Ievhen Dukhovych, Senior Advisor of the U-LEAD with Europe Program. He has been working in the field of decentralization and capacity building of local self-government authorities for more than 5 years. Specializes in the issues of interdisciplinary communication, dialogue and partnership development.

Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine on European Integration. Prior to that, he worked as the Director of the Strategic Planning Directorate of the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction.

He graduated from the Kyiv National Linguistic University and the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, a graduate of the Riga Graduate School of Law (Latvia) "European Law and Economics".

Natalia Starostenko has extensive experience in management of projects of European Union, Council of Europe and UNDP with involvement of senior civil servants, civil society leaders and top consulting companies. During her career at international organizations, she focused on public finance management, civil service reform, regional and local development, including cross-border cooperation programmes.
Since 2013, she has been a sector manager at the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
Ms. Starostenko holds PhD in Finance from the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences and a Master of Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania (the USA).

Andrej Horvat is an economist with long-lasting experience in the fields of transformation processes, good governance, structural and public administration reforms, local development policy, and EU integration. In 2006, he was appointed the State Secretary of the Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Growth, and in 2009 he was appointed State Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia responsible for development policies. He has worked as a consultant in Turkey, Jordan, North Macedonia, Albania, and Serbia.

Since September 2017, Andrej Horvat has been GIZ Deputy Programme Director and is Head of the Sustainable Development Unit with U-LEAD with Europe.

Received a master's degree in accounting and auditing at Zhytomyr National Agroecological University.
From February 2019 to May 2020 worked as a manager for the development of a network of industrial parks at the Regional Development Agency of Zhytomyr region. An entrepreneur since 2019. Project manager of the team that won UAH 12 million for the Western Industrial Cluster project from the EU Sectoral Budget Support.

Mr. Vinko Kasana is the mayor of the City of Lipik. Apart from being a long-term firefighter and agricultural scholar, he is active in the political life of the county and municipality from the first days of the Croatian state. His motto is to provide opportunities to the local community and its residents and encourage them to cooperate with each other. He is a Croatian war veteran with over a thousand days of active services in Homeland War and a participant in the Bljesak and Oluja war operations.

Mrs. Senka Horvat is the director of the Regional Development Agency of Požega-Slavonia County located in the Panonian Region. Since 2010 the agency is coordination projects and activities of the county improving the economic and social situation of the county. Mrs. Horvat was actively involved in the reconstruction of several cities and municipalities after the Croatian War of Independence fought from 1991 to 1995. Currently, she is one of the key persons developing projects under many EU and national budget-funded programs. 

Martin Horseling is a lifelong transport professional with extensive experience in the legal, institutional and operational aspects of the sector. He has an extensive experience in Ukraine, working with the Ministry of Infrastructure on the implementation of the Transport Strategy since 2012 and Road Safety from 2019 through 2021.  He has a Master in Law and an MBA, both from British Universities. In addition, he has attended a course on Transport Infrastructure Appraisal at the University of Leeds. 
For Ukraine currently, most important experiences are: almost 2 years of experience in Yugoslav wars, responsible for the logistics and UN-managed infrastructure repairs through the budget preparation process. Though not explicit, this carried over into a post-war reconstruction process that reflected the same challenges as Ukraine faces in the future. 
Furthermore, Martin has extensive experience in the prioritization of infrastructure expenditure and financing thereof. He is the author of the Moldovan Transport and Logistics Strategy and is currently engaged in infrastructure financing and planning of funds distribution in several countries in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. 
Finally, due to his experience in the management of the Ukraine Urban Road Safety project and having grown up in the Netherlands, he has an excellent conceptual and practical understanding of sustainable cities, which combine cycling and walking infrastructure with public transport. This may be a very useful experience when urban reconstruction takes place.

Dr. Vladimir Prebilič graduated from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana on the History and Geography program. He obtained his master's degree in 2001 at the Faculty of Social Sciences, where he also received his doctorate in defense science in 2004. Between 2007 and 2011, he was the head of the Department of Defense Studies, and today, in addition to being the non-professional mayor of the municipality of Kočevje, he works as an associate professor, also at the Faculty of Social Sciences. He is also a member of the presidency of the Association of Municipalities of Slovenia, vice-president of the Community of Municipalities of Slovenia, a member of the Eastern Cohesion Region as a representative of South-Eastern Slovenia, and a representative of the Republic of Slovenia in the Congress of Local Authorities at the Council of Europe, and a regular lecturer at the Congress for promoting the development of democracy at the local level and the ethical behavior of local officials, Member of the Project Group for knowledge transfer to Iraq – United Nation Development Program (UNDP) and Slovene Association of Municipalities in Slovenia attracting the investors into municipalities.

Head of Chuguyiv hromada in Kharkiv region, member of the board of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, Candidate of Science in Public Administration.

Kostiantyn works in the field of local self-government development, citizen engagement and dialogue. He has worked with multilateral organisations – including UNDP and the Council of Europe – and has worked on bilateral donor and assistance projects with the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. He holds a PhD in Public Administration.

Dr. Niclas Rüffer is a manager with a long track record of international cooperation for many years working in Australia, Japan, France, South East Asia, Eastern Europe and China. Dr. Rüffer has a strong academic background as well as distinguished experience as a project manager. He earned his Dr. from Mannheim University and served as a guest professor in Japan, Italy, France, Poland, and Russia.
He has a strong operational management background and broad thematic knowledge, including local economic development, entrepreneurship promotion, innovation promotion, labor markets, and technology transfer. His extensive experience in working with partner ministries and public bodies in international cooperation has been proven in projects of various sizes (including large-scale projects) funded by the German Government, the European Union and national governments.

Expert in involving investments to hromadas and increasing the investment attractiveness of territories and cities. Investment consultant. Over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience.

Expert in involving investments to hromadas and increasing the investment attractiveness of territories and cities. Investment consultant. Over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience.

Stephen Tupper is the Team Leader of the Regional Projects Team of U-LEAD. Over a 30-year career in international development consultancy, he has been involved in regional development issues in China, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. He has worked for projects from major donors, including the EU, World Bank, USAID and financial institutions such as EBRD.

Since November 2020, he has been working as the mayor of the Novovolynsk municipality, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Cities of Ukraine. He was a deputy of the Novovolynsk City Council twice - from 2006 to 2010, and since November 2011. From September 2011 to June 2015, he was the head of the "Dary of Volyn" Farming.
Since October 2015 is an assistant-consultant to People's Deputy of Ukraine I. V. Guz’. In 2019, he was a trainer for deputies of the Verkhovna Rada and their teams, which took place with the support of the USAID RADA Program in the cities of Sumy, Lviv, Dnipro, Rivne, Odesa, Chernihiv. Studied in Novovolynsk, Ternopil, and Lublin (Lenny Kirkland Scholarship 2010-2011, research topic: "Strategic Planning development of territories: the experience of Poland - opportunities and challenges for Ukraine"). Specialty - economics of industrial enterprises.