Agenda

Amb. András Szörényi is Senior Policy Advisor at the Global Cities Hub, an organization connecting local and regional governments to the United Nations system. He provides consultancy to UN entities on advocacy and diplomatic outreach. He had 20 years of distinguished diplomatic career. He worked in different capacities in Brussels, covering EU affairs, in Washington D.C. dealing with bilateral relations, in Budapest on energy security and in Geneva, working with the United Nations and other International Organizations. He has first-hand experience of negotiating in the European Union and the UN system as well as conceptualizing and implementing diplomatic initiatives on a wide variety of issues.

With a deep knowledge of international relations, Dr. Szörényi always focuses on new global developments and emerging challenges. He has a broad understanding of the engagement of non-state actors on multi-stakeholder platforms. He regularly gives lectures and has been particularly interested in the increasing influence of non-state actors on the development of international relations since his Ph.D. research.

He holds a Ph.D. in International Economics from Corvinus University, a DEA in Comparative Political Sciences from Sciences Po Paris and a Master degree in International Relations from the University of Economics in Budapest.

Maria Eugènia Gay Rosell is a lawyer and public official currently serving as Sixth Vice President of the Barcelona Provincial Council and Deputy for International Relations and Agenda 2030, as well as Second Deputy Mayor of Barcelona City Council. She is also a city councillor in Barcelona and a member of the PSC (Socialists’ Party of Catalonia).

She holds a Law degree from the University of Barcelona–CEU Abat Oliba and a Master’s in Mediation, with specialization in civil procedural law. Gay has built a solid legal career in civil law and has taught civil law and procedural law in various postgraduate programmes at the Barcelona Bar Association (ICAB).

She has held prominent positions in the legal profession, including Dean of the Barcelona Bar Association (2017–2022), President of the Council of Catalan Lawyers (2020–2022), and Vice President of the General Council of Spanish Lawyers (2017–2022).

From 2021 to 2023, she served as the Spanish Government Delegate in Catalonia. She is also involved in several cultural and institutional bodies, including the CCCB and the Maritime Museum Consortium, and is Vice President of the Foundation for Democracy and Local Government.

Zakaria OULAD is VP of the Urban Planning and Smart City Commission at the Commune d'Agadir, where he coordinates the Communal Action Plan and acts as Green City Officer. He is National Commissioner at Morocco's data protection authority (CNDP) and co-presides the AIMF Commission on Innovative, Intelligent and Responsible Cities alongside Nantes.

His work focuses on urban data platforms as governance instruments. In Agadir he has driven the city's Digital Twin, its gender-responsive urban programme, and its Quality of Life Index initiative. At CNDP he contributes to the reform of Morocco's data protection law and its alignment with the GDPR.

He is a PhD researcher at KU Leuven's School of Public Governance in Belgium, working on urban data platforms and spatial equity in mid-sized Global South cities. He also teaches Urban Innovation Systems at the National School of Architecture in Agadir and works as a senior consultant in strategy, organization and digital transformation, with over twenty years of experience across Europe, the US, Asia and Australia.

Karen Laßmann is the head of a team that works on the topics smart city and data management in the Senate Chancellery of Berlin. The Senate Chancellery is the administrative staff of the Governing Mayor of Berlin. It supports him in the planning and management of Berlin state policy.

Under the responsibility of Karen (and in close cooperation with politicians and the urban innovation lab), a new smart city strategy was developed in Berlin from 2020 to 2022 in a broad participatory approach with the city's population.

Karen holds a Masters degree in business administration and a degree in public administration (state examn). She´s been working for the public administration of Berlin since 2006 in different positions, since 2020 she´s been working for the Senate Chancellery. In 2024 Karen was one of two German experts appointed by the German government to serve on the UN-Habitat expert working group tasked with developing People-Centered Smart City Guidelines.