The ECC is promoted by a diverse group of French residents in the UK, British citizens and international Francophiles with deep ties and experiences within the global community who are brought together by a shared goal of supporting a healthy Europe. ECC’s rhizome includes a variety of French and British decision-makers and influencers.
Alexandre Chavarot is a co-founder of Access Corporate Finance, an independent energy and climate financial advisory firm. Prior to Access, he spent most of his career at Lazard and at the Clinton Climate Initiative. He has been advising on the structuring of and investment in large scale energy projects in different parts of the world.
Alexandre is an executive committee member of the Harvard Kennedy School Fund. He has also been involved in French political campaigns, with the Mouvement Démocrate and En Marche ! He has been living in London for more than 25 years. He is a graduate of Science Po Paris, the Harvard Kennedy School and INSEAD.
Marianne Magnin combines sixteen years of corporate experience at senior levels (Royal Dutch Shell, PwC) with as many years in the art sector, where she operates at the intersection of philanthropy, technology, and curatorial practice. She founded and chairs The Cornelius Arts Foundation (and its French sister Gingko lab. Fonds de Dotation), and serves as Executive Director of Art Identification Standard while also leading RIZOM, a civic-tech initiative deploying the first symbolic operating system to strengthen democratic meaning-making in the digital age.
Engaged in public life since the early 2000s, she has played a leading role in fostering transnational democratic dialogue, notably as founding President of Démocrates Sans Frontières. Having lived in the United Kingdom for over twenty-five years, she bridges French and British political cultures with a European outlook. A graduate of KEDGE Business School, she pursued further training at Harvard and INSEAD.
Kalypso Nicolaïdis is Professor of International Relations and director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Oxford, as well as Professor at the European University Institute. She was previously associate professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She is chair of Southeastern European Studies at Oxford and Council member of the European Council of Foreign Relations. In 2012-2013, she was Emile Noel-Straus Senior Fellow at NYU Law School (2012-2013). In 2008-2010, she was a member of the Gonzales reflection group on the future of Europe 2030 set up by the European Council.
She also served as advisor on European affairs to George Papandreou in the 1990s and early 2000s, the Dutch government in 2004, the UK government, the European Parliament, the European Commission, OECD and UNCTAD. She has published widely in numerous journals and written books on international relations, global governance, trade ethics, law and democracy promotion, as well as the internal and external aspects of European integration. She is a graduate of Sciences-Po (1982) and received her PhD from Harvard in 1993.
Elizabeth Frost Pierson made her career in the art world as a curator, gallerist and art advisor, beginning with Sotheby’s in New York before working as aDirector in galleries in New York, Rome, and London. She founded her advisory, Elizabeth Frost Pierson Fine Art in the 1980’s in New York, working as an international art advisor for corporate and private collections including Chase Bank, among others. A Co-founder and Director of the Stair Sainty Gallery in New York and later in Paris and London, she curated scholarly exhibitions and collaborations for over three decades, leveraging her broad network in the business, media, political, diplomatic and arts sectors.
The President and Founder of Longhouse, a D.C. based arts advisory and consultancy, Elizabeth serves on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C.; the French-American Cultural Foundation, DC; the Board of Visitors of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, OK; is a founding sponsor of Oklahoma Contemporary, OK; and a founding partner of the Europe Cordiale Circle, UK. Elizabeth has supported, spoken and written on the arts, and has moderated panel discussions for the private and public sectors. She has worked as a consultant for media groups, including U.S. News & World Report, New York and more recently for BBC Radio 4 Today, UK. She is a vocal advocate for the role that the arts play in societies today.
Elizabeth’s vision and orientation in the worlds of politics and diplomacy first took root during her formative years in Washington, D.C, and later broadened to encompass a distinct transatlantic orientation after living and working in Europe for decades. She is fluent in Spanish, French, and Italian.
Luisa Porritt has senior experience in communications and politics at the international, national, regional and local levels. She is Head of Investment Content at Edelman Smithfield. In 2021, she stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London. In 2019, she was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for London, going on to become Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Delegation and a frequent media spokesperson for the national party before Britain left the EU. Previously, she was also Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Camden Council and a Councillor for Belsize ward for four years.
She is the Chair of the Finance Sub-Committee and sit on the board of Open Rights Group, the UK’s leading privacy and digital rights campaigning organisation. She is co-founder of ECON+, a network/think tank aimed at engaging young people with economic policymaking. She is a former finance and economics journalist, and also worked for strategic advice firm Global Counsel and former UK government minister Shriti Vadera. She is a graduate of Sciences Po, Paris, and Royal Holloway.
Tushita Ranchan is an internationally experienced investor in green energy and infrastructure projects. She has served on boards of companies and charities and is actively involved in public service initiatives. She serves as Chair of the Green Purposes Company to hold the UK government’s share in the recently privatised Green Investment Bank.
Tushita is one of the founders of Britain for Europe, a UK wide grassroots campaign to remain in the European Union following the vote for Brexit. She founded a non-profit organisation in India to promote community-based youth volunteering.
Previously, she held senior appointments at a leading fund and development company in Abu Dhabi, ran a solar module manufacturing company in east Germany and raised several billion dollars of structured and project financing while working with Citigroup. Tushita is now based in London and invests in early stage start-ups. She lectures on International Finance and Public Policy at Sciences Po in France and is a co-opted governor of a primary school in east London.