AAFB Board

A group of friends and companions who manage the association’s activities.

Marianne Ranke-Cormier – President

Marianne Ranke-Cormier, from Munich, Paris and Arriach (Austria), lawyer by training, is involved in trans-European politics since 1987. She stood by Franck Biancheri’s side when he created IDE, the first trans-European political party, which ran in the 1989 European elections in Spain, France and the Netherlands. She also participated in Prometheus-Europe, a trans-European think-tank, for which she was primarily in charge of the Education / Erasmus committee. She also was involved in the organization of hundreds of conferences since 1987, serving as finance coordinator as well as General Secretary and Administrative and Financial Manager for the conferences organized by TIESWeb (Miami Transatlantic Weeks), Europe2020, Leap2020, Newropeans2000, Newropeans Democracy Marathon (2003) among others and was head of the transeuropean Newropeans Party List in the 2009 elections, responsible for the Newropeans Campaign in the European elections of 2014. She was Editor-in Chief of the Newropeans Magazine she founded in 2004 with Franck Biancheri and she decided to leave in 2014 when it was distorted and diverted from its original goal. Founding member, she is today vice-president of the AAFB founded in 2013 after the decease of Franck Biancheri in order to keep alive his memories and works. She is responsible for the archives and managed with Marie-Hélène Caillol, president of the association and who was the life-companion of Franck Biancheri, the handover of the Franck Biancheri archives to the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe in Lausanne (Switzerland). She is the president of #CitizensRoute2019, writes for the GEAB, Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin, and is member of the Europe2040 team launched last year by LEAP2020. Facebook

Marie-Hélène Caillol – Honorary President

Marie-Hélène was born in France in 1965 and is a sociologist and linguist. Marie-Hélène was Franck’s 20 year companion until his death. She is also the mother of Franck’s only daughter, Carla. Marie-Hélène met Franck in 1992 and immediately became passionate about his work, getting involved in the revival of the NICOMED network as part of Prometheus-Europe. Then she took part in the creation of the think-tank Europe 2020, and served as president between 1999 and 2005. In 2005 she participated in the creation of the European Political Anticipation Laboratory (LEAP), and is still its president. Marie-Hélène Caillol has been president of AAFB (Association des Amis de Franck Biancheri) since its creation in 2012, a few weeks after Franck’s death. Throughout her collaboration with Franck, Marie-Hélène’s main achievements were as follows: the Euro-Med Congress in Marrakech (Prometheus-Europe, 1995), the EU-Governance 2020 Anticipation seminars (Europe 2020, 1999-2005), the Newropeans Congress in 2000 (Prometheus-Europe, 2000), the Newropeans Democracy Marathon (Prometheus-Europe, 2003), the Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin (LEAP, 2006 – present), the Manual of Political Anticipation (Anticipolis, 2009), the Euro-BRICS seminars (LEAP, 2010 – present).

Georgeta Grama Moldovan – General Secretary

Geta Grama-Moldovan was born on January 23rd, 1977, in Romania and is currently the Administrative Director of the GEAB, the Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin, an online geopolitico-financial publication edited monthly by LEAP for more than ten years. She graduated in 2001 from the Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, the Faculty of Letters : French & English Languages & Literatures and, in 2010, from the EFCB (the European Foundation of Banking Certifying). In 2000, being an AEGEE member (Cluj Napoca) and preparing her UBB university graduation, she decided to leave Romania in order to join the teams of two associations created by Franck Biancheri in Paris, named Prometheus Europe and Europe 2020. Between 2000-2005, she was involved in many European and Transatlantic fabulous projects, such as : the Newropeans 2000 Congress in Paris; the EU-StudentVote online elections of the first European Student Council; the Miami Transatlantic Weeks organized every two years in Miami (Florida) by TIESWEB, the Transatlantic Information Exchange System on the web; the Newropeans Awards & Galas; the Europe 2020 Club and other successful meetings, seminars and conferences organized all by Biancheri’s teams. What was supposed to be a seven month Prometheus Europe internship in Paris turned out as a five year extraordinary life experience, which not only was impossible to forget, but managed to convince her in 2014, after 9 years of banking experience within the Societe Generale Banking Group, to get involved once more in a Biancherian project, this time called the GEAB by LEAP. She is a member of the AAFB (Association des Amis de Franck Biancheri), she is married with a six year old daughter, currently living with her family in Transylvania (Romania).

Philippe Portalier – Assistant general secretary

Philippe Portalier, 54, is a legislative advisor in Internal Market legislation for the technology industry, working for a European technology federation. He was a good friend of Franck Biancheri’s from the time of their meeting in January 1986 in Leiden (the Netherlands) during the first Europe-Student conferences organized by the AEGEE association. Philippe was impressed by Franck’s analytical mind and his ability to convince citizens by inventing a plausible, but also ambitious future for them through democratizing the European Union and by becoming masters of our real future, beyond any false image, and by challenging our heads of states and governments. Since Franck knew how to make his commitment meaningful, Philippe decided to participate actively in the networks Franck Biancheri created: Philippe was president of the Paris branch of AEGEE-Europe (June 1986-June 1987), a Prometheus-Europe and Europe 2020 founding member (June 1987). He was also one of the main organizers of many conferences on European education, on the fight against AIDS, on European transportation issues, as part of Prometheus-Europe (the 90s). Philippe was a French candidate in the IDE European elections list (IDE – Initiative for a European Democracy, 1989), and he contributed to “thinktanks” like Europe 2020 (1990) and TIESweb (2000-2003). He co-organized the symposium “Newropeans 2000: New Europe, New Challenges, New Generations” (2000) and participated in the launching of the European political movement named Newropeans (2005). Philippe was also an occasional columnist for Newropeans Magazine (2005-2007) and a French candidate on the European elections list of the Newropeans party (2009). Philippe is a founding member of the AAFB as well. He graduated in Industrial Property Law and European Law (1985-1986).

Pierre-Marie Pagès – Treasurer

One of Franck Biancheri’s mates since 1978, Pierre-Marie Pagès followed and supported Franck and his ideas from the time they met.

He was president of AEGEE-Nice in the 1980s and is currently the CFO of Anticipolis Editions.

José María Compagni Morales – Vice President

José María Compagni Morales, entrepreneur and associate professor at IE University, was born in 1965 in Seville where he studied Law. He is one of Franck Biancheri’s travel companion. They met in Madrid in January 1987 when José María, who was already involved in pro-european movements, was touched by Franck’s original and pragmatical interpretation of the European integration. During 1987-1988, he was vice-president of AEGEE Europe (www.aegee.org) and a bit later the spanish head of the list for IDE (Initiative for a European Democracy) in 1989 EPP elections. In 2005, he worked again in the launching of Newropeans and in 2012 he collaborated with Franck in the creation of FEFAP (Foundation for Education and Training of Political Anticipation). Currently he is LEAP general secretary, vice-president of AAFB (Association des Amis de Franck Biancheri (www.franck-biancheri.eu) and member of Newropeans Club. Thanks to his numerous trips and places of residence in different European countries, he is well acquainted with European reality and his main political aim is the democratization of Europe and the empowerment of the European civil society.

Christel Hahn – Vice President

Christel Hahn, is the coordinator of the german edition of the GEAB, president of IRPA, the association founded to guard the integrity of Political anticipation and one of the initiators of the Agora of Euroland Citizens, LEAP’s project for the democratisation of Euroland. She met Franck Biancheri in 2006 through the viral second number of the GEAB, became a member of Newropeans at its first Agora in June 2006 in Paris and was a candidate for its transeuropean list for the 2009 elections to the European parliament. She is a physicist and a software engineer by training and born 1952 near Constance, Germany, where she still lives.

Anne-Béatrice Schlumberger Boulanger – Vice President

Véronique Swinkels – Vice President

Veronique Swinkels is part of the AAFB Network since 1988 when she was on the Dutch list of IDE (initiative for a European Democracy); the first European party that participated in the 1989 European elections. During the years she participated in several European initiatives and in 2007-2009 she was European campaign manager off and candidate for the new European citizens party; Newropeans. In participating in the 2009 elections Newropeans put European democracy high on the political agenda of the EU. She was among the founders of the AAFB and is on the board. Since 2014 she is also active in the Euro-Brics project of LEAP and became in 2015 a board member of LEAP. Veronique Swinkels worked her whole life in advertising and marketing and is owner and since 2011 managing director of BBK/Door Vriendschap Sterker (BBK/Powered by Friendship), an Amsterdam based communications, PR and media agency. She is specialized in campaigns and content strategies for brands with a purpose and aims at making consumer behaviour more sustainable through multi-media campaigns. Veronique studied Communication Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, Communications policy at the City University in London. Born in Maastricht, she now lives in Amsterdam with husband and 4 children.

AAFB Nucleus Committee

The circle of people who participate in the strategic orientations of the association.

Carla Biancheri

Carla is the only daughter of Franck Biancheri and Marie-Hélène Caillol. Born in 1994 in Brussels, where she spent her first four years, she grew up in Paris and Cannes. Being a student in communications in Paris for two years now, Carla is a founding member of the AAFB Association, and she actively participated in the organization and communications of the March 2015 event named “Toward a democratic alliance”. Moreover, she had the pleasure of discovering the student association founded by her father in 1985, AEGEE-Europe, along with the unique European spirit prevailing there.

Régis Jamin

Régis Jamin met Franck Biancheri sometime in the year 2000, when the latter made him the proposition to build together a project called the EU-StudentVote, at a time when Prometheus-Europe, Newropeans and Europe 2020, all created by Franck, were still active. Supported by two foundations, Robert Schuman and Hippocrene, the EU-StudentVote enabled the election of the first European Student Council following the spirit and values of the ERASMUS project which Franck had initiated with President Mitterrand in the mid 80s. With the 5.5 million visits on the five language webpage of the EU-StudentVote, with virtual visits from 2,500 EU universities and schools, 82,689 students participated in this first event of the World’s e-Democracy in 2002. EU-studentVote definitely marked the future of a new student democracy and a new form of European democracy. “This was the first time in EU’s history that citizens could vote at the European level for trans-European lists. In this respect, the students of the 15 EU states became pioneers of what will remain the first large scale experiment of e-democracy in history”, Franck Biancheri pointed out at that time. Régis Jamin is the founder and leader of Election-Europe, their team having developed and introduced internet voting in political elections for the first time in 1999, and then they were used in the US Democratic Primaries in 2000, the UK Municipal Elections in 2002 and 2003, the French Expatriates Elections in 2003, the Project E-Estonia in 2001, the E-Vote Canton of Geneva in 2001, and otheres. He has over thirty years of experience in new technologies, having created several internet start-ups in France, Europe and the US, particularly the Interlink Computer Sciences Company, which developed on mainframe the TCP / IP protocol, the “language” of the internet. It was in a group of the Internet Society chaired by Vint Cerf (sometimes called the father of the internet) that the idea was born of using the internet to improve the democratic process by introducing internet voting in the electoral law.

Caroline Lubbers

L’expérience de Caroline Lubbers dans le domaine marketing lui a permis d’acquérir une solide expérience dans les secteurs de la mode internationale et de l’hôtellerie, avant de se spécialiser dans « l’économie expérientielle » en 2010. C’est cette année là qu’elle a rencontré Franck Biancheri pour a première fois et qu’elle demeure depuis fortement inspirée par sa vision et connaissance.
Caroline Lubbers a contribué au soutien des activités de LEAP2020 en mettant en place une campagne média, et en contribuant au lancement du livre « Crise Mondiale – En route pour le Monde d’après ». Après ça, elle devint la coordinatrice du projet Euro-BRICS, et géra les séminaires Euro-BRICS, ainsi que le marketing et la communication pour LEAP2020. Son expérience pour LEAP2020 lui a permis de développer une pensée systémique et d’anticipation sur le sujet de la gouvernance mondiale et des relations politiques : anticiper les chemins de développements, déceler les tendances à un stade anticipé et concevoir de nouvelles solutions. Localisée à Amsterdam, elle s’est engagée dans l’industrie du cacao et du chocolat et a co-fondé plusieurs initiatives avec une attention portée sur la qualité et le développement durable, tel que l’évènement annuel sur l’Origine du Chocolat et du Cacao. Caroline a fondé une entreprise qui développe des initiatives qui améliore les conditions de marché des produits durables, principalement le cacao, tout en s’étant construit un réseau étendu dans l’industrie du chocolat.

Philippe Micaelli

Philippe Micaelli was one of Franck’s most loyal friends. Having joined the project since the time of AEGEE-Europe, he has always been following Franck thereafter. At the time of AEGEE, Philippe Micaelli (called “Mica”) was a key person in the organization of the historical event of the “Night of the 7 Antennae”, organized in 1987. He was then involved in the campaign of the first trans-European political party (IDE) created by Franck in 1988 and in the citizen advocacy organisation, Prometheus-Europe. Friendship between Franck and Mica was unbroken unyil Franck passing away. Mica was born in 1960 in Paris. He works in the field of security in Paris.cc

Laurent Nouchi

Laurent met Franck in the years 1984/1985 at Sciences-Po and was one of the founders of AEGEE-Europe, then IDE the first trans-European political party.

Maria Zei

Italian, living in France for many years, I am engaged for many years for the “common good” and for a true citizen life, active and conscious in its multiple dimensions: referendums for public water, conferences on economy, work, history, energy issues, justice, LGBT issues, state crimes and secret services, crime and mafia, European issues, local currencies, cities in transition, holacracies, etc… I have always struggled, whether in Italy, France, or Europe, to help the citizens take control of their lives: with the meetupparis and Newropeans, from 2007 until now, and at the present time at the Comité Nouvelle Donne Gironde.