Advisory Panel

Executive Vice-President of Europa Nostra

Guy Clausse studied Economics and Business Administration at the Universität zu Köln (Diplom-Volkswirt 1975; Dr.rer.pol. 1979).
He worked as a Teaching Assistant at Cologne University from 1972 to 1975, and as an Assistant Professor until 1980. He then became the Executive Secretary of the Instituto de Estudos para o Desenvolvimento in Lisbon; being on secondment from the Research Department of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Bonn.
Guy Clausse joined the European Investment Bank (EIB) in 1985 as a senior economist in the Economic Studies Department, and then became Coordinator and Head of Division within the Lending Operations and Projects Directorates. In 2004 he took up the position of Associate Director of the Policy Support Department. In 2007 Clausse was appointed as Director of the Convergence and Environment Department and then of the Environment and Regional Development Department. He has been a Special Advisor to the Director-General since 2011.
Guy Clausse was nominated as Dean of the recently created EIB Institute in 2014. During his mandate, the 7 Most Endangered programme, established by Europa Nostra in partnership with the EIB Institute, was further developed. He continues to cooperate with the EIB Institute, following his retirement at the end of 2015. He is a committee member of several social and charitable associations.
In 2018, Guy Clausse was appointed as Executive Vice-President of Europa Nostra.

Lilian Grootswagers-Theuns is the owner of Erfgoed.nu, she advises governmental institutions, cooperations and private owners in heritage related issues. Specialty: monument legislation, grants, research, religious heritage issues, conversion, spatial planning and re-use and redesign of heritage. Erfgoed.nu goal is to give heritage buildings a purpose in nowadays society. Therefore an integrated approach is a necessity. She is a council member (honorary secretary) of FRH Future for Religious Heritage, a non-faith European-wide organisation on places of worship based in Brussels. She was the representative of FRH in the structured dialogue between the European Commission and the cultural sector during the EYCH 2018. She represents FRH in the European Commission Cultural Heritage Group as of 2019.. She is a member of the European Heritage Alliance since its foundation in 2011. She is Vice-Chair of task force Toekomst Kerkgebouwen, a national and independent citizen’s movement in the Netherlands aiming to re-establish religious buildings as living elements of the urban and rural landscape and communities.

She is the author and publisher of several guidelines and handbooks on re-use of listed buildings, as well as a guest lecturer of HAN University of Applied Sciences: Repurpose and Monuments Module Cooperation (2011). She is the author of guidelines for religious heritage Gelderland (2009) “Oren van Steen” (2011) and “Future of our built history, guidelines for re-use” (2014). She is board member of Erfgoedlab, a not-for-profit organisation, a “delivery room” for new ideas, and initiatives in the field of heritage which have a national impact. The laboratory drives innovative projects in the heritage sector and ensures these projects are embedded in the sector and are able to run independently after the pilot phase. Some examples are the Dutch “Erfgoedstem”- The National Monumentencongres and the Monumentenmonitor. Actual project is the pilot of the European Heritage Tribune, which is also supported by Europa Nostra. She was one of the initiators of the first Open Churches Days in Noord Brabant in 2017, which resulted in a new foundation Openkerkendag and expands its activities this year to Noord Brabant and Zeeland. Furthermore she has been granted the Brabant Bokaal by the Prince Bernhard Foundation in 2014, for her voluntary and innovative work in the field of religious heritage. As of 2014 she is one of the 21 Brabantse Hoeders, special protectors of the cultural heritage in the province.

Board Member of Europa Nostra

Laurent Lévi-Strauss is Chargé de Mission to the President of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris and former Chargé de Mission to the Director of the project for the new Musée de l’Homme (Museum of Man). He is Member of the Board of Europa Nostra, and, also, member of the Commission of Ethics for the Museums of the City of Geneva.
During some 15 years, he worked at UNESCO, namely as Deputy Director of the Division of Cultural Heritage, where he supervised the implementation of numerous international safeguarding projects, as for Angkor, Afghanistan, Iraq and Bosnia and Herzegovina, among others, and later the operational and juridical activities for the support of museums and the safeguarding of cultural objects, including the implementation of international conventions. Previously, he worked at the French Ministry of Culture, as Deputy-Director of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, then as Director of the Office of the President of the public television channel Antenne 2 (now France 2).
He holds a diploma of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques of Paris and a doctorate (PhD) in Sociology from the University of Paris X. He has published several books and articles concerning cultural heritage and its preservation.

Born in Madrid in 1957, Pedro Ponce de León studied Architecture at the Politechnical University in Madrid, reaching the degree of Architect in 1979 and Doctorate (with Cum Laude honours). Between 1980 and 1982 he worked as architect of the Spanish Archeological Mission in Jordan. In 1984 he received a scholarship from a Private Foundation in order to study Architectural Restoration in the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) at the Spanish Academy in Rome. His study about its cloisters was published in 1986 in the journal of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

He founded “Pedro Ponce de León, Architects” in 1980, with a deep specialisation in cultural and architectural heritage activities, and large experience in the intervention on Heritage buildings and monuments, from the preliminary diagnose to the Executive Project design and also, the project management works, providing technical assistance as well as criteria, building procedures, planning and economic audit.

More than 40 design and executive projects developed in different countries (Spain, Cuba, Albania, Greece, Mali, Western Balkan countries, etc. See page http://pedroponcedeleon.es/en/). Pedro Ponce de Leon has participated as an expert in some missions for the 7 Most Endangered programme of Europa Nostra, including Gjirokastra (Albania), Venice Lagoon (Italy), the Mafra National Palace, the Monastery and Church of Jesus in Sétubal (Portugal). He also has prepared feasibility reports for the Roman Amphitheatre in Dürres (Albania) and the Historic City of Kastoria (Greece). He is a consultant architect for the Division of Cultural and Natural Heritage (Council of Europe), consultant for different agencies: AECI (Spanish Agency for International Cooperation), CEB; Member of the Royal Academy of History and the Spanish-Belgium Academy. Member of ICOMOS (Spanish Council Committee), ICOM.

Board Member of Europa Nostra

Paolo Vitti is an architect and historian with over thirty years of experience in the areas of Ancient and Modern architecture and the restoration of cultural heritage sites. Vitti presently holds teaching appointments in both Italian and American universities. His work includes collaborations with national and international institutions, in the academic and professional field, as well as courses on conservation for architects and archaeologists of the Moroccan Ministry of Culture.
Vitti has authored many essays on restoration, museology, history of architecture and ancient construction, and specialises in the study of Mediterranean architecture, having made important achievements in the study of Ancient architecture. He has actively contributed to the activities of the Italian School of Archaeology in Athens since 2001.
His studies, reflected in more than 50 articles and a monograph, have greatly contributed to scholarship in the history of architecture. His research on Roman architecture in Greece and on the Mausoleum of Hadrian received the Grand Prix of the EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award in 2014 and the L’Erma di Bretschneider Archaeology Award. His design for the restoration of the Armenian Church and Monastery in Nicosia, Cyprus, received an EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award in 2015.
Paolo Vitti has been a Board Member of Europa Nostra since 2018.