Programme Committee

Ursula Axmann has been working at WU ZBP Career Center (WU, Vienna University of Business and Economics, Austria) for 25 years. Previous to her current position as a managing director, Ursula worked in career guidance, coaching, and recruitment. In addition to her assignment in careers, Ursula teaches as a lecturer at WU Vienna. Since 2009, Ursula has been president of Career Services Austria, the Austrian-wide umbrella organisation of University Career Centers.

Griet Blieck is Head of the Corporate Relations Office at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the KU Leuven, with over twenty years working in higher education. The Corporate Relations Office acts as the central hub for external stakeholders. In close cooperation with the faculty’s student associations and the corporate world, it offers a broad portfolio of job market preparation initiatives. In addition, the Office organizes or facilitates intra and extra-curricular initiatives to develop management and employability skills in line with student’s own aspirations & ambitions of their future career. The goal is to enable students to confidently navigate the labour market and make informed career decisions.

Marc is the Director of Student Employability and Employment at the University of Portsmouth. In this role he manages the University Careers Service and is responsible for ensuring that staff across the University and Students’ Union collaborate with external organisations and alumni in helping students secure successful graduate outcomes in work, study and starting their own businesses.

Prior to joining the University in December 2022, Marc led the Careers Services at Newcastle and Plymouth Universities, and he was also elected President of AGCAS (the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services) from 2020 to 2022, a role which involved representing the UKs higher education Careers Services.

Francesca has been Head of the Career Service at Politecnico di Milano for over 10 years, serving a population of over 48,000 students with 23 people in staff. The Career Service at Politecnico is a rare example of a 100% self-financed career center by employer partnerships and career fairs. Being a native American-Italian bilingual and having obtained a Masters in Cultural Mediation, she sees how students, professors and employers need help in understanding each other because they speak different languages. Other projects she has managed include the launch of the university’s first Diversity & Inclusion Program and the setup of a new strategy for the management of university rankings at her institution. She has been member of the program committee for two previous editions of the Global Career Services Summit.