Steering Committee

ELEN’s strength lies with its people and our member organisations. They represent the highest level of expertise in lesser-used language protection and promotion with experiences from many linguistic situations. The ELEN Steering Committee, our governing body, features a wealth of this expertise from across Europe.

Prof. Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones

ELEN President

Prof. Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones is Director at Mercator International. She has lectured and published widely on media, languages, creative translation and the cultural industries, and currently teaches at Prifysgol Cymru Y Drindod Dewi Sant, Caerfyrddin.

Dr. Davyth Hicks

ELEN Secretary-General

Davyth Hicks is a specialist on European territorial, minoritised and endangered languages, the regeneration and recovery of these languages, and on linguistic rights. As Secretary-General and one of the founders of ELEN he plays a key role in developing effective language policies and legislation at the international European, State and local level. He is ELEN’s chief advocate and representative to the EU, the Council of Europe, and the UN.

Mr Tangi Louarn

ELEN Vice-President

Tangi Louarn is President of the large Breton umbrella NGO Kevre Breizh, and leads on the ELEN France working group which gathers all the territorial language NGOs in the territories under French jurisdiction. He has been a renowned language activist since the 1960s and worked on the Steering Committee of EBLUL. Tangi acts also as ELEN’s representative to the UN and to UNESCO.

Drs. Mirjam Vellinga

ELEN Vice-President

Drs. Mirjam Vellinga is head of the language promotion division at Afûk, the organisation in Fryslân that promotes Frisian language and culture. In 2007 she initiated and developed the successful language promotion ‘Praat mar Frysk’. She is also involved in projects relating to Frisian usage in healthcare and the private sector, as well as and advising public services on language policy.

Mr Marcos Maciera Eiras

ELEN Vice-President

Marcos Maceira Eiras is the President of A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística, the leading NGO for the protection and promotion of Galician.

Ms Idurre Eskisabel

ELEN Vice-President

Idurre Eskisabel Larrañaga is the Secretary-General of Euskalgintzaren Kontseilua, the umbrella group of Basque language NGOs with over 30 member organisations.

Mr Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin

ELEN Vice-President

Mr Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin manages Fis an Phobail, the West Belfast Irish language planning project.

Ms Núria Betoret Olives

ELEN Vice-President

Núria Betoret Olives represents ACPV (Acció Cultural del País Valencià) at the international level. She’s a graduate in Translation and Interpreting (CA-ES-EN-FR), and holds a Master’s Degree in Conference Interpreting. She works as a high school Valencian language teacher in Alaquàs, València.

Ms Marga Payola i Lahoz

ELEN Vice-President

Marga Payola is the international co-ordinator for Plataforma per la Llengua, the Catalan language NGO, and works as a political adviser in the European Parliament.

Dr. Pádraig Ó Tiarnaigh

ELEN Vice-President

Pádraig Ó Tiarnaigh is the Communications Manager for Conradh na Gaeilge, the Irish language NGO. Pádraig is one of the leading activists in the long-running campaign for Irish language legislation in the north of Ireland.

Mr Dòmhnall MacNèill

ELEN Vice-President

Dòmhnall has worked in broadcast journalism, primarily in Gaelic, with the BBC, STV and Grampian Television. Latterly he held the post of Gaelic Development Manager for The Highland Council, working towards the implementation of the authority’s Gaelic Language Plan, before becoming Comunn na Gàidhlig Chief Executive in early 2010.

Ms Elena Jiménez i Botías

ELEN Vice-President

Elena is the international representative for the Catalan NGO Òmnium Cultural, established in the 1960s to work for Catalan language, culture and civil rights.

Prof. Conchúr Ó Giollagáin

ELEN Vice-President

Prof. Conchúr Ó Giollagáin was appointed to the Gaelic Research Professorship in the University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland in April 2014. He has led extensive research projects and post-graduate initiatives in language planning and minority language culture and sociology.

Ms Krisztina Sándor

ELEN Vice-President

Krisztina Sándor is the Executive President of Erdélyi Magyar Nemzeti Tanács (EMNT), the leading NGO for Hungarians in Romania, and has been re-elected twice for this position. Earlier, between 2003 – 2011, she was the President of the Hungarian Youth Council of Romania, an independent NGO in Romania, which worked to protect and represent Hungarian youth.

Dr Claudia Soria

ELEN Vice-President

Dr. Claudia Soria is a researcher at the Institute for Computational Linguistics at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Pisa, Italy. Claudia is the project leader for the EU funded Digital Language Diversity Project on which ELEN is a partner, and brings all of her expertise on ICT and the digitalisation process for lesser-used languages to ELEN as well as having expertise on the linguistic situation in Italy.