Coordination Unit | Euro-Mediterranean Network for Economic Studies (EMNES)

The EMNES Coordination Unit (CU) is composed of the Director, the Assistant Director, the Academy Coordinator and the Communication Officer. The EMNES CU is responsible of ensuring the objectives of the annual scientific program including research, academy activities and dissemination are achieved and EMNES rules and procedures are respected and enforced. The EMNES CU produces an annual report on the scientific and financial progress to present it to the Steering Committee annually.

Rym Ayadi

EMNES Director

Founder and Director Euro-Mediterranean Network for Economic Studies (EMNES), Founder and President, Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA); Professor at the Business School, City University of London, and Member of the Centre for Banking Research (CBR). She is also Associated Scholar at the Centre for Relationship Banking and Economics (CERBE) at LUMSA University in Rome.

Cinzia Alcidi

EMNES Academy Coordinator

Dr. Cinzia Alcidi is Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Economic Policy Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels and LUISS- School of European Political Economy- research fellow.

Prior to joining CEPS, she worked at International Labour Office in Geneva and she taught International Economics at University of Perugia (Italy). Her research activity includes international economics, macroeconomics, central banking and EU governance.

Since 2015 she is the coordinator of CEPS Academy Activities. She has experience in coordinating research projects and networks. She has published extensively on the economics and governance of the Euro area crisis and participates regularly in international conferences.

She holds a Ph.D. degree in International Economics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva (Switzerland).

Publications

Sandra Challita

EMEA Research Fellow

Sandra is a faculty member at ESDES Business School in Lyon. She is also an associate researcher at the International Research Centre on Cooperative Finance (IRCCF) of HEC Montréal, at the University of Montpellier France, Montpellier Research in Management and “Labex entreprendre” Units.

She received her Ph.D. in Finance at the University of Montpellier. Her thesis adopts a comparative approach of strategies and performances of cooperatives and investor owned firms in different fields. She adopts an interdisciplinary vision within her research. Sandra has presented her work during international academic conferences and has published and is in publication process of scientific articles in peer review journals. Sandra current research focuses on financial performance and risk of different types of financial institutions.

Sandra also holds a master’s degree in finance (104) from Paris Dauphine University and a Bachelor degree in Management from Saint Joseph’s University Beirut. She speaks Arabic, French and English.In EMNES, she contributes to the research on finance, financial inclusion and financial development.

Publications

George Christopoulos

Communications Officer

George specializes in intelligence and communications strategy. He has over 20 years of experience as a geostrategic intelligence analyst, and communications and marketing manager, in various companies and organizations. He currently holds the position of Communication Officer at the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA), an independent think tank and forum for debate on the political and socio-economic reforms in the South and the East Mediterranean, consisting of over 60 expert researchers from 12 countries.

He is responsible for intelligence and reporting of important socio-economic developments, dissemination of deliverables and social media communication. George also serves as Marketing Director of Apogee Information Systems, an innovative IT company specializing in Content Management Systems, e-learning Applications, and Human Resources Management. He also participates at the Advisory Panel of the SMARTSEA ERASMUS+ Project.

In the past, George worked as a senior consultant on geostrategic intelligence, communication, and crisis management in a UK based company. He was responsible for threat-monitoring, corporate intelligence, competition monitoring, public opinion and health issues monitor, political trends and actors monitor, general communications and positioning strategy for large corporations and organizations. He has participated to EU IT projects such as the the Icarus AI enjanced e-learning, the OpenTEA e-learning platform, the European Observatory for Sustainable Agriculture – OPERA and WP7 NOMAD. He has also worked in the energy sector, specializing in business intelligence and marketing of renewable energy projects, and as Marketing Manager in the IT sector, specializing in Document and Knowledge Management. George studied Business Administration – Marketing at the University of Bath.

Publications