Secretary General, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)
Jakob Gijsbert (Jaap) de Hoop Scheffer has a long and distinguished diplomatic career. After various positions with the Dutch Foreign Service, he managed the private office of four successive Ministers of Foreign Affairs (Van der Klaauw, Van der Stoel, Van Agt and Van den Broek) until 1986. In June 1986, he was elected to the House of Representatives of the States General for the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA), becoming the party’s spokesperson on foreign policy (as well as asylum and refugee policy and European justice matters) in the House and serving on the Permanent Committees on Justice, European Affairs and Defence, Development Cooperation. On 22 July 2002, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first Balkenende government. He was appointed to the same post in the second Balkenende government on 27 May 2003 (until 3 December 2003).
European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy
European Union High Representative for Common Security and Foreign Policy and Secretary General of the Council of Ministers
As Europe's top diplomat, Dr. Solana has held an unparalled career. Beginning in Spanish politics, he served as a Spanish Cabinet Minister from 1982 to 1995 without interruption: December 1982 - July 1988: Minister for Culture (simultaneously acted as Government Spokesman from July 1985 to July 1988); July 1988 - July 1992: Minister for Education and Science; July 1992 - December 1995: Minister for Foreign Affairs. In 1995, he became Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and has served in his current post since 1999. It was decided in June 2004 that Mr Solana would be appointed EU Foreign Minister on the day of entry into force of the Constitutional Treaty for Europe. Dr. Solana began his career with a doctorate in physics, having served as a Fulbright scholar at several American universities. He is the author of over thirty publications in solid-state physics.
Giles Merritt, Director of the Security & Defence Agenda (SDA), is among Brussels’ most influential commentators on EU issues. He has been a pioneer of the public policy debate on Europe’s future, both as a journalist and think-tanker. Merritt is also the head of the SDA’s sister think-tank Friends of Europe, whose debates and reports cover the whole spectrum of non-defence topics of interest to EU-level policymakers, researchers and stakeholders. In addition, he is the Editor of the new policy journal Europe’s World launched in 2005 as an EU-wide platform for debate.
Merritt’s work with think-tanks began in the mid-1980s, when he devised and chaired a series of Business Policy Seminars on behalf of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). He went on to act as Moderator at the French-language debates organised by the Club de Bruxelles, and at many of the conferences held by Aspen Institute Italia. In 1992, he accepted an invitation to be the director of the new Philip Morris Institute for Public Policy Research (PMI), and was responsible for the highly successful series of quarterly Discussion Papers that PMI produced until its closure in 1999. Merritt’s backgrounds as a journalist and commentator has been crucial to the success of the organisations he leads. From 1968-83, Giles Merritt was a staff correspondent of the Financial Times and reported successively from London, Paris, Belfast/Dublin and Brussels. From 1984 to the present day he has contributed columns on EU matters to the Op-Ed pages of the International Herald Tribune, and his articles range widely over political and economic issues.
Geert Cami co-founded the SDA in 2002. He had been Managing Director of Forum Europe since 1996. Before coming to Forum Europe, Geert Cami worked for the European Commission’s Humanitarian Office as Deputy to the Information Counsellor. Geert Cami has also been a freelancer for two informational music programmes with Belgian Radio & Television (now VRT). During his military service, he worked as a journalist at Televox where he contributed to bi-monthly television news reports, broadcast in Germany, with regular co-productions with the national television stations BRTN and RTBF. He also produced a 26-minute report in English for WEU, CSCE and NATO. In 2002, Geert Cami and Giles Merritt launched the New Defence Agenda (now the Security & Defence Agenda) as a neutral platform for discussing security and defence issues on a regular basis with all actors (international organisations, national governments, business, other think-tanks or foundations, NGOs and media. Geert Cami is also the co-founder and Director of Friends of Europe, the Brussels-based think tank for EU policy analysis and debate. Friends of Europe is presided over by former European Commission Vice-President Etienne Davignon and has 55 European personalities on its Board of Trustees, including Javier Solana, Pascal Lamy, Pat Cox, Jean-Luc Dehaene.
Jessica joined the New Defence Agenda, now the Security & Defence Agenda (SDA) in January 2004. Serving as the main contact for SDA members and participants, she manages all aspects of SDA operations, including the organisation and production of SDA's international conferences, roundtables, press dinners, publications and Advisory Board activities. She has a BA in French and Government from Hamilton College.
Contact: jessica.henderson@securitydefenceagenda.org
EMIL VALDELIN, Project Manager of the Security & Defence Agenda Emil Valdelin joined the New Defence Agenda, now the Security & Defence Agenda (SDA) in May 2007 as a Project Manager, having already spent six months with the SDA in 2005/2006 as a Project Assistant. Emil assists the Senior Manager with A-Z organisation of events. Emil holds a MA from the Diplomatic Academy of London and a BSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Emil speaks English, French and Swedish. Contact: emil.valdelin@securitydefenceagenda.org
Emil Valdelin joined the New Defence Agenda, now the Security & Defence Agenda (SDA) in May 2007 as a Project Manager, having already spent six months with the SDA in 2005/2006 as a Project Assistant. Emil assists the Senior Manager with A-Z organisation of events. Emil holds a MA from the Diplomatic Academy of London and a BSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Emil speaks English, French and Swedish.
Contact: emil.valdelin@securitydefenceagenda.org