Organising Team

Philippe Narval was raised in the Austrian Lake District. After receiving a scholarship, he completed his secondary education at the Lester B. Pearson United World College in Canada and holds university degrees from Kings College London and the University of Oxford. He spent several years of his professional life living and working in Eastern Europe, South America and the Middle East. Prior to joining Alpbach he worked in the arts and in international development. In March 2012, he assumed the role of managing director of the European Forum Alpbach. He writes and lectures on issues related to renewing our democracy and citizen participation. In 2018 his book “Die Freundliche Revolution” (“The friendly revolution”) was published; portraying a number of successful democratic innovations all across Europe.

In her academic life, Verena Gruber bridges the gap from Political Science (Austria), to Middle Eastern Studies (Lund, Sweden), to Defence Studies (King’s College London). In her current PhD project she focuses on the operational aspects of the military merging process of the Kurdish Peshmerga in the north of Iraq. Parallel to her studies and field work, Verena also joined the European Forum Alpbach due to her passion for discourse, the pursuit of knowledge, and the informal atmosphere of the mountains that allow for an eye-to-eye contact with inspiring personalities of all ages – all of which Alpbach stands for. Verena is part of the Team since October 2015.

After graduating from a tourism school, Ruth studied market communications at the Werbe Akademie in Vienna and then went on to study academic business management. After two years in the family business, Ruth became assistant to the managing director of the European Forum Alpbach in January 2012.

Katharina Okulski holds a master’s degree in History of Art from the University of Vienna and an Erasmus Mundus Master’s Degree in Euroculture from the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, and the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. She was a member of the European Youth Parliament for several years. Before joining the European Forum Alpbach, Katharina worked as cultural researcher and project manager for the österreichische kulturdokumentation, internationales archiv für kulturanalysen in Vienna. Amongst others she was in charge of a two year EU project dealing with cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue in the Balkan region. She has also worked with the Canadian Embassy in Vienna, the Austrian Cultural Forum in Cracow, the civil society initiative “A Soul for Europe” in Berlin and other smaller cultural initiatives in Europe and Canada.

As a dramaturg and culture manager, Elisabeth Schack has been active for many years on the Austrian and international culture scene and in academia, and has been working in the performing arts for the last 13 years. In her role as dramaturg for the Wiener Festwochen under the management of intendants Luc Bondy and Markus Hinterhäuser and in collaboration with theatre directors Stefanie Carp, Frie Leyson and Marina Davydova, her programming has demonstrated an increasingly social and political commitment. From 2013 to 2016 she was primarily responsible for the content of the Festwochen Centre in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. A scholar of theatre studies, she is currently also working on the conception and founding of A!DRAMA (a university course for applied dramaturgy in music and the performing arts together with Barbara Kremser) at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, and on a dissertation on the role of dramaturgy in the performing arts.

Originally from the Austrian Vorarlberg region, Christiane moved to Vienna to pursue translation studies. In addition to studying abroad in France, Spain and Mexico, she acquired professional experience by working for an event agency, specialising on the environmental and agricultural sector, advancing to head of the office. In 2012, she became assistant to the President of the European Forum Alpbach.

Charlotte Steenbergen studied Political Science and Russian at the University of Vienna and at RGGU in Moscow. She was a member of the Youth Programme team for the International AIDS Society in Vienna and worked as event manager and PR manager in the field of sustainability in Hamburg, Germany. As Head of Corporate Fundraising at a Children’s and Youth Foundation, she commuted between Munich and Hamburg. After travels in Central America and Europe, she returned to Vienna. Since 2015, she works as project manager for the European Forum Alpbach.

Raised in Hungary and Austria, Annamária majored in English and American studies at the University of Vienna with exchanges at the Université Paris IV – La Sorbonne and the University of Toronto. After that, Paris called her back, and she read European affairs at Sciences Po. She has worked for EFA for several years: as editor of Alpbach News, volunteer and since 2013 as project manager. In her free time, Annamária regularly writes for the online platform Nouvelle Europe on a variety of EU-related issues.

Lara Weisz studied International Development Studies at the University of Vienna with a special focus on transdisciplinary Development Research, Conflict- and Anti-Semitism research. Between 2010 and 2013 she was involved building up the “Muslim Jewish Conference – MJC”, an international conference and leading the department of logistics from 2011 on. After a half year stay as researcher assistant at the Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management Lara started working for the European Forum Alpbach in May 2015.

Franziska Werkner studied African and Development Studies at the University of Vienna. After travelling through Africa and Asia and doing internships at NPO-Akademie and Attac Austria she started working for the European Forum Alpbach as Assistant to the Cultural Program in spring 2015. Since October she has been working as a Projectmanager.