Team - Economic Policies 2025

ITCILO Turin

Vija Pavlovska

Elizaveta Tikhomirova

Bernd Muller

Vincenzo Fucci

ILO Resource Persons

Dorothea Schmidt-Klau

Daniel Samaan

​Kee Beom Kim

Luca Fedi

Sara Elder

Niall O'Higgins

Dr. Juan Chacaltana

Susana Puerto

Drew Gardiner

Matthieu Charpef

Christoph Ernst

Alina Game

Maikel LIEuW-KIE-SONG

Isaure Delaporte

Drew Gardiner

Yadong Wang

Bolormaa Tumurchudur

Christoph Ernst

Click on respective picture to know briefly about the resource person.

Eleonore D’Achon

Felix Weidenkaff

Maria Prieto

Yadong Wang

​Kee Beom Kim

Najati Ghosheh

Maria Luz Rodriguez

Susana Puerto

Before becoming Chief of the Employment, Labour Markets and Youth (EMPLAB) Branch of the Employment Policy Department in the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Dorothea Schmidt-Klau was the Head of the Department Management and Coordination Unit of the Department. In both functions, she supported the work of the Department to promote full and productive employment by developing integrated employment, development and skills policies. She was the Senior Employment Specialist for North Africa, based in the Decent Work Country Team for North Africa in Cairo between 2009 and 2013. She worked with Governments, Employers’, Workers’ Organizations and other key stakeholders providing advice on analytical work, policy development and advocacy on employment-related issues. Ms Schmidt has published extensively in the area of family economics during her time as a research assistant at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg, Germany. Since then her work continued to have a strong gender focus. Other areas of expertise include poverty reduction, youth employment, ageing societies, employment policies, labour market transitions, labour market information systems and labour market indicators. She has worked on many major ILO publications, including several World Employment Reports, Global Employment Trends Reports and most recently the ILO’s COVID-19 Monitors. She has also published numerous working papers and articles in her areas of expertise. Ms Schmidt-Klau holds a PhD in Economics from Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg.

She is a graduate in International Relations and is currently obtaining her Master’s degree in Global Political Science at the University of Milan. She has gained experience as an intern at Protiviti S.r.l. in Milan, supporting audit and compliance projects in the financial services sector, and at the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) in Turin, where she contributed to training programmes, research, and the development of online learning materials. She has also participated in Erasmus+ projects on youth entrepreneurship and digital inclusion. Elizaveta speaks English, French, Italian and Russian.

Yadong Wang is the senior labour market policies specialist of the ILO. Before joining the ILO in 2012, he had over 20 years’ experience of employment policy formulation and implementation as a deputy director of the Employment Promotion Department of the Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. In the ILO, he has been working on knowledge development on implementation of national employment policies. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Bolormaa Tumurchudur Klok has been working in the ILO Skills and Employability branch since 2012. She is a Technical Specialist in the Work Area “Skills strategies for future labour markets”. Her main work focuses on policy advice, research, tools and technical assistance to ILO constituents in the field of skills needs anticipation and matching as part of national and sectoral policies and strategies. She also leads the work on Skills for Trade and Economic Diversification (STED) programme that comprises country and sector-level research and capacity building activities concerning nexus between skills, trade and employment. Prior to the ILO, she was an Economic Affairs Officer at the Trade Analysis Branch of the UNCTAD from 2007 to 2012. She received a doctoral degree in economics from the University of Lausanne (HEC) in 2007, and a master’s degree in international economics from the Graduate Institute of Geneva (HEI) in 1999.

Drew Gardiner is an Employment Policies Specialist and member of the Global Technical Team of the International Labour Organization’s Employment Policy Department. He is responsible for advising governments and social partners on addressing employment issues in national development plans, including on green transitions, gender equality and digitalization. He was previously the Chief Technical Adviser of the ILO’s “Taqeem Initiative” which undertakes impact evaluation of policies and programmes on women’s and youth employment. He is a researcher, speaker and adviser on evidence-based active labour market interventions and has mobilized and managed a portfolio of labour market programmes related to skills, entrepreneurship and employment services across Africa and the Middle East, working with stakeholders from the United Nations, the private sector and government. He has a B.A. in International Relations and French from the University of Calgary and an MBA from the University of Geneva.

Vincenzo Fucci has been working for the ITCILO since 2019. He is currently Research and Programme Officer at the Employment Policy and Analysis Programme in the areas of development economics, social innovation and social and solidarity economy, sustainability and the socio-economic impact of technological innovation. He is the activity manager of the Masters in Social Innovation for Sustainable Development and Technology and Public Policy. He is a PhD Researcher in Development Economics and Ecological Economics at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) at The Hague, under the aegis of the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. His research focuses on eco-social development policies and instruments, particularly structural transformation associated with fossil fuel and mineral extraction and their role in the development process in Latin America.

Kee Beom Kim is currently the Macroeconomic and Employment Policies Specialist at the Employment Policy Department of the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland. During his 15 year tenure at the ILO, he was also based in Bangkok and Jakarta. His work focuses on providing technical support in the design and implementation of national economic, employment and labour market policies, and on undertaking research on key macroeconomic and employment issues. He is a co-author of various ILO flagship publications, and has also authored a number of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and working papers. He received his B.A. and M.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and Korea University.

Sara ELDER Head, Employment Analyses and Economic Policies Unit elder@ilo.org Key areas of expertise: -Support to country offices on employment and social trends, including SDGs (primarily Asia and Africa) -Expert on labour statistics (concepts, methodologies and national survey systems) -Leads production of Global Employment Trends for Youth (past and present) -Coordinating research symposiums, including calls for proposals -Studies linked to integrated policy approaches to formalization, including e-formality -Specialized focus on issues of gender and youth

Christoph Ernst is a Senior Informal Employment Specialist and Lead of the Transition to Formalization Team in the Employment Department of the International Labour Organization, based in Geneva. He had previous assignments with the ILO at HQ in different areas (employment analysis, social protection, working conditions). He also has field experience, with the ILO, but also with other UN agencies (UNDP, UNIDO, UNHCHR and UNCTAD), mostly in Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Argentina), but also in Asia and Pacific (Papua New Guinea). He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne as well as a M.A. from the same university in International Finances and Development Economics

Joined the ITCILO at 2007. She is a course assistant for training activities at the EPAP Programme. Prior to joining the EPAP team, Vija worked for several other Programmes at the Centre including the PRODEV as a project assistant and was in charge for the administrative implementation of the different projects with the EC, the EU and the Italian Government institutions. She holds a degree in Economics from the University of Latvia and the recognition of a degree in Science of Economics from the University of Turin. Vija is fluent in Latvian, Russian, English, and Italian. She speaks basic Spanish and French

Bernd Mueller is Manager of the Employment Policy and Analysis Programme (EPAP) of the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO). EPAP delivers high-quality training and non-training services to global stakeholders, institutions, and partners on the topics of job creation and youth employment, skills development, employment and economic policies, labour market statistics and analysis, informality, among others. Previously, he was the Senior Employment Specialist based in ILO Pretoria, where he was responsible for providing seasoned technical advice and support to the organization’s African member states and constituents with regard to designing and implementing employment creation policies and initiatives. He has over 15 years of experience as development practitioner, policy advisor, researcher, university teacher, and consultant, and has authored a multitude of peer-reviewed articles and reports on the topic of labour markets and employment promotion. He is Diplom-Volkswirt (MSc Economics equiv.) from the University of Muenster, Germany, and holds a PhD in Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Luca Fedi works at the ILO Employment Policies Department in Geneva as a specialist on Productivity and Employment. He was previously the Employment Policies Specialist at the ILO Office for North and East Africa in Cairo. He started his career as a researcher at the Geneva Graduate Institute. He joined the ILO in 2005 working at HQs, in the Middle East and at the Regional Office for Africa. He studied economics and political science at Sciences-Po in France and at the Geneva Graduate Institute.

Daniel Samaan is an Economist and Senior Researcher at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva. He is an expert in the analysis of global labour market trends, specialised in the links with globalisation, new technologies/AI, sustainable development, and a new work culture.

Isaure Delaporte joined the Research Department of the International Labour Organization in November 2023. Previously, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of St Andrews after obtaining her PhD in Economics from the University of Kent in the UK. Her research focuses on studying labour market dynamics and general trends in low- and middle-income countries. She is particularly interested in examining how major trends including new technologies, demographic changes and emerging patterns in development and globalization affect the world of work. Her research aims to study how these transformations affect the skills acquisition among workers and the demand for skills/tasks among enterprises, and how skills/tasks are related to transitions in the labour market.