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Leon Cremonini joined ACA in July 2023 as a Senior Researcher. His initial focus will be on ACA's ongoing Erasmus Mundus Support Structure service project, advocacy efforts, and the implementation of ACA's new Strategy. Prior to joining ACA, Leon held several significant positions in higher education policy. From 2019 to 2023, he served as a senior policy advisor at the University of Twente's Strategy and Policy unit. Before that, he held the position of Managing Director at the Ethiopian Institute for Higher Education (EIHE) at Addis Ababa University, as part of a GIZ-sponsored program. Additionally, he spent 12 years as a researcher at the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente, the Netherlands, and three years with the US-based think tank RAND, also working on higher education policy development.
Leon's expertise lies in policy and programme design, stakeholder engagement, and providing specialised trainings, primarily in higher education and lifelong learning. He has conducted policy consultancy and research projects across Europe, Africa (Mozambique, Uganda, Ethiopia), the Gulf and Middle East, (Qatar, Yemen, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon), and Southeast Asia (Vietnam). In 2015 Leon worked as a consultant for the European Union's delegation to Syria, contributing to the development of the action plan for the Syrian Further and Higher Education Cooperation (SFHEC). He has also been a consultant for GIZ, involved in the project to develop Ethiopia's national strategy for higher education. His areas of expertise include primarily equity and access and higher education in emergencies, mobility, digitalisation and mobility, and excellence policies.
Leon holds a Master's degree in International Policy Sciences from the University of Bologna, Italy. He is proficient in English, Italian, and Dutch and has conversational knowledge of French.