Senior management

Source: European Commission (EC) i, published on Wednesday, June 24 2015.

Continuity and change: Commission appoints new Secretary-General and reshuffles its senior management

The European Commission has today decided to appoint Alexander Italianer as new Secretary-General following Catherine Day's decision to retire from active service as of 1 September 2015. The Commission has also decided to reshuffle its senior management team. Continuity and change being equally important for the success of this College, a significant number of current senior managers will be taking on new responsibilities.

Following the re-organisation of the Commission in November 2014, today's decision is a further step in gearing the Commission towards effective delivery. It concludes an inclusive process set in motion by the President in March 2015. First, Commissioners proposed three names of senior managers they would like to see as their Director-General. Then, the President consulted the relevant Vice-Presidents on the proposals submitted to him, counting on the valuable support and advice of Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva i.

Presenting today's decision, President Jean-Claude Juncker said: "I want to wholeheartedly thank Catherine Day for her commitment and skilful steer of our administration for so many years. She played a crucial role in helping this new Commission to start at full speed. I am sure our new Secretary-General, Alexander Italianer, will build on her tremendous success. We have a strong team in place to deliver on Europe's big priorities. At the same time, there are still too few women among our senior managers. It remains my firm intention to change that during my mandate".

Kristalina Georgieva, Vice-President in charge of Human Resources and Budget, said: "This is a team of talented and experienced professionals, who will work closely with the political leaders to deliver on the priorities of the Juncker Commission - the right people in the right place, at the right time. And I am strongly committed to bring the share of female managers to 40% by the end of this mandate."

Today's decision involves two types of moves among the current senior management team of 33 Directors-General, 36 Deputy Directors-General and 4 Hors Classe Advisers.

  • First, 11 current Directors-General will move department or take on other important assignments, respectively.
  • Second, eight current Deputy Directors-General, including two women, will become Directors-General.
  • Third, Jonathan Faull will take on the new Director-General position leading a Task Force responsible for strategic issues related to the UK Referendum, reporting directly to the President.
  • Fourth, three Director-General posts and 10 Deputy Director-General posts will be published in the near future. Further publications of Deputy Director-General posts will follow.
  • Finally, two Deputy Director-General posts and three Hors Classe Advisers will be created (whilst three current Hors Classe Adviser posts will be suppressed).

With regard to gender balance, the situation remains unsatisfactory. Today's re-shuffle could not address this issue because it was, by its nature, limited to moves among the current senior managers. The current team does not yet include a sufficient number of women.

Today's changes are summarised in the table below.

Directors-General

Name

Current function

New

function

Date of effect

Mr Alexander ITALIANER

DG COMP

Secretary-General

1 September 2015

Mr Joao AGUIAR MACHADO

DG MOVE

DG MARE

1 September 2015

Mr Daniel CALLEJA CRESPO

DG GROW

DG ENV

1 September 2015

Ms Lowri EVANS

DG MARE

DG GROW

1 September 2015

Mr Karl Friedrich FALKENBERG

DG ENV

Hors Classe Adviser "Senior Adviser for Sustainable Development" EPSC

1 September 2015

Mr Jonathan FAULL

DG FISMA

DG "Task Force for Strategic Issues related to the UK Referendum" in SG

1 September 2015

Mr Robert MADELIN

DG CNECT

Hors Classe Adviser "Senior Adviser for Innovation" EPSC

1 September 2015

Mr Xavier PRATS MONNE

DG EAC

DG SANTE

1 September 2015

Mr Stephen QUEST

DG DIGIT

DG TAXUD

1 January 2016

Ms Martine REICHERTS

DG OP

DG EAC

1 September 2015

Mr Claus SØRENSEN

ECHO

Hors Classe Adviser "Senior Adviser for Resilience, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response" EPSC

1 September 2015

Deputy Directors-General / Hors Classe Adviser

Name

Current function

New function

Date of effect

Mr Johannes LAITENBERGER

DDG SJ

DG COMP

1 September 2015

Mr Henrik HOLOLEI

DSG SG

DG MOVE

1 October 2015

Mr Olivier GUERSENT

DDG DG FISMA

DG FISMA

1 September 2015

Ms Marianne KLINGBEIL

DSG SG

DG "Regulatory Scrutiny Board" in SG

1 July 2015

Ms Katarina MATHERNOVA

Hors Classe Adviser DG REGIO

DDG DG NEAR

1 September 2015

Ms Monique PARIAT

DDG DG AGRI

DG ECHO

1 September 2015

Mr Timo PESONEN

DDG DG COMM

DG COMM

1 July 2015

Mr Martinus VERWEY

DDG DG ECFIN

DG "Structural Reform Support Service" in SG

1 July 2015

Mr Roberto VIOLA

DDG DG CNECT

DG CNECT

1 September 2015

Other decisions

The currently vacant posts of Head of Representation in Ljubljana, The Hague, Helsinki and Vienna have now been filled:

Name

Commission Representation

Date

Mr Zoran STANCIC

Ljubljana

1 January 2016

Mr Peter BEKX

The Hague

1 September 2015

Ms Sari ARTJOKI

Helsinki

1 September 2015

Mr Jörg WOJAHN

Vienna

1 September 2015

For more information:

Minutes of the College meeting of 18 March 2015

CVs of the European Commission's top managers

IP/15/5252

Press contacts

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