Wassilios Kassioulis (Greece)

Background:

Wassilios Kassioulis holds a Degree in Economics from the University of Hamburg, Germany and a qualification in Portugueses from the Universidade Minas Gerais, Brasil. He speaks several languages: Greek (mother tongue), German, English, Portuguese and French.

Career:

In 2007 Wassilious was a trainee on the programme for people with disabilities at the European Parliament’s Equal opportunities unit, Luxembourg. Since 2006 he has been a member of the European antidiscrimination council in London, England, where he has demonstrated extraordinary communication skills in promoting the cause of disabled people in the EU.Since 2003 Wassilious has been voluntary CEO of Mobilcom shareholder protection group, in Hamburg, Germany, where he gained valuable experience in writing press releases, holding interviews and strategic advisory. He has previous experience with Teanscend information trading GmbH, in Hamburg Germany, where he was of head of sales for Greece & Cyprus. And from 2005-06 Wassilious was a member of the supervisory board of Actior AG. (Brokerage Company)

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Javier Arroyo (Spain)

Background: Javier Arroyo Mendez graduated from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) with a Degree in Sciences Physics his specialty being Theoretical Physics. His native tongue is Spanish and Javier also possesses a high level of English. He has extensive IT skills & knowledge which include programming, network security & devices.

Career: Since 2008 Javier has been a Project Manager, Business Analyst at IBM Global Technology Services. He has been a Speaker at the Users Panel DRT4ALL (International Congress on Digital Homes, Robotics and Telecare for All). Javier was highly involved in the preparation of the “Walks for the visibity of the Functional Diversity People” at Madrid over the last four years and is a Member of the Users Working Committee at the “Oficina de Vida Independiente”. He is a User of the “Oficina de Vida Independiente” (Centre for Independent Living of Madrid), and a member of “Foro de Vida independiente” (Independent Living Forum).

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Sue Bott (UK)

Background: Sue Bott has a First Degree in Political Theory and Institutions, and a Master’s degree in Public Service Management. Sue is a disabled person with visual impairment from birth, has been active in the disability movement in the UK for many years. She lives by the sea in south east England and has two grown up children.

Career: Currently she is Director of the National Centre for Independent Living based in London. Previous to that she spent fifteen years working for a Centre for Independent Living (Shropshire Disability Consortium) initially as its development worker and latterly as its Chief Officer.

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Background information: Peter Lambreghts has very strong language skills, in both the spoken and written word. He is fluent in Dutch, English & French and possesses a good working knowledge of German and Spanish. Peter attended the Universitaire Faculteiten Sint Ignatius Antwerpep, gaining a BA from the Department of Germanic philology.

Career: Currently Peter is a member of staff for the Expertise Centre Independent Living, in Gentbrugge Belgium. Previous to this he was the staff worker & user representative coach for Vlaams Gebruikersoverleg voor Personen met een Handicap (Flemish user’s platform for people with a disability) He has held various positions over the years which included roles such as: customer relations, team leader & advanced coach of operators, staff-support, administration, controlling, planning and marketing. He has authored several papers and articles on topics related to disability.

Peter chairs the lobby group WTK (Werkgroep Toegankelijk Kalmthout). He is a Board member of: The Municipal Council for local well-being, Bol-Budiv and PAB Ambassador (defending the rights of the Flemish personal assistance users), and the strategic cell of VFG (Vereniging Personen met een Handicap)

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Vibeke Maroy Melstrom (Norway)

Background information: Vibeke Melstrom holds a BSc in sociology & social work from Oslo University College, NKS. She attended Halden Teacher Training College and from 1983-1986 Vibeke attended Ski A-Level College with General Studies and Language being her major.Vibeke has undertaken various management and leadership, training courses including: Persuasion and Influencing Skills, Budgeting and Financial Accounting, Practical Coaching Skills for the People Manager, and Understanding Employment Law and Workers’ Rights.Norwegian is Vibeke’s native language and she also has an excellent knowledge of English, Swedish and Danish.

Career: Vibeke currently hold the post of Managing Director of ULOBA, which is an Independent Living cooperative on Personal Assistance. She is one of the founding members and a key figure in building and developing the organisation. ULOBA is the controlling hub for an enterprise made up of 5 sister companies across Norway. Vibeke also regularly run’s courses and acts as a keynote speaker at seminars across the world.

Vibeke has been a member of: Human Rights Alliance from 2005-2010, Health & Rehabilitation Committee 1997-2001 and is currently president of ENIL with Kapka Panayotova

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Kapka Panayotova (Bulgary)

Background: Kapka Panayotova has a Masters Degree in Economics and in Civil Engineering from Warsaw University in Poland. She also graduated from English language school in Sofia. Kapka has been involved in numerous projects as a trainer on disability awareness, project proposal writing and project management.

Career: Kapka is a Bulgarian disability leader and one of the founders of CIL – Sofia. Kapka is a strong human rights advocate and promoter of social inclusion through public policies. She is been involved in research projects – as member of the Academic Network of Experts on Disability (ANED) and International Disability Rights Monitor. She has been a Board member of ENIL since 2006. Kapka has been appointed ambassador for the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion (2010).

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Erik Ljungberg (Sweden)

Background: Erik Ljungberg was educated in the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in Psychology and Sociology. He has been debating and changing the awareness of disability rights and accessibility, of Sweden in general, and particularly Gothenburg, and its public transport system. Erik uses a wheelchair since 1986 due to a neuromuscular disease.

Career: Erik works today with Aiai, a web application that assists all administration of personal assistance and Independent Living. Erik started, and is one of the authors, of the blog fulldelaktighet.nu which aims to make disability rights an important issue in the Swedish elections this autumn.

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Colin Barnes (UK)

Background information:Colin Barnes is a writer, he is a member of several local, national and International organizations all controlled and run by disabled people. He has conducted research on a wide range of disability issues and is the founder and director of the Centre for Disability Studies, formerly the Disability Research Unit, and The independent publishing house called The Disability Press, and an electronic archive called The Disability Archive UK.

Career:Colin is teacher, founder & co-convenor for the University of Leeds postgraduate Disability Studies programme; he contributes to lectures on social care and disability politics in undergraduate courses. Since 1994, he has been jointly supervising PhD students in the general area of disability studies. He has authored many books such as: (1990) Cabbage Syndrome: the Social Construction of Dependence, (1994) Disabled People in Britain and Discrimination: a case for anti-discrimination legislation, (2003) Disability, (2006) Independent Futures: Creating user led disability services in a disabling society, (2002) Disability Studies Today.

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