Elizabeth brings years of leadership and a deep understanding of urban security to her role as Efus Executive Director. Since 2012, she has been instrumental in shaping the organisation’s strategy and growth.
A Yale alumna with experience at the World Bank and other international public organisations, Elizabeth has a unique perspective on the security challenges facing European cities. Over more than two decades, she has built strong professional relationships with Efus members and partners, fostering collaboration among cities across Europe and beyond.
Elizabeth is an advisor on prestigious bodies like the National Council on Cities in France and the Advisory Board of the Global Parliament of Mayors. She is also a visiting lecturer at Sciences Po Paris and a regular speaker at conferences worldwide.
Languages: French, English, Spanish
Carla brings her 22-year experience at Efus to her role as Deputy Executive Director. She contributes to our development strategy and relationships with members and partners. Over the years, Carla has managed dozens of EU-funded projects covering a wide range of urban security issues, from drug consumption and trafficking to violence in sport, technology and discrimination, to name a few.
Now, she supervises the delivery of EU-funded projects in which we are either lead or partners. Carla also represents Efus at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) and regularly gives conferences to students at the University of Cergy’s Masters in European Projects, in France.
Languages: Italian, French, English
“We have a diverse, multi-skilled and international team of professionals with different cultural perspectives and a wide range of expertise. This enables us to offer innovative solutions for safer, more resilient urban environments.”
– Elizabeth Johnston, Executive Director
Pilar left her native Colombia more than a decade ago to join Efus at a time when we were managing a complex international programme for the prevention of urban violence in Central and South America. She used that unique experience when she moved on to manage EU-funded projects, notably the Horizon Europe-funded IcARUS project, which we designed and led for four years with a large consortium of European cities, universities and other partners with the objective of bringing more innovation to local urban security policies. Now, Pilar has taken on the responsibility of leading the team in designing projects to be submitted for funding by the EU or other public or private organisations. Not an easy task given the sometimes complex EU procedures and demands, which Pilar navigates with unique dedication and attention to detail.
Languages: Spanish, French, English
Having honed her project management skills in her native Tunisia, where she held management roles in several NGOs operating in Tunisia and the MENA region, as well as the United Nations’ Office on Drugs (UNODC), Asma has been Senior Programme Manager at Efus for several years. As such, she supervises and ensures the delivery of EU-funded projects which we lead or are partners in, coordinating with the partners and overseeing the dissemination of the projects’ results and insights throughout our network and beyond. More specifically, Asma specialises in issues of polarisation and radicalisation leading to violence, and manages the development of new activities with private sector partners.
Languages: French, English, Arabic
A specialist in development cooperation, Moumtaez notably worked in the international department of the Departmental Council of Seine-Saint-Denis (France) before joining us. At Efus, he specialises in projects and activities linked to issues of local policing and prevention of hate crime.
Languages: French, English, Arabic
Anne ensures the delivery of the EU-funded projects in which we are either lead or partner, coordinating with the project partners and overseeing the dissemination of the projects’ results and insights to our network of European local and regional authorities. Her areas of expertise are organised crime and violent radicalisation. Prior to joining Efus, Anne spent a year as an Erasmus in Estonia as part of her Masters studies in international relations, and several months in Malaysia as an analyst for an NGO.
Languages: French, English
Bamba specialises in technologies applied to urban security and in crisis management, helping local and regional authorities strengthen their resilience to environmental, man-made, industrial or terrorism-related crises. Prior to joining Efus, he notably worked as project manager for Expertise France, the French government’s international cooperation agency. Bamba has more than one string to his bow: once a high-level 400m sprinter, ranked among the top 8 at the All African Games, and a former Lieutenant in the Senegalese army he has now stepped away from athletics competitions to pursue his passion for cycling.
Languages: French, English, Italian
Chloé already had an all-round international experience when she joined us as Communications Officer, having worked for the Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society, the embassy of Mexico in Paris, UNESCO, and the French Presidency. She holds a key position for Efus, which is to showcase and disseminate the results of the EU-funded projects that we lead or in which we are partners, and more broadly Efus’ work and activities. This means designing communication strategies tailored to each project’s theme and audience, as well as to our wider network of members and partners.
Languages: French, English, Spanish
The relationships our head office has with our member local and regional authorities across Europe is quintessential to who we are and what we do. This is something each of us in the Paris-based technical team does every day, but we also have a position specifically dedicated to coordinating our 250-member network, which is held by Leticia. She brings her expertise in events organisation and communications, which she garnered in NGOs and in a French local authority. She is also in charge of managing Efus’ governance (Executive Committee, General Assemblies) and supervises the smooth delivery of the numerous events we organise, notably our triennial Security, Democracy and Cities conference as well as other conferences on and offline.
Languages: French, English, Portuguese
Lauranne is one of those people who have a genuine passion for administration and financing, which she puts in practice daily as the person responsible for the administrative and financial follow-up of the EU-funded projects Efus leads or is a partner in. She masters the complexities of EU funding programmes and project reporting methods to ensure the delivery of projects on time and on budget. Lauranne is also a fan of everything Irish, having been charmed by the Emerald Isle when she studied international relations and European studies at University College Cork.
Languages: French, English
Sophie is in charge of all aspects of the administrative and financial management of Efus. We audit our accounts each year and present them for approbation by our members during our annual General Assembly meeting.
Language: French
Éric is Accounting Assistant to the Finance Manager. He is one of our longest-serving staff members, having joined Efus in 1998.
Language: French
Rasa supports Efus in its digitalisation efforts to drive growth and identify areas for improvement. She is also Data Protection Officer to ensure Efus’ operations are in conformity with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Rasa joined us after having studied in the United States and worked for several NGOs in her native Lithuania and Portugal. She’s a true information technology buff, striving to keep abreast of the breathtaking advance of artificial intelligence in our professional environment.
Languages: French, English, Lithuanian, Portuguese
Yodie ensures the smooth and efficient day-to-day operation of the office in Paris, where we are headquartered. Prior to joining Efus, she worked for international companies in Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and France, as well as for the embassy of New Zealand in Indonesia and the Embassy of the United States in France. She holds a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management from the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, and Trisakti University, Indonesia.
Languages: French, English, Indonesian
Collaborators
Nathalie has been a reporter for a top-tier American news agency and a consultant and copywriter for leading PR and communications groups in Paris and Madrid prior to joining Efus. As Senior Communications Adviser, she designs strategies and contents to showcase Efus’ work and enhance its notoriety. One of our longest-standing collaborators, Nathalie has deep knowledge of our activities and audiences. She lives near London and regularly comes to the head office in Paris.
Languages: French, English, Spanish
With extensive experience in high-level management of crime prevention for the ministry of the Interior, the city of Brussels and the Hainaut Province in Belgium, Yves is a long-standing Associate Expert of Efus’. He is specialised in all issues related to the local management of crises and disasters, as well as cross-border cooperation.
Language: French