Luisa Ferreira is the Head of the Institute’s Social Programme where she notably created and developed the Social Innovation Tournament, a reference in the European Innovation eco-system. She started at the Institute when it was founded in 2012 and was responsible for the development and management of the Knowledge and Social Programmes.
Luisa Ferreira joined the European Investment Bank in 1999 as a senior education economist, then an economic advisor in the Projects Directorate where she was responsible for the economic appraisal of projects and research work in the education (with special emphasis on the financing aspects of higher education) and social sectors. She was also Head of the EIB-Universities Research Action Programme.
Between 2003 and 2004 she was a senior education analyst in the Education Directorate of the OECD, where she was responsible for a project on the role of education and training policy in promoting equity and social cohesion.
Prior to joining the EIB she worked as a senior human resources economist at the World Bank (1992-1999), mainly involved in project and research work on education and social protection issues in Eastern Africa and Latin America. She also held teaching positions in Portugal at the Portuguese Catholic University and at the New University of Lisbon and research positions in the USA.
She graduated in economics from the Portuguese Catholic University (Portugal), completed the course work for the MSc at the New University of Lisbon, and holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA). Luisa is the President of the Board of the Jos and Mimieke Foundation, and is regularly invited as member of the jury in competitions in the area of social entrepreneurship and philanthropy.
Occupation
Head of Social at European Investment Bank Institute
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Leader seeking to build people’s skills, leadership and confidence
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Europe has an important history of social innovation. The EIB, as the biggest lender and borrower in the world, and the EIB Institute, its philanthropic arm, can and have the obligation to nurture the great innovation potential that exists in Europe. Over ten years ago, we had — and still have — a vision to “change tomorrow today” to help make Europe (and the world) a better place through social innovation. The greatest challenges of our time are linked to climate change and biodiversity degradation, inequalities in income distribution, inequalities of access to fundamental goods such as health or education, and gender inequality. These are very complex problems, and individuals and the private and voluntary sectors must work alongside public authorities, taking responsibility and feeling empowered to solve them. This is the core of our work at the EIB Institute. We support strategies that seek to build people’s skills, leadership and confidence for finding solutions to improve lives in their communities and help to solve very complex problems.
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