Dr. Myriam Bea

President

Dr. Myriam Bea is Chief Executive of ADHS Deutschland e.V., the national ADHD advocacy group for people with ADHD and their families in Germany. She was a co-founder and past president of ADHD Europe and has been active as a volunteer for over 20 years.

After studying law, she graduated in medical malpractice in Cologne, Aachen and Bremen and practices as an attorney-at-law. She holds a magister degree in European Sciences from the University of Aachen and is a certified coach from the RheinMain University of applied sciences.

She trains and lectures as a lawyer and coach with a focus on ADHD.

She is a member of the VMWJ (Verband der Medizin-und WIssenschaftsjournalisten) and publishes for ADHS Deutschland e.V. the magazine “neue Akzente”. Myriam is author and co-author of several papers.

Andrea Bilbow OBE

Vice President

Andrea Bilbow OBE is the founder and Chief Executive National Attention Deficit Disorder Information and Support Service ADDISS the national ADHD patient advocacy group in the UK and Over the past 20 years she has been supporting families affected by ADHD, developed programmes for training teachers and now trains practitioners to deliver behaviour management programmes to parents. Through ADDISS, she holds the UK licence for the 1 2 3 Magic programme.

Andrea trains and lectures internationally, and is involved in a number of ADHD research projects including an NIHR programme development grant to develop an online parent based intervention for ADHD. She is a member of the NIHR Healthcare Cooperative, MindTech, which is seeking to improve the use of technology in mental health, and was a member of NIHR Mental Health Research Network (MHRN) Clinical Research Group for Assessment and Treatment of ADHD which concluded that identification and assessment of children and young people with ADHD was a key research priority.

Andrea has raised two sons with ADHD, one of whom also has Asperger’s syndrome, and has a diagnosis of ADHD herself. The challenges of gaining access to care within the NHS and lack of support and advice in parenting her sons led Andrea to found ADDISS to help other parents.

In June 2013 she was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by Her Majesty the Queen for her work supporting families with ADHD.

Marko Ferek

Vice President

Marko Ferek graduated from the American College of Management and Technology in Dubrovnik, Croatia (RIT’s subdivision) in 2003. Finding out that he falls within the spectrum of ADHD changed his life.

He founded the “Buđenje” – Organization for understanding ADHD in Zagreb, Croatia and since 2005 he has been managing and executing its educational projects (lectures and workshops), initiatives, promotions and campaigns.

As a supervisor and a mentor he is involved in organization’s activities such as monthly meetings for parents and adults with ADHD, and Skill Builders for children and teens.Today, “Buđenje” organization has the biggest online ADHD community in Croatia and region (www.budenje.hr), and is a member of ADHD-Europe organization.

Marko Ferek is internationally acclaimed speaker on ADHD and creativity who  has given talks and shared his message in many schools, universities, centers, hospitals and on many conferences throughout the world.

He is the author of the book “Hyperactive dreamers – better, worse, different” – a bestselling book in Croatia that has been translated into Hungarian and English. He has made guest appearances on many national TV and radio shows as well as in magazines and newspapers.

Christina Georgiadou

Secretary

Christina Georgiadou is President and co-founder of ADHD Hellas located in Greece, Athens. Christina joined the movement to raise awareness for ADHD after her sons were diagnosed. She has been a member of the ADHD Hellas board since 2009, its’ General Secretary since 2010, and President since 2015.

Along with other board members, she organises several awareness events and activities for spreading the knowledge on ADHD to individuals with ADHD and their parents, school teachers of primary and secondary education and mental health care personnel in Greece.

She joined ADHD Europe in 2012 with the mission of providing a strong and united patient voice and put the patients with chronic diseases at the centre of Greek and European Union healthcare policy and programmes.

Christina has also completed the Patient Expert Training Course of EUPATI. She sees partnering with patients, their families and advocacy groups essential to improving the quality, safety and sustainability of healthcare.

Chantel Fouche

Treasurer

For the position of the Treasurer, I have professional experience with debtors, creditors, budgets and following through with administrative tasks related to the role. I have 14 year’s high level executive administration experience, and was a business owner in France for five years. I have contributed to the growth of ADHD Europe and shall continue to offer support to the Executive board for ADHD Europe’s aims & objectives.  I am a member of the ADHD Awareness and Communications working groups for ADHD Europe.

Since 2017, I am the Secretary General of ADHD, ASC & LD Belgium, one of ADHD advocacy groups for people with ADHD, parents, teachers and their families in Belgium. We provide support, and education for ADHD and many neurodiverse conditions. We are actively involved in advocating for the patient’s voice at the European capital of Europe in Brussels with various awareness and activity events for the dissemination of knowledge about ADHD. I gave my first patient testimonial on World Brain Day (WBD) on 22 July 2019 talking about ADHD.  We organised WBD in partnership with EFNA, and the European Brain Council.  For WBD on 22 July 2020, our organisation hosted the event focusing on brain and mental health, with many endorsements from organisations on European level. I look forward to working with the Board to help professionalise lobbying for ADHD Europe at European Parliament and within the EU.

I am currently actively working on the ADHD and Women project.  This project between ADHS (Deutschland) and ADHD, ASC & LD Belgium was awarded a grant by the European Federation of Neurological Associations.

I am a mother of two boys, of which my oldest, was diagnosed in 2007 with ADHD in South Africa where diagnosis, treatment and educational support knowledge contributes to the advocacy and awareness efforts that is much needed for ADHD in Europe. 

Isabel Rubió Badía

Board Member

After the experience in her family, where ADHD is very much present, and what she discovered at CHADD, she saw the importance of  good information to families and schools of what ADHD is and how it affects not only the individual but the family and society in general as well. Because of the needs she found were not still meet, she founded and is the president of Adana Foundation in 1997, in Barcelona, Spain.

Isabel Rubio has been the President of of Adana Foundation since May 6, 1997, and registered in the Registry of Private Foundations of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Spain) with the number 1102, on September 25 of the same year. ADANA has as its main goal to improve the quality of life of people with ADHD (Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder) and other neurodevelopmental disorders. It was created to inform, train and help all those people interested in these disorders, with the aim to develop all the possible means to diminish the negative effects that they have on children, adolescents and adults, in order for them to be able to enjoy a happy life.

Since the start ADANA Foundation works with families to provide interventions that helps the child or adolescent to overcome their academic, personal or social difficulties because of ADHD. Another ADANA’s goal is to inform and train professionals, especially at the mental health and education level. For this, they organize training courses accepted by the Catalonian Department of Education and Health and has trained more than 10.000 teachers in strategies to help the student with ADHD in the classroom. Because of this expertise, Beatriz Mena, Director of ADANA Foundation, participated in the elaboration of the psychoeducational contribution to the Spanish ADHD Guidelines, by the Ministry of Health.

Since 2009, ADANA has a Postgraduate Studies related to ADHD, and other related disorders, and has students from all Spanish-speaking countries. ADANA has also a program to help around 50 students with severe learning and behavioral difficulties in the classroom. To do all this ADANA counts also with an Assessor Committee with professionals who are very much recognized as experts on ADHD.

This year, ADANA has modified their Statutes to help people with neurodevelopmental disorders  as ADHD usually is comorbid with other conditions and wants to continue its task on the educational field, providing answers to those with school failure and social rejection because of their special needs.

Because of her commitment to ADHD, Isabel has participated in many of the meetings that took around Europe since 2001 with the project “Knowing me knowing you”, and was one of the people who believed it was of the most importance to create strong parent and affected advocacy organizations, she personally became a member of the Steering Committee of ADHD-Europe in 2005-2006, and was a founding member too of FEAADAH, the Spanish federation of Parent Associations related to ADHD, since then ADANA Foundation is an Honory member of the organization. ADANA has helped many of the Spanish Parent Associations on their creation and

Elected member of the Board of ADHD-Europe (2018)

Member of the Board of ADHD-Europe as Vice-president (2006-February 2014)

Member of the Steering Committee of ADHD-Europe (2005-2006)

Training:
Degree of Pharmacy and History (University of Barcelona)
Accountancy (EADA) and PADE (IESE).

Hans van de Velde

Board Member

In 2018, Hans was elected in the Board of ADHD Europe. Before he has been president of the Dutch dyslexia association and board member of Impuls & Woortblind, the association for people with ADHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia etc. From 2009 on he is the chair of the Science Committee of this association.

His current job is being a coach, amongst others for employees with ‘special brains’ like ADHD, autism, dyslexia and giftedness. He founded his company – Equisto – in Rotterdam in 1998 from the vision that brain properties like ADHD don’t just disappear in adulthood. Hans‘ company specialises in ‘people-at-work’ and offers professional guidance to employers and their employees, with a multidisciplinary approach and a focus on the talents of workers with these brain properties.

Hans’ interest in special brains stems from his own experience. After the usual hard years in primary and secondary school without being recognised as having dyslexia, he started working next to school at an early age. He cleaned offices, and at sixteen became assistant of the owner of the cleaning company. His second job was clerk to the court of justice. Later on in this court he became one of the first experts  in legal text-processing and software in law. Next to his job, he studied law and got his masters in 1989.

In this period he got a burnout with anxiety problems. After a long period of therapy he did a three year education as trainer/therapist. And some years later, at last he got his diagnosis dyslexia and ADHD.

Carola Stivala

Board Member

Carola Stivala, (maiden name Falzon), was born in Malta however raised and educated in the Netherlands. She completed her Master of Arts Degree in Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam in 1999. Her specialisation was in “sustainable economic development and non-governmental organisations” in Latin-America. Her publication “Veldwerk in uitvoering” (IBSN: 90-5260-007-4) was published in 2001, and used in 6 Dutch universities for the last 10 years during the preparation for research study module.

Carola is married and has two teenage children, a Labrador dog, two cats and a bird.

In 2013, whilst living in Malta, Carola became involved with the local voluntary organisation, ADHD Malta, when she found that her son and other family members were diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia. To raise awareness and combat stigma about ADHD, Carola became active as honorary secretary of the group: writing funding proposals and executing projects, organising educational seminars for educators and parental skills courses for parents, introducing the national accredited course:  “the ‘ADHD adult coaching approach’ in 2017, updating the website and publications and organising the monthly meetings for the group members, together with the committee.

Carola Stivala has joined the board of ADHD-Europe to help combat stigma and improve treatment options for any individual with ADHD within the EU, irrespective of age and their country of origin.

Hrannar Arnarsson

Board Member

Hrannar Björn Arnarsson is the Executive Director for the Icelandic ADHD Association – the only ADHD organisation in Iceland, consisting of 3000 members out of population of 350.000. He is also chairman of the board in the Nordic Association and a member of the board in the Nordic ADHD group, Nordic Associations Network and The Icelandic Network of National Civil Society Associations.

Earlier, Hrannar worked as Secretary-General for a parliamentary group in the Nordic council,  as an personal and political advisor to the PM of Iceland and as a member of the City Counsel of Reykjavík, so he has great experience in public and political field, both in Iceland, the Nordic countries and in Europe.

Hrannar have also, for over twenty years worked as managing director for his own sales and marketing company and as director of sales and marketing for some of the biggest media and publishing companies in Iceland.

Hrannar is married and has four children, at least one of them with ADHD.

Viljo Wilding

Technical Advisor to the Board