Executive Board
The Executive Board is in charge of the daily operation of EQAR, with the support of the Secretariat. It takes care of all administrative affairs and has the power to legally represent the EQAR Association.
The Executive Board comprises four persons: a President, two Vice-presidents and a Treasurer. The Executive Board is elected by the General Assembly for a two-year mandate, whereas each Founding Member proposes one member of the Executive Board. The Executive Board has agreed to annually rotate the different functions amongst its members.
The mandate of the current Executive Board will finish after the General Assembly of 2012. As of 1 April 2011, the Executive Board assumes the following functions, according to the agreed annual rotation:
Andrea Blättler (President)
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Andrea Blättler is studying political science and philosophy at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland.
She was representative of Union of Students in Switzerland at four ESU Board Meetings and has been an active student representative at local and national level.
Since 2009 she has been a member of the Executive Committee of the European Students Union (ESU) as well as representative of ESU within the Bologna Follow-up Group.
As of the start of this year she is representative of ESU within the working group on the European Higher Education Area in a Global Context.
Andreas Orphanides (Vice-President)
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Prof. Andreas G. Orphanides, PhD is the Vice President of EURASHE in charge of Bologna and quality assurance, the Rector of European University Cyprus and a Member of the Governing Board of the Open University of Cyprus. He is also a consultative member of both BFUG Board and BFUG, and a member of the Cyprus Rectors’ Conference.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in History/Archaeology from the University of Athens (Greece), a M.A. in Classics/Archaeology and a Ph.D. in Anthropology/Archaeology from the State University of New York at Albany (USA) and a post-graduate qualification in Open and Distance Learning from Hellenic Open University (Greece).
Andreas Orphanides has taught at universities and other institutions of higher learning in the USA Greece, and Cyprus. He served as the Assistant Director of the Institute of Cypriot Studies at SUNY at Albany, as Assistant Director of the Archaeological expedition in Cyprus of SUNY at Albany, as Vice-President of ECSA-Cyprus, as member of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Cyprus’ Higher Education, as member of the Preparatory Committee for the establishment of Open University of Cyprus, and as Member of the Executive Council of EURASHE.
He also served at several university administrative positions at all levels, e.g. programs Director, Dean, etc. He has a significant research record, has published several books and journal articles, as well as articles in daily Press, and has presented papers in several international conferences. Apart from his academic and administrative activities, Andreas Orphanides has systematically been working creatively with both music composition and poetry.
Lesley Wilson (Vice-President)
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Since 2002 Lesley Wilson has been Secretary General of the European University Association (EUA) that represents 34 national Rectors Conferences and almost 800 universities at European level. As part of her responsibilities she represents EUA in the E4 Group on quality assurance.
Prior to joining EUA she held a number of senior posts in different international organisations dealing with education and research in Europe, including: Head of Department for Strategic Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the European Training Foundation (Turin, Italy) from 1999 -2001; Director of UNESCO’s European Centre for Higher Education (CEPES) in Bucharest from 1995 - 1999; Head of the Science Policy Unit of the European Science Foundation (ESF) in Strasbourg (France) from 1994 to 1995 and Director of the European Commission's TEMPUS Office (Brussels) from 1989 to 1994.
She began her career as a Scientific Officer at the German Science Council (Cologne) in 1980 and moved to Brussels in 1988 to take up a post as Senior Programme Manager in the ERASMUS Bureau (Brussels).
Lesley Wilson is a graduate of the Universities of Glasgow (1973-1978) and Strasbourg (1978-1980).
Helka Kekäläinen (Treasurer)
Since 2008 Dr. Helka Kekäläinen has been the Secretary General of the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council (FINHEEC), which operates in Helsinki, Finland. FINHEEC is an independent expert body assisting higher education institutions and the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture in matters relating to evaluation of higher education. Before being appointed to the position of Secretary General she held the position of Senior Adviser in FINHEEC. She is a member of the ENQA board since 2009, after a one year co-option as a board member. In 2010 she was elected as the Vice-President of ENQA.
Prior to joining FINHEEC she worked at the University of Helsinki. She had her PhD in theatre research at the University of Helsinki in 2001. She was the acting professor of theatre research for one year, before changing her career to administration. For four years she worked in different administrative posts at the University of Helsinki. During her studies she worked as a journalist and a theatre critic.
Helka Kekäläinen is a graduate of University of Helsinki. During her Ph.D. work she stayed for some time in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California Davis.
