EL NOSTRE EQUIP
Nicolas Patrici
Nicolas is currently serving as the Director of the Strategy and development within the organization. This role encompasses a wide range of responsibilities, from overseeing its political functioning, leading its political positioning, coordinating internal teams and guiding the organization’s promotional and communication strategy. He provides oversight across all aspects of the organization, including active participation as a senior higher education policy expert in certain contract and projects and playing a pivotal role in the execution and budget planning. Over the past 17 years, Nicola´s role has evolved in tandem with the organization’s growth. Initially, in a smaller and more ambitious organization, he wore multiple hats and took on a diverse set of responsibilities. Nicolas was born in Argentina but has been living in Europe for the last 20 years and he is fluent in Spanish, English and French.
Elizabeth Colucci
Elizabeth is acting as Director of International Projects. She started working for OBREAL in 2014, gradually increasing her dedication to the organization until she became full-time in 2020. Elizabeth´s current role as involves a mix of strategic and project-related responsibilities. She focuses on strategy, project management, and supervising daily operations, often traveling, and participating in workshops and meetings. Elizabeth is a key member of the organization as she contributes to the organization’s strategic direction, its growth and development. She was born in the US but has been living, studying, and working in Europe for the last 20 years and is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Agustina Calabrese
Agustina has accompanied OBREAL through over the past 15 years.
She acts as the Financial Director, who has financial and legal oversight of all OBREAL activities and the general operational budget. In addition, she drives the human resources of the association, manages contracts and service providers and the general office management. Her role has evolved; Today she is accompanying all projects in the implementation and budget execution and contribute to project proposal development. She is supporting the transition towards a more data driven association, to help better assess impact and growth of actions as well as the possibilities for diversification of activities and funds. Agustina is fluent in English, Spanish and Catalan.
Marina Larrea
Marina supports the policy development of OBREAL looking specifically at the interregional aspects of higher education and to link it to development. Moreover, she more specifically manages projects and initiatives of OBREAL in Africa and Latin America linking them to OBREAL´s general interregional strategy. Before joining OBREAL, Marina acted first as the coordinator of the internationalization program of the ministry of Education of Argentina and then as the national director of international relations of the Argentina Ministry of Education from where he represented Argentina in multilateral organisms such as IMF, UNESCO, MERCOSUR, etc. Marina speaks English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Jaume Fortuny
Jaume is a Senior Project Manager at OBREAL. Jaume manages projects in their full life cycle, from conceptualization to proposal development to partnership management and execution. He also designs training programmes related to EU project management targeting, in particular, the EU funding landscape. He has specific competency in the field of digitalization and represents the association in important international conferences and events. Jaume builds relationships with members and partners on the ground and provides transversal support to the team in managerial aspects. Jaume is fluent in Catalan, English and Spanish.
Angel Rafael
Angel Rafael is a project manager specialized in the internationalization of Higher Education and the successful implementation of European projects, including initiatives such as Erasmus Plus and Horizon Europe. With a longstanding experience in HE which includes topics such as mobility, capacity building, and quality assurance, Angel plays a key role at OBREAL, where his responsibilities include the management and follow up of the entire project lifecycles. In his transversal role at OBREAL, Angel takes charge of creating, implementing, and evaluating projects. His expertise extends to providing comprehensive training and information sessions on calls, financing opportunities, and the life cycles of projects for OBREAL members. Currently, Angel streamlining the organization’s overall project portfolio, aiming to enhance management processes. Angel speaks English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and he is a native German Speaker.
Apiyo Okwiri
Apiyo plays a strategic role in Africa for OBREAL, articulating projects and generating stakeholders’ relationships. She is from Kenya and has helped to build OBREAL´s African portfolio since 2019. Based in Nairobi, she articulates actions, initiatives, and strategies with a special focus on East Africa and support the project management for OBREAL in the region. She offers a long history of higher education cooperation: she has been the president of the Erasmus Mundus Alumni Association -Africa Chapter-. Apyio is fluent in English and Swahili.
Kibrome M. Haile
Based Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Kibrome is responsable for the development and execution of projects in Africa and to advise on capacity building programs and interaction regarding African higher education and research development, particularly related to data policy and regional integration. Kibrome plays an instrumental role in representing and connecting OBREAL with African institutions. Kibrome is fluent in English and Amharic.
Georges Mulumbwa
Georges is from the Democratic Republic of Congo where he is a professor of linguistics at the University of Lubumbashi. He has an extensive research record regarding the relation between inclusion and language in African young population. He has a long-standing experience in working internationally in implementing quality assurance and has coordinated QA actions with national authorities, universities, and international partners in the DRC and in Africa. George contributes to the implementation of projects in francophone Africa and their results with authorities and stakeholders in the region. Georges is fluent in Swahili French and English.
Jimena Estrella
Jimena contributes actively to the development of the association in Latin America and the Caribbean and in articulating strategic actions and projects in the region on innovation, education, and development. Jimena brings to OBREAL her vast experience in university management gained at the National University of Cuyo in Argentina (one of the largest research universities in Argentina) where she acted for 8 years as Secretary of Research, International Relations, and Postgraduate Studies. Jimena is based in Argentina and speaks Spanish, English and Italian.
Eloi Espósito
Eloi has been part of the OBREAL secretariat since 2019, a key team member during the pandemic, who promoted a mayor digital transformation of the work of the association. Since then, Eloi has been managing OBREAL´s digitalization processes and OBREAL´s communication channels. Acting as a catalyzer of the different needs of the association´s work, he introduces new digital tools and supports the implementation OBREAL´s communication strategy. Moreover, Eloi oversees the implementation and design of the OBREAL Training Platform. He is fluent in Spanish, English and Catalan.
Georgina Boixereu
Since she joined OBREAL she has been developing and reshaping the communication actions of the association. She manages the development of the communications tools and the development of key messages and acts as the OBREAL liaison with the media in Catalonia and in Spain. She supports the articulation of OBREAL´s projects and the implementation of the OBREAL´s communication strategy. Georgina has worked for more than 6 years in the Spanish and Catalan media as a journalist. Georgina is fluent in English, Spanish and Catalan.
Jenny Delos Reyes
Her role at OBREAL secretariat in Barcelona is to support all administrative processes of the organization. Jenny is responsible for following and implementing the different administrative policies of OBREAL and to assist staff members in their daily administrative work. Jenny also contributes to managing the logistics and organizational aspects of OBREAL events. Jenny is originally from the Filipins and speaks Catalan, Spanish, English, and Tagalog.