PARTNER NEWS
In each edition of EFILife, we dedicate some space to partner news, including personnel changes as well as relevant events that have taken place over the past months.
From AFS Austria comes the new that a new sending coordinator has been hired. Sibylle Eberhard has a university degree in anthropology, has worked for the Fullbright Commission in Vienna and at the Viennese Music Festival. During her studies, she spent an Erasmus Year in Irland. Patrick Hamatschek, programme manager will supervise her and make sure she will have a smooth transition.
AFS Belgium French informs that a new programme manager has been hired. Emilie Vandermeiren’s initial training in traditional business management engineering and then entrepreneurship were widely used in her first job: the development and rollout of a creativity and innovation platform at the University of Liège, part of a regional programme called Creative Wallonia. Starting as a project manager involved in communications, public relations and partnerships, she soon took on the the responsibility for managing the training programme in the field of creativity management for both students and professionals. Following her time at the University of Liège, she used her skills as a consultant for education institutions, public organisations and private companies.
On 8 October, Yukiko-Elizabeth Kobayashi took over the role as National Director of AFS Germany. After 18 years of successful service for AFS, Mick Petersmann will be retiring end of October. Yukiko studied business management and psychology – with a focus on intercultural psychology – and worked for 15 years in the corporate world at Lufthansa German Airlines and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, most of the time in leading HR management roles. She is particularly experienced in transforming organisations into flat, agile, innovative entities.
The board of AFS Germany congratulated Yukiko at its meeting last weekend and offered its very best wishes for success in leading the organisation forward and pursuing the mission of AFS. It also expressed its appreciation to Mick for his contribution to the development of AFS Germany. Mick will bid farewell to his colleagues in Accra and then on 27 October in Hamburg. Yukiko has been introduced to the network at the Partner Network meeting in Accra, Ghana.