A key feature of our research approach is the close collaboration with the project’s Advisory Board. The Board brings together a broad group of stakeholders involved in trade, industrial and labour market policies, namely representatives of national governments, national industry federations, trade unions and international organisations, and supports RETHINK-GSC throughout the planning, implementation and dissemination phases.
Our Advisory Board
Thomas Bustrup is Deputy Director General of the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI). DI is a private organisation fully financed, owned and managed by 20,000 companies in manufacturing, trade and services, making it Denmark’s largest business and employers’ organisation. Thomas Bustrup is a board member of a number of organisations, including the Investment Fund for Developing Countries and State of Green. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Copenhagen.
Lykke Friis is Director of the Danish think tank Europa. She has previously served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Copenhagen, Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Gender Equality and Danish Liberal Party spokesperson on European Affairs. In 2007, she was appointed to the EU’s Reflection Group on the Future of Europe. She has also been head of European policy at the Confederation of Danish Industries and has taught international relations at the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Social Sciences and the Copenhagen Business School. Lykke Friis co-chairs the European Council on Foreign Relations, is a board member of Team Denmark and president of the Danish Cancer Society.
Claudia Huber has extensive experience in the public sector. Since 2022 she has been Head of the Economic Policy Department at the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, which represents Austrian businesses with more than 576,000 member companies. As an economist, she is an expert on the business cycle and competitiveness. Her responsibilities include macroeconomic analysis and the coordination of policy positions and programmes for the entire organisation. Claudia Huber holds degrees in International Business and Economics and is a nominated expert for economic committees, such as the Productivity Council in Austria.
Marion Jansen is Director of the OECD Directorate for Trade and Agriculture. In this role, she is notably responsible for inputs in relevant G7, G20 and APEC processes. Prior to joining the OECD, she worked at the International Trade Centre, the World Trade Organisation and the International Labour Organisation. Marion Jansen has published widely on international trade and global governance and has taught at several academic institutions, including the University of Geneva and the World Trade Institute.
Danny McCoy is Chief Executive Officer of Ibec since 2009. Ibec is Ireland’s largest business representative organisation and the country’s largest lobbying group. He is a member of the Royal Irish Academy, a Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy, Adjunct Professor at Trinity College Dublin and Vice President of the Statistical & Social Inquiry Society of Ireland. He has also held lectureships at University College London, University of Oxford and Dublin City University, and has been a senior economist at the Central Bank of Ireland and the Economic & Social Research Institute, and an advisor to the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Stefan Profit is Deputy Director General in the Economic Policy Directorate of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. His directorate deals with macroeconomic developments, economic analysis and projections. Before taking up this position, he headed a unit focusing on empirical research on inclusive growth, productivity and investment, and on assessing the growth and distributional effects of structural reforms. He has also worked on labour market reform and energy policy, foreign trade and policy planning. He has an academic background in labour economics and holds a doctorate in economics from the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Joanna Tyrowicz is Professor of Economics at the University of Warsaw. Her research focuses on the labour market, with particular emphasis on structural changes in the economy, including demographic and sectoral changes. She has also devoted much research attention to the corporate sector, including privatisation and the mechanisms of transmission of sectoral and global shocks to corporate behaviour. Joanna has served as an economic advisor to the National Bank of Poland and as a consultant to the World Bank, the OECD and the European Commission, and has been appointed to Poland’s Monetary Policy Council in September 2022.
Since June 2019, Melanie Vogelbach has been Director of International Economic Policy and Foreign Trade at the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), which represents the interests of the German commercial sector vis-à-vis decision-makers in federal politics and European institutions. After completing her studies in International Relations at New York University, Melanie Vogelbach worked for the German Foreign Office, among others. She has been working for the DIHK since 2014 — most recently as Federal Executive Director of the Junior Chamber International in Germany.
