Senior management shuffle in Commission
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.
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-First, 11 current Directors-General will move department or take on other important assignments, respectively.
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-Second, eight current Deputy Directors-General, including two women, will become Directors-General.
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-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.
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-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.
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-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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-Alexander WINTERSTEIN (+32 2 299 32 65)
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-Andreana STANKOVA (+ 32 2 295 78 57)
General public inquiries:
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