Our core staff time work at the Secretariat to support the network and fulfil our mission. We also work with a broader team of dedicated colleagues who support our project work.
IT Manager – Angel Matilla
Since 2017, Angel has been living in the community Arterra Bizimodu and working in the GEN Office Team as IT Manager to help strengthen GEN Europe’s IT sovereignty by means of promoting self-hosted free open source software (FOSS) throughout the network to cover our collective IT needs and wishes. He has a telecommunications engineering background and 10 years of experience in developing and integrating software and managing technical teams. In 2011 he started developing an interest in the limits of growth, the fossil fuels’ peak and the non-sustainable practices of the current society. Since then he has been researching other ways of living life, in more sustainable, self-sufficient, resilient and communal ways.
Financial Administrator – Armin Olunczek
Armin joined GEN Europe in the beginning of 2020. Ten years before he cofounded an award winning charity for environmental education and is working in its board ever since. With this and the experience of cofounding and managing a many-sided community (with historical water power station, wood and grounds) since 2014 he gained skills that are also useful to manage the finances and administrative paperwork of GEN Europe.
If not buried under numbers and spreadsheets Armin likes to perform classical music at life threatening places as part of the Civil Disobedience Orchestra and Choir “Lebenslaute” or is out in the woods with his two children to pursue the community‘s forest conversion – or simply to build a hut.
Membership and Erasmus+ Project Manager – Fanny van Hal
Fanny grew up in an intentional community of 18 households located in the fruit basket region of the Netherlands. She moved to the Arterra Bizimodu community in Spain in 2015.
Always having had an interest in ecovillages, Fanny travelled and visited several eco projects around the world, ranging from occupied villages to self-sufficient farms and ecovillages and did her final thesis project with the Council of Sustainable Settlements of Latin America (CASA) and their national network CASA Colombia.. Through these experiences and growing up in one such community she has come to value living in a communal setting for the ways that diverse individuals promote sharing, working together, organisation, planning, and conflict resolution.
Communications Manager – Francesca Whitlock
Francesca’s job as communications manager for GEN Europe combines her experience in nonprofit communications with her belief in the power of community to heal ourselves and the planet. Having spent several years working in campaigns and communications in environmental and climate NGOs, she began seeking a lifestyle in tune with her values and discovered the ecovillage movement. Since 2015 she has lived and worked communally – from an urban co-housing in London, to the deserts of Almería, via an agricultural community in New Zealand. When she’s not working for GEN, she can usually be found on her almond farm, or somewhere up the nearest mountain.
General Coordinator – Monica Cuende
Born in Barcelona, she graduated in Journalism, Public Relations and Advertising with a Postgraduate in Management and Cultural Policies, and has lived and worked in Treviso and Madrid.
Since 1998 she worked as a journalist and head of communication of cultural events, but in 2009 she took a path towards a personal ecological transition and self-management. In 2015 she co-founded a small professional association coordinating projects around ecological transition, development of food systems, circular economy of biowaste, financial innovation (matchfuding) and social currencies that compensate and complement the challenges of social inequality and unsustainability posed by globalisation.
Events and Projects Manager – Tom Feeney
Having a passion for the nuts and bolts inner workings of transition-based networks and organisations, enjoying picking apart and reassembling strategic thinking, and especially interested in how to interlink efforts across the wide spectrum of networks and movements working on systematic renewal, Tom feels at home coordinating GEN EU Events and sitting in our Projects Team.
He feels a bit of a ‘Jack of all Trades, Master of None’ and holds 10 years experience in England, Scotland and Spain across a broad set of skills including charity operations, events, fundraising, project development and finance related to issues such as fossil fuel transition, labour rights, mental health issues, social entrepreneurship and transnational network building.
Resonating strongly with the Head, Heart & Hands model, he seeks balance in this way through his work and life in general. Outside the office you can find him with his son, growing mushrooms, or mixing bass music, amongst a few interests!
