The team

Boris Tonhauser
Director
English, French, Slovak, German, Czech
+32 2 500 05 39
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Boris became Director of PLATFORMA on 2nd October 2023. Before that, he was Executive adviser, in charge of the project coordination. With 20+ years of experience in the fields of local governance, international cooperation and statutory affairs, his background includes political science, international relations, law and sciences studied in Bratislava, London and Strasbourg.

Eva Baños de Guisasola
Senior Adviser – Global Agendas, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Climate
English, French, Italian, Spanish
+32 2 500 05 45
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Eva graduated in European law at the University of San Pablo CEU in Madrid (Spain), with Legal Practice and accountancy diplomas, and has a D.E.A Environmental law, planning and management in the territory from the University of Limoges (France). She lives in Brussels since 1999 where she has experiences as: Executive Director at Aqua Publica Europea, Policy Officer for Environment over 9 years within EUROCITIES, consultant at Eamonn Bates and at Lovells Boesebeck Droste International law firm. Previously she has worked as Senior Scientific Manager at the Euro Mediterranean Climate Change Center in Italy for 3 years, also in charge of the initiative of the Mediterranean Climate Change Cities Consortium. In April 2015, Eva joined the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) as Senior Policy Adviser on Energy and International Negotiations on Climate. She has been involved in shaping the Global Covenant for Climate and Energy and partner in the Regional Covenants in Europe and in Sub-Saharan Africa. At CEMR, she has been very much involved in advocacy and outreach strategy, mobilisation and engagement of cities, synergies with different initiatives and networking activities, UNFCCC negotiations and the EU energy pact, climate issues and the Green deal proposals on climate and energy. Since October 2021, Eva is working at PLATFORMA as advisor on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global agendas and climate. She did secondments in Birmingham, Vienna, Gothenburg, Washington, Barcelona and Rabat.

Rocío Ballesta Orta
Officer – Development Education & Awareness Raising
English, Spanish, French
+32 2 842 67 75
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Rocío joined PLATFORMA in March 2024 as Project Officer in charge of Development Education & Awareness Raising. She holds a Masters in European Studies (Global Policy and Governance Challenges) from Maastricht University (the Netherlands) and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Loyola University in Sevilla (Spain). Rocío gained her first professional experience working with CARE in Georgia, where she contributed to a project on Rural Development in the city of Lagodekhi. As a committed intersectional feminist, Rocío worked at CONCORD Europe as Policy and Advocacy Adviser, where she was responsible for the Gender Equality working group and covered other topics such as the EU-AU Partnership and Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development. She also worked at the European Commission as a Blue Book trainee in the Director’s office of DG INTPA G (Directorate-General for International Partnerships).

Francesco Pala
Adviser – Young Elected Officials and Partners Engagement
English, French, Italian
+32 2 500 05 47
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Francesco has joined PLATFORMA in November 2022 as Officer in charge of Young Elected and Partners Engagement. He graduated in Political Science - International Relations at the University of Siena and attended the Master in European Studies at the ULB - IEE in Brussels, and he has experience on participatory democracy, good local governance and multi-stakeholder approach. In 2017, he joined ALDA - the European Association for Local Democracy - as Assistant to the Secretary General and then covered the role of Strategic Planning Coordinator and Head of the Secretary general Office till February 2022.

Claire Helly
Adviser – Policy & Advocacy
English, French, Spanish
+32 2 791 67 73
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Claire joined PLATFORMA in September 2025. She has an 8 year-experience working alongside local and regional governments and defending their interests. She holds a joint Master’s Degree in political science and international relations from Sciences Po Rennes (France) and Aston University (UK), with a specialisation in Multi-level governance. She counts with a strong expertise in EU Policies and Projects, and she previously worked as a Policy and Project Officer at the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) in Brussels, as an International and EU Partnership Officer in Pas-de-Calais Département (France) and in non-profit organisations in France and Latin America (Guatemala, Mexico).

Bella Tskhelishvili
Adviser – Eastern Partnership and Geographic Dialogues
English, French, Georgian, Russian
+32 2 842 67 77
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Bella joined PLATFORMA in January 2020 as Officer in charge of Eastern Partnership and Partners Relations. She holds a Master's degree in Political Sciences - International Relations from the Institute of Political Studies, Strasbourg, France.
Her expertise covers policy and advocacy work. She contributes to conceptual and strategic reflections on the Eastern neighbourhood and dialogue with EU Delegations in partner countries and advises on evolutions in the area. She also supports the advocacy strategy for this thematic area, including towards European institutions and with external stakeholders. In terms of project management, she designs, monitors and reports on diverse projects with partners on energy, climate, gender equality, decentralisation and public administration reforms.
Her previous professional experiences include Gender Equality and Diversity work at the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), European local cooperation policy at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and adaptation of Georgia to the legal requirements of the Council of Europe at the Permanent Representation of Georgia at the Council of Europe.

Chine Venturi
Finance Officer | Officer – Culture
English, French, Spanish
+32 2 265 09 30
Matilde Fornaro
Intern
English, Italian, Spanish, Norvegian
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Matilde has joined PLATFORMA in September 2025 as an Intern. She has graduated in International Relations and Human Rights at University of Padova (Italy) and is attending a Master in European Studies at the University of Firenze (Italy). Her previous experiences include an internship at the Municipality of Legnaro (Padova) where she explored the intersection of migration, social capital, and public administration. Her interests span between international and sustainable development, migration, and education.

Communication

Hervé Devavry
Adviser – Communication & Press
English, French, Polish
+ 32 2 842 67 70
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With an experience of eight years in EU bubble press rooms for various media (Le Parisien, EurActiv.com, Les Echos de Pologne, DeHavillandEU...), Hervé joined PLATFORMA in 2016 to put decentralised cooperation in the spotlight. He studied political sciences in Lille (France) & Cracow (Poland) and journalism in Paris.

Platforma
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