Commentary and analysis

Mary McCaughey is Head of Information and Communication in Eurofound. A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin and the College of Europe, Bruges, she started work in Brussels with Europolitics and the Wall Street Journal Europe. She worked with the Association of European Parliamentarians with Africa (AWEPA) in South Africa during the country’s transition to democracy, and in 1998 she took up the post of spokesperson with the Delegation of the European Union in Pretoria, heading up its press and information department during the negotiation of the EU–South Africa free trade agreement. Following the end of the Kosovo War, she worked as a communications consultant for the European Agency for Reconstruction in Serbia. She took up the post of Editor-in-Chief in Eurofound in 2003.

Ivailo Kalfin joined Eurofound as Executive Director on 1 June 2021. Mr Kalfin’s expertise covers a range of areas, from the dynamics of the labour market and social policy to global political trends, the EU and budget, as well as digital transformation. He has outlined five main priorities for his role at Eurofound: supporting the mainstreaming of Europe's green and digital transitions; complementing the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan with evidence-based research; increased cooperation with international organisations and external partners and greater outreach to European Neighbourhood Policy countries; support for enhancing and expanding the capacity of social partners within the remit of the Agency; raising Eurofound's profile among key stakeholders.

Jürgen Siebel joined Cedefop from the private sector in September 2019. As Executive Director, he is responsible for managing the Agency’s operations in accordance with the strategic direction of its tripartite Management Board.

Carlos Vacas Soriano is a senior research manager in the Employment unit at Eurofound. He works on topics related to wage and income inequalities, minimum wages, low pay, job quality, temporary employment and segmentation, and job quality. Prior to joining Eurofound in 2010, he worked as a macroeconomic analyst for the European Commission and as a researcher in European labour markets at the Spanish Central Bank. He holds an MA in European Economic Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges and a PhD in Labour Economics from the University of Salamanca (Doctor Europaeus).

Eszter Sandor is a senior research manager in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound. She has extensive experience in survey management, including questionnaire design and scripting, data preparation (processing, cleaning, weighting), and statistical analysis using R. She manages Eurofound’s e-survey (Living and working in the EU) and contributes to the preparation and management of the European Quality of Life Survey. Her research focuses on the quality of life of young people and families, including subjective well-being, mental well-being and living conditions.
Before joining Eurofound, she worked as an economic consultant in Scotland, specialising in economic impact assessments, evaluations, and input-output analysis. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Budapest University of Economics and Business and a Master’s degree in Economics and International Relations from Corvinus University of Budapest.

Marianna Baggio is a research officer in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound, working on aspects of the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), as well as on the topics of gender pay transparency and informal care. Prior to joining Eurofound, she served as a policy analyst at the Competence Centre for Behavioural Insights of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. She has worked as a postdoc at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele (Milan) and the University of Trento. She also brings extensive experience from a previous role as corporate social responsibility (CSR) officer in South Africa. Marianna holds a PhD in Economics and Management from the University of Trento, specialising in behavioural economics.

Marie Hyland joined Eurofound as a research officer in the Social Policies unit in 2023. Her research focuses on issues related to housing, the social implications of the green transition and the socioeconomic situations of vulnerable groups. Prior to joining Eurofound, Marie spent several years as an economist at the World Bank, where her research covered women’s employment and economic empowerment, private sector development and the economics of climate change. Marie holds a PhD in Economics from Trinity College Dublin. During her PhD studies, she was a visiting Fulbright scholar at the University of Maryland.

Daniel Molinuevo is Senior Research Manager in the Social Policies unit, having joined Eurofound in 2010. His research on health and social care has focused on the quality and accessibility of services, their digital transformation and the working conditions of staff. His work has mainly focused on services for children, both at Eurofound and at UNICEF, where he worked in 2021 supporting the preparation of the European Child Guarantee. He is a member of the Young Ireland Advisory Council and the EU Working Group on early childhood education and care. He was also a member of the EU Working Group that contributed to the review of the European targets for participation in childcare that took place as part of the European Care Strategy. He studied sociology in Salamanca, Spain and at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He has an MA in European Political and Administrative Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges and an MSc in European Social Policy from the London School of Economics, where he also worked as a researcher.

Michele Consolini works as a research officer in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound. He provides quantitative expertise on several issues, including social cohesion and trust, climate change and quality of life, convergence and survey management. His current research looks at the role of polarisation on social cohesion and trust, and the socioeconomic challenges of the transition to a carbon-neutral economy. He holds a BA in Sociology and Economics from the Alma Mater Studiorum in Bologna, Italy, and from Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Netherlands. He completed a Research MSc in Political Communication from the University of Amsterdam, where he also worked as a teaching assistant and researcher in the field of political psychology.

Hans Dubois is a senior research manager in the Social Policies unit at Eurofound. His research topics include housing, over-indebtedness, healthcare, long-term care, social benefits, retirement, and quality of life in the local area. Prior to joining Eurofound, he was Assistant Professor at Kozminski University (Warsaw). He completed a PhD in Business Administration and Management at Bocconi University (Milan), after working as a research officer at the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (Madrid).

Barbara Gerstenberger is Head of the Working Life unit at Eurofound. In this role, she coordinates the research teams investigating job quality in Europe based on the European Working Conditions Survey and industrial relations in the EU. She joined Eurofound in 2001 as a research manager in the then newly established European Monitoring Centre on Change (EMCC). In 2007, she moved to Eurofound’s Information and Communication unit as Head of Communication Products, before being appointed Coordinator in the Directorate in 2011. Previously, she worked as senior research officer in the European Metalworkers’ Federation in Brussels. A graduate in political science from Hamburg University, she completed a Master's degree in Public Administration at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.