ANDREJA RIHTER, Slovenia (President): from 1986 to 2000 she was Director and programme manager at the Museum of Recent History Celje. In 2000 she was appointed Minister for Culture in the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. She has been National Correspondent of the European Museum Forum since 1997. From 1998 to 2001 she was also President of the Board, organiser of annual national meetings and many international meetings of the Slovenian Museum Association. She is now Head of the International School of Museology of Celje where she is actively involved in the organisation of seminars, lectures and workshops. She is an active tutor and professor specialized in work with children and youth.
WIM VAN DER WEIDEN, Netherlands (Chairman): Trained as an historian, he became director of Museon, the National Museum for Education and the first space theatre in Europe, Omniversum, both in The Hague. He was a member of the board of the Dutch Museum Association and one of the initiators of the Dutch Museum Pass. He was also chairman of ICOM Netherlands and a member of the Executive Council of ICOM. (International Council of Museums). In 1989 he became a member of the European Museum Forum and was since 2002 its chairman. For a period of 12 years he was director of Naturalis, the National Museum of Natural History in Leiden. In this period a complete new museum was built under his supervision. Since October 2003 he has been involved in the promotion of Dutch history. In that capacity he wrote the first draft for the future National Historical Museum.
MASSIMO NEGRI, Italy (Director): Scientific Director of the Executive Master in European Museology at the IULM University of Milan, teaches also at the Post Graduate Master Course in Industrial Heritage as well as in the Erasmus Mundus Course on Industrial Heritage within the Course of History, Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, of the State University of Padua. Consultant for the planning of the Courses of the Centre of Higher Education in Cultural Heritage of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. Former Director of the European Museum Forum (1999-2009) and member of the Jury of the European Museum of the Year Award from 1983 to 2009. In 1993 he was awarded by the King of Spain the Cross of Officer of the Orden de Isabel la Catòlica.
ARNO VAN BERGE HENEGOUWEN, Netherlands: after his biology studies at Leiden University he became director and curator of the Natural History Museum in Tilburg. Later he was head of the Natural History Department of the educational museum of The Hague, Museon. Museonder, the first underground museum in the world developed for the National Park De Hoge Veluwe, was one of the highlights and was followed by a new visitor centre in the same park. He wrote the plan for an exhibition about plants in Botanica in Bremen’s Rhododendronpark. He wrote several popular science books in topics as marine biology, evolution and biodiversity.
CHRISTOPHER GRAYSON, he read classics at Oxford and went on to research and lecture in ancient history there. His subsequent career was in the field of cultural co-operation for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, working with parliamentarians, government representatives and academics on a wide range of subjects relating to the arts, heritage, education, science, youth, media and sport. From its creation in 1977 he has been closely involved in the European museum award scheme and in particular the Council of Europe Museum Prize. He lives in Strasbourg and London.
