Chair of the Jury

Head of EU liaison office, International Union of Tenants

Barbara Steenbergen has been working more than 18 years for the protection of tenants. She started in 2001 as head of the president's office of the German Union of Tenants (Deutscher Mieterbund) in Berlin and as political coordinator for energy policy and international affairs. In 2007, she was elected as head of the International Union of Tenants EU Office in Brussels. Since 2013, she is member of the IUT Executive Committee. She is responsible for the political relations and the lobbying towards the EU institutions.

From 2009 to 2012, she chaired the European Housing Forum; since 2013 she chairs the "European Responsible Housing Initiative" stakeholder forum and jury of the European Responsible Housing Awards”

Since 2015, she represents IUT in the EU Urban Agenda Partnership for Housing.

Barbara is a German national and holds a master degree in political sciences of the University of Bonn, Germany, and a bachelors in public administration.

6 years in the Association of Tenants of the Czech Republic - SON (40,000 members).

External clerk for contacts with the Parliament and the Senate of the Czech Republic, with regional authorities and city and municipal governments.

3 years representative of SON at the International Union of Tenants.

2014 – 2018

· Member of the City Council Liberec - Vratislavice nad Nisou (8,700 inhabitants)

· Chairman of the Social and Health Commission

· Member of the Humanities Commission of the Statutory City of Liberec (110 thousand inhabitants), which manages 1200 social city dwellings

· Collaboration with the Citizens 'Association D.R.A.K. (care for socially disadvantaged and disabled citizens) and Seniors' Organisations and the Women's Union.

Director Woonbond (since June 2018).

The Woonbond is the union of the Dutch tenants, with 1.6 million collectively organised members and 8,000 individual members.

Prior to joining the Woonbond, Jansen was alderman of spatial planning, housing and sport in the municipality of Utrecht (2014-2018) and spokesman for housing, energy and the environment of the Socialist Party in the Tweede Kamer (Dutch Parlement, House of Representatives, 2006-2014).

Jansen is a structural engineer and worked in the past for an international engineering firm and a construction company.

CEO of Finnish Tenants since 1997.

Anne has worked in the field for 25 years, all of them in the Finnish Tenants and its predecessor Central Union of Tenants. Due to the length of her career, Anne has an extensive and diverse expertise in the field.

Finnish Tenants (1946)

Finnish Tenants are a nationwide non-profit organisation, that specialises in promoting fair rental practices and protecting the interests of tenants.

Outside of individual members, Finnish Tenants also have three unions as their members: JHL, PAM and Pro. Finnish Tenants are also a notable organisation in decisions considering housing policies.

Urban and Regional Development Economist, European Investment Bank

Andrea is a senior economist at the European Investment Bank, responsible for the financing of urban and regional development projects.

Prior to this Andrea was at the London School of Economics, leading projects for major European cities on integrated urban development and institutional governance, sustainability policy, planning and evaluation methods.

He holds a PhD in Economic Geography and is the main author of Transforming Urban Economies: Policy Lessons from European and Asian Cities (2013); Urban Regeneration and Social Sustainability: Best Practice from European Cities (2010); and Urban Tourism and Development in the Socialist State: Havana during the Special Period (2006).

Director Corporate Affairs, Europe – RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors)

Sander is a Dutch national and studied Economics at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam where he achieved his Masters in 2000. He majored in sociological economics.

In 2000, Sander started his career at the EU Affairs Office of General Motors where he was responsible for technical and environmental issues.

In 2006, he joined RICS, where he is the Director of Corporate Affairs for the RICS in Europe region. Responsibilities include standards adoption, policy, communications and branding.

He is the author of the several papers including the “Future Role of Valuations”. He has also chaired the European Housing Forum.

The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS)

Christian is a former president of the union of Tenants (Norway), the last 13 years he has been working in the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) in the department of Local Democracy, European Politics and International Affairs. He is working with social housing, universal design, civil society, co-creation and local democracy.

He holds a bachelor degree in public administration from a school of public administration, who now is a part of Oslo Metropolitan University. He has a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. He also has studies from the Nordic school of Public Health (NHV) in universal design and studies in public health from the University of Agder (UIA).

The last 12 years he has been a member of The Rent Disputes Tribunal (HTU) in Oslo/Akershus, appointed by the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation. The last 11 years he has been appointed by the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation as member of a jury who biennially award the prize of: "The state's prize for housing social work ".

Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS)

The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) was founded in 1972. As of 2018 all of Norway's 422 municipalities and 18 counties are members.

KS was founded as a result of an amalgamation of The Union of Norwegian Cities (founded in 1903) and the Norwegian Association of Rural Municipalities (founded in 1923). KS advocates the interests of its members

towards central government, the Parliament, labour organisations and other organisations. KS advises and informs the members about all matters and developments of importance to local government. KS facilitates exchange of experience between its members. KS conducts the central collective bargaining on behalf of its members.

Heike is the scientific advisor of the DMB for 8 years. She studied economics in Trier. Afterwards she worked in different companies/organisations and was involved in the “reconstruction of East” (in the Federal States in the former East Germany) and various climate protection projects. Additional focuses are integrated urban development with action strategies for attractive and lively inner cities and economic, social and ecological challenges.

The German Tenants' Association (DMB)

is the political representation of all tenants in Germany and the umbrella organisation of 15 DMB regional associations and 320 local tenant associations with more than 500 counselling centres throughout Germany. Their work is financed by membership fees. There is no public funding which guarantees the autonomy and independence of the tenant organisation. Currently almost 1.3 million households, i.e. about three million tenants, are members. The German Tenants' Association is politically neutral. The DMB will be consulted on any major legislative action on tenancy law and housing. The DMB speaks up when it comes to maintaining and expanding the protection of tenants, to affordable rents, to an appropriate subsidy for housing, the constant promotion of social housing, the energy-efficient modernisation and increased use of renewable energies, the design of the residential environment and the social peace in the residential areas. Even on issues of urban planning and urban development, agency law, additional costs and heating cost ordinance and environmental protection the German Tenants' Association takes an active position and develops proposals.

President of CNL (Confédération Nationale du Logement)

In 1995, in a suburb of Lille, Eddie created a member association of CNL. Three years later, he became the treasurer of the CNL Federation of the North, followed by president in 2000. The same year, he was elected into the National Administrative Commission. In 2009, he entered the Confederate Board. In 2013, he was elected National President of CNL.

Since 2006, he has been interested in housing in nearby countries and since 2009, represents CNL at the IUT Board. In the name of CNL, he participated in drafting the ERHIN (European Responsible Housing Initiative Network) charter and is a jury member of the European Responsible Housing Award.

A qualified chartered accountant, he has worked in a firm for more than ten years before becoming the financial adviser of an important federation of associations in the medical and social sector, where he was able to observe and go with very diverse associations; this was followed by a role as a financial and administrative manager in a national association.

Eddie has also led courses of professional training in accounting.

Spent 10 years in public education and later at a private business college. Based on his management experience in education and volunteering, as well as an interest in social development, he joined Habitat for Humanity Hungary as National Director in 2005.

György joined HFHI/EMEA in 2013 to lead regional advocacy initiatives and support national advocacy programmes in the EMEA region. He represents HFHI in Brussels and all over Europe at regional conferences and meetings.

Doctorate in law at the University of Vienna, Chairperson of the board FAMILIE Housing Co-operative, Vienna and former chairperson of the board of SOZIALBAU AG, member of the board of ICA housing and university lecturer in the field of housing finance.

Author of numerous publications on the economics and history of limited-profit co-operative business.

PhD in Urban, Regional and Environmental Design, Post-Doc EU Marie-Curie and Habil in Urban Studies in Italy.

Her recent work covers socio-spatial inequalities, housing & financialisation, inclusion of migrants and refugees with a focus on EU urban policies. As an academic, she has been doing research and teaching in several universities and research institutes in Italy, Germany, France, USA.

Laura currently works as senior policy expert on social and urban policies for the EUCOM (URBACT, UIA, EU Urban Agenda).

Co-founder of Tesserae Urban and Social Research and member of the International Network for Urban Research and Action INURA.