Panel: new AI profiles and the impact of AI in the profession
Moderation: Wanda Saabeel
Higher Education consultant, CEN and CENELEC, European Committee for Standardization
Wanda Saabeel is a higher education consultant and has been working with the European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) for more than 10 years. She chairs the education and training working group of CEN TC428, the European standardisation committee on ICT professionalism and responsible for the e-CF. She co-authored the European Standards for ICT Curriculum Development and the ICT Body of Knowledge, both based on e-CF.
She has used the e-CF for drafting educational profiles and curricula at various educational institutions and as a basis for drafting role profiles, training profiles and curricula at the EU projects ESSA (for software professionals), ARISA (AI professionals) and Digital4Sustainability. She is also involved in activities of the ISO with a focus on software and systems engineering professionals and is an expert in qualification assessment at the Dutch NLQF and in the national Dutch VET ICT qualifications.
Panellist: Suzanne Galletly
Digital Skills Director, EXIN
Suzanne Galletly is Digital Skills Director at EXIN, where she is accountable for EXIN’s certification portfolio for digital skills. Calling on over 20 years of experience, she helps ensure that EXIN is at the forefront of developments in the field of digital skills. She is part of various industry forums and boards, including the Artificial Intelligence Skills Alliance (ARISA), the Digital4Sustainability Advisory Board, and the itSMF Board of Directors.
She is a contributor to the CEN workshop tasked with developing AI role profiles and educational profiles. Suzanne is passionate about everything concerned with the human side of digital, including lifelong learning, workforce transformation, and digital ethics.
Panellist: David San Benito
Global Operations Manager, Cisco Nerworking Academy, Cisco Systems
David is Global Operations Manager, empowering Cisco Networking Academy Partners to grow and support meaningful instructor and Cisco Academies ecosystems around the world. He is also Program Director of the AI Workforce Consortium, a group of ten leading ICT companies committed to preparing the workforce for the impact of artificial intelligence on ICT jobs across all industries.
Prior to Cisco, he led start-up innovation communities and helped social entrepreneurs gain access to funding to launch new businesses. His professional tenure stretches across a breadth of technologies with companies like Cisco, Telefonica and start-ups. David’s has a MSc in Economics from Alcala de Henares University. As part of his undergraduate studies, he attended the Pforzheim University in Germany and completed post-graduate executive programs at ESADE Business school and University of Carlos III.
Panellist. Ernestina Menasalvas
Full professor, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Dr. Ernestina Mensalvas is a computer scientist and PhD in Computer Science. She leads the MIDAS “Data Mining and data simulation group” at the Center of Biotechnology in UPM and she is databases and data mining professor at UPM. Associate Dean of studies and Associate Rector for Graduate Studies (2004-2012). She actively participates in EIT-Digital and EIT-Health, especially in the education activities. Co-leads the task force on skills in the BDVA-DAIRO. Her research integrates different aspects of data analytics with the involvement in different real-world problems with special emphasis on health. She has participated actively in project development under programs H2020, FP7 and EIT.
Panel: Digital skills
Moderation: Jakub Christoph
Secretary General, CEPIS
Jakub Christoph has been the Secretary General of the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies since September 2021. He coordinates the work of CEPIS to implement its mission to promote IT professionalism by fostering professional standards and experience sharing among IT professionals’ community. He previously held the position of Regional Development Manager for Europe and MENA in ICDL Foundation. His role involved coordinating activities of ECDL/ ICDL Operators, advocacy for digital literacy and its certification in Europe and MENA region.
He is a passionate advocate of user digital skills and professional competence development. He was a member of ET2020 Working Group DELTA, which is European Commission platform to discuss digital competence in education. Jakub also participates in works of EURid Strategic Committee. His professional interests include tackling digital social and gender gap as well as modern means of communication.
Panellist: TBD
Scientific Project Officer, European Commission (Joint Research Centre)
Jude Cosgrove joined the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in June 2022. She works in the Digital Economy unit as part of a team that examines the social implications of the digital transformation. Currently, her work is focused on the update of the European digital competence framework, DigComp.
Prior to joining the JRC she was Chief Executive Officer of the Educational Research Centre in Dublin. She has worked on the topic of digital education and skills over the past 10 years. She has a Master’s in Psychology and a PhD in Education.
Panelist: Manuel Pastor
Director General, National Institute of Public Administration, Spain
Manuel Pastor is a senior executive in the Spanish State Public Administration with over two decades of experience across key ministries, including Culture, Health, Environment, Finance, and Justice. His career reflects a strong commitment to innovation, leadership, and public sector transformation. He currently serves as Director General of the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP), Spain’s central institution for recruiting and training public managers and civil servants. Since his appointment in November 2024, he has led strategic initiatives to modernize public sector learning, including the development and implementation of INAP’s first-ever Learning Strategy (2023– 2024). He also directs INAP’s Leadership School and coordinates the Leadership and Civil Service Working Group within the Ministry’s 2024 reform agenda. Previously, Mr. Pastor held prominent roles at the Ministry of Justice, including Director of the Centre for Legal Studies (CEJ)—the national training school for justice professionals—and Chief of Staff to the Permanent Secretary of Justice. Earlier in his career, he served as Director of Learning at INAP, where he focused on enhancing training programme management, organizational development, and capacity-building for senior civil servants, prosecutors, court managers, and scientific experts.
Panellist: Martin Kandlhofer
Senior Researcher and Project Manager; Austrian Computer Society (OCG)
Martin Kandlhofer is a senior researcher and project manager at the Austrian Computer Society (OCG). He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2017 from Graz University of Technology. His area of research is the use of technology to aid learning (e.g. Educational Robotics) as well as the preparation and evaluation of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science topics for different age groups on different educational levels. He worked in several EU funded projects (i.e. ComeThinkAgain, TrainDL, ManuCode, ENARIS, EDLRIS) and organized several national and international workshops (i.e. at IJCAI 2019, at AIED 2020). He published various papers at international conferences and in journals (i.e. IEEE Frontiers in Education, AAAI/EAAI, Robotics & Autonomous Systems Journal) and acted as guest editor for KI – Künstliche Intelligenz (Issue 2/2021).
Panel: The missing talent: aligning digital skills with industry needs
Moderation: Marina Cabrini
Board Member, CEPIS
Marina is a computer consultant who for a long time has been involved in the development of many EDCL/ICDL and informatics certifications both in Italy and internationally, being a part of many expert workgroups. She also takes care of the Italian localisation of the material related to such certifications, and she is responsible for quality assurance of the training material and the tests used for the certifications in Italy. Marina belongs to the Board of Directors of CEPIS, and to the CEPIS Women in ICT group in her capacity as Deputy Chair.
She is very committed to increase the presence of women in STEM, and plays an important role in the development of the DiversIT Charter
Panellist: Styliani Kleanthous
Assistant Professor, Open University of Cyprus
Dr. Styliani Kleanthous is an Assistant Professor in Human – AI Interaction, at the Open University of Cyprus. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Leeds, UK and an MSc. in Information Systems from the University of Salford, UK. Styliani’s main expertise and interests fall into the area of Human – AI Interaction, where humans and AI systems work together to achieve optimal results. Styliani is following user modeling and personalization approaches for understanding and modeling the collaboration and interaction between Humans and AI, in different scenarios with the aim of empowering humans in their everyday interactions with AI. In this line, she is also leading the development of interactive tools for collecting user interaction data and for creating awareness of the potential and limitations of AI technologies.
Panellist: José García-Fanjul
Secretary general, Spanish Council of Informatics Engineering (CCII)
José García-Fanjul is a Professor of Software Engineering at the University of Oviedo. With over 25 years of experience, he has published extensively in leading journals and conferences, and has contributed to numerous research projects in collaboration with industry partners. His current research interests lie at the intersection of law and technology, with a particular focus on legal compliance, privacy, and ethics. He also has extensive expertise in software engineering, especially in the areas of software quality and testing.
Dr. García-Fanjul serves as Secretary of the Spanish Council of Informatics Engineering, President of the Technology Advisory Council at the International Institute of Technology and Digital Law, and is a member of the Public Sector Integrity Observatory.
Panellist: Ana Belén Gil
Associate Professor, University of Salamanca
Ana Belén Gil. PhD in Computer Science (European Mention, Extraordinary Award) with expertise in XAI and big data personalization architectures. She teaches at the BSc/MSc/PhD levels of Computer Engineering and Applied Artificial Intelligence at USAL. Co-director of the ENIA International Chair in Artificial Intelligence and Demographic Challenge, author of 150+ publications, and investigator of 60+ funded projects. She is a member of different international groups, such as Informatics Europe, the voice of the computer science research and education community in Europe, Crusoe Group, and STEM Working Group at Coimbra Group. Recognised with the Gloria Begué Teaching Excellence Award (2022) and named Salamanca Convention Bureau Ambassador (2024). Honorary Member of the Professional College of Computer Engineers of Castilla y León (2025). Finally, to highlight her active role in projects related to gender-inclusive STEM initiatives. Since 2024, she has been an ambassador for the ASTI Foundation’s STEM Talent Girl project and since 2023 member of the «Diversity and Inclusion» working group of Informatics Europe.