Elena Sánchez Nicolás (Acting President)

Elena Sánchez Nicolás is the new acting president of AEJ Belgium. She is from Spain and she joined AEJ Belgium in 2017. Elena is an accredited journalist, working for the online newspaper EUobserver. She covers institutional affairs, climate change, and tech policy; and she likes to illustrate data and trends with infographics. Before joining EUobserver, she worked on European affairs at the Brussels-based think tank VoteWatch Europe and the Spanish news agency EFE. She holds a MA in New Media and Society in Europe from the Vrije Universiteit Brussels and a MA in Transmedia Journalism from UNED. She was part of an exchange programme with the Thomas More Hogeschool, where she focussed on cross-media production. In addition to her work as a journalist, she is learning data analysis and visualisation. She speaks English and Spanish fluently while studying to improve her Dutch and French skills. 

Lieven Taillie (Honorary President) 

Lieven is an independent journalist accredited to the European Commission, which covers essentially economic and social policy issues for CAPresse. He is also interested in cultural subjects. Since 2013 President of the Association of European Journalists in Belgium (AJE / AEJ).

Previously active for Euromedia Services in Brussels (Quinzaine Européenne, Européenne de Bruxelles, Europabericht, Eurinfo, European Library of Agence Europe, and more), now a member of CAPresse and moderator in multilingual debates (German, English, French, Dutch). Member (and formerly administrator) of the Steering Committee of the Jean Monnet Association. Previously also a member of the Scientific Committee of the Schuman House in Scy-Chazelles (Metz).

Email: president[at]aej-belgium.eu

Alia Papageorgiou (Vice-president)

Alia Papageorgiou Is in charge of our special Projects, European media policy and social media content. As a social media specialist, Alia is able to draw on over 13 years of journalism, public diplomacy and digital editorial experience. She has led and reported in print newsrooms which were early adopters, including Brussels’ New Europe of which she was Managing Editor in 2012- 2013. 

She worked as a journalist for eight years in Brussels accredited to the EU institutions. She has been a Press Officer in the EU Delegation to Australia and worked in social media for large organisations. She has previously curated the Personal Democracy Forum in Brussels and Twestival. Her main concern now lies in how we cover climate change via local journalism.

CAPSULE AEJ BELGIUM AVEC GOLD FM ET BES (Presentation in French) Check it out here!

Dirk Vandereyken (Chief Operating Officer)

Dirk started his writing career at age 11 by authoring his first science fantasy novel, IJs, de verloren planet. It was published 3 years later. Since then, Dirk has written hundreds of articles, columns, reviews, books, film scripts and audio plays.

Aside from being a journalist and editor, he heads the PR bureau Badass PR and teaches acting, communication, NLP, hypnosis, writing, singing, lie detection, directing, presenting, debating and more at Badass Intensive Courses and Badass Intensive Acting. As COO of the AEJ Belgium, his goal is to improve the workflow of the organization and help to with its social media presence.

CAPSULE AEJ BELGIUM AVEC GOLD FM ET BES (Presentation in French) Check it out here!

Wytze Van der Gaast (Chief Financial Officer)

Born into a hospitality (hotel) family, Wytze developed an interest in journalism early on and started working in television and media production during his years working and living in China. After additional projects and work in the Americas and Africa, Wytze landed in Brussels in 2018.

In Brussels, he is active in the production of (new) media and journalistic content and events such as the ‘Brussels Bubbles’ TalkShow featuring journalists who provide a look behind the scenes of their work and ‘Behind the Headlines’ an online video format inspired by shows like ‘The Daily Show, and ‘Last Week Tonight’.

CAPSULE AEJ BELGIUM AVEC GOLD FM ET BES (Presentation in French) Check it out here!

Jasmijn Post (Member of the Board)

Jasmijn Post works for BRUZZ, the Flemish Brussels media. As an editor in this cross-media newsroom, she writes news and background articles, and she films and edits tv reports. The struggle to implement coherent policy on the taxi market and the possible solution to use tiny houses to tackle homelessness are among the recent topics she covered. In addition to her work as a journalist, she focuses on well-being in the office as a member of the Committee for Prevention and Protection at Work and the Committee for Diversity, Inclusion and Representation.

She studied International Investigative Journalism (Thomas More, Mechelen) Journalism (KU Leuven, Antwerpen) and Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (University of Amsterdam). 

Alena Bieling (Member of the Board)

Alena works as an editor for the International Politics and Society Journal (IPS). She previously worked in Communications at the EURACTIV Media Network, for which she also occasionally wrote. Her main interests lie in equality and social justice. At AEJ Belgium, Alena – amongst others – takes care of the communications.

Alena holds an MSc in European and International politics as well as a BA in International Journalism and a BA in Liberal Arts and Sciences with a focus on Peace and Conflict Studies. 

Previous boards: