on environment, urbanisation and human rights issues. For the last 4 years she worked as a communications officer at Greenpeace Turkey mostly focusing on coal, plastic, ocean and agriculture.

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Suzanne Schenk

Head of Grants - Steel Campaigner

Suzanne has a background in environmental campaigning, building NGO coalitions and strategic grant management. Her role involves further connecting and strengthening the network of the Europe Beyond Coal campaign. She joined EBC in August 2019 from the Changing Markets Foundation, where she campaigned on circular economy issues. Previously, she worked at the European Climate Foundation on energy efficiency and at the World Future Council on cities and climate change. She is passionate about bringing people together to accelerate climate justice. Suzanne speaks Dutch, English and German, and can get along in French and Italian.

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Duygu Kutluay

Campaigner

Duygu studied Political Science and International Relations at Bogazici University, Istanbul and holds a masters degree in International Economic Relations from the University of Konstanz, Germany. She started working on intercultural learning and communication at AFS Turkey as Organisational Development Director before changing jobs to be the Deputy Head of International Relations with the TEMA Foundation. For the last three years, she worked as the Climate and Energy Campaigner for Greenpeace Med, mostly focusing on climate change and energy transition issues.

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Perceval Pradelle

Senior Energy Data Analyst

Perceval has a long-time interest and passion for climate, energy, and carbon footprinting. Prior to joining EBC, he worked for several years in the financial and insurance sector, specializing in data and analytics, and has also earlier experience in consulting, mainly on projects related to the energy sector. He holds a master’s degree in Engineering from Nantes School of Mines and in Economics from Charles University in Prague. Outside of work, Perceval enjoys taking part in a few voluntary initiatives around climate and carbon accounting. He speaks English, French and Polish.

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Alastair Clewer

Senior Communications Manager

Alastair joined EBC in May 2019. He holds a master’s degree in International Development and has coordinated multinational communication actions for several Directorate-Generals of the European Commission on issues relating to climate change; clean energy transition; disaster risk reduction; human rights and humanitarian aid. Alastair has previously worked in academia, analyzing the climate impacts of European food systems, and in politics and the music industry. He has a keen interest in processes of social change, in particular, the utility of prefigurative politics as a scalable means of social transformation, and the viability of constructing chains of equivalence across civil society and activist networks.

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Zala Primc

Event Coordinator

Zala studied Social Sciences in Ljubljana and Lisbon and worked for various student, worker and human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International, before she became engaged in environmental campaigning. She joined the Europe Beyond Coal Secretariat in 2019 after being an international project lead for Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe. She is passionate about progressive social change, climate justice, direct democracy and supporting local communities and grassroots movements. She speaks English, German and Slovene.

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Greg McNevin

Communications Director

Formerly strategic communications director for the Global Call for Climate Action and a long-time media relations specialist with Greenpeace International, Greg has worked on human rights and environmental issues around the world, covering issues such as oceans, whaling, deforestation, climate change, coal mining, and nuclear power. He has a keen interest in the intersection of activism, technology, and visual arts, and how to tell more human stories in a constantly evolving digital world.

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Kathrin Gutmann

Campaign Director

Kathrin Gutmann is the Campaign Director of the Europe Beyond Coal Campaign. She led the development of the campaign in her role as coordinator of NGO efforts to phase out coal with the Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe. Kathrin brings with her 20 years of expertise in the field of climate & energy policy and advocacy, international network coordination and campaigning. She has worked as Head of Policy & Advocacy with WWF International’s Climate Program and in different capacities with Climate Analytics, the European Climate Foundation, the German Environment Ministry, the Green Party in the German Bundestag, Greenpeace International and has volunteered with the German youth environment organisation BUNDjugend. Kathrin is also on the board of Reclaim Finance. In 2021, she became the recipient of the prestigious Climate Breakthrough Award, and will use this to move Europe to a fully-renewables based power sector by 2035. She is a US-German national and holds a master’s degree in Political Science from the Freie Universität Berlin.

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Mahi Sideridou

Managing Director

Mahi has led the team since it was set up in 2017. She has twenty years of experience in environmental campaigning and political advocacy, and fifteen years in team coordination and line-management. Mahi has Bachelor’s in Physics and a Master’s on Energy and Environmental Analysis from her studies in Manchester and Boston. She worked for Greenpeace between 2000 and 2015, first as a climate campaigner based in Athens, then moving to Brussels as an EU climate and energy policy director and finally as the European Unit’s managing director. She sat on the board of directors of Climate Action Network Europe for ten years and is currently on the board of Greenpeace Czech Republic. She is based in Aarhus and speaks Greek, English, French and Danish.

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Fabian Hübner

Senior Campaigner in Germany

Fabian has dedicated his professional life to campaigning against coal, having been involved in several climate justice groups since 2009 and having worked for Climate Alliance Germany as a coal and energy policy officer since 2017. He has worked in the German and the European parliament to gain first hand experience of climate policies and campaigned against the corporate capture of EU transport policies for Corporate Europe Observatory. Fabian holds a MA in Political Science from the University of Cologne and speaks German, English and Portuguese.

Who we are

The secretariat

Mahi Sideridou

Kathrin Gutmann

Greg McNevin

Alastair Clewer

Loukia Goni

Nilay Vardar

Suzanne Schenk

Zala Primc

Alexandru Mustață

Duygu Kutluay

Cyrille Cormier

Perceval Pradelle

Leonard Heberer

Anthimos Chatzivasileiou

Brigitte Alarcon

Stephi Boehm

Kerem Gogtas

Michal Zablocki

Robyn Hamilton

Tara Connolly

Julia Pazos

Claire Smith

German Campaign

Fabian Hübner

David Dresen

Campaign steering committee

Members representing their organisations

Strategic advisors

Non-voting members

Partners

Stephi Boehm

David Dresen

Robyn Hamilton

Tara Connolly

Julia Pazos

Claire Smith

Michal Zablocki

Kerem Gogtas

Brigitte Alarcon

Anthimos Chatzivasileiou

Leonard Heberer

Loukia Goni

Alexandru Mustață

Cyrille Cormier

Nilay Vardar

Suzanne Schenk

Duygu Kutluay

Perceval Pradelle

Alastair Clewer

Zala Primc

Greg McNevin

Kathrin Gutmann

Mahi Sideridou

Fabian Hübner