External speakers

Heather Grabbe

Director, Open Society European Policy Institute

Dr Heather Grabbe is Director of the Open Society European Policy Institute, the EU policy arm of the Open Society Foundations established by George Soros. From 2004-2009 she was Senior Advisor to European Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn, responsible in his Cabinet for the Balkans and Turkey. Before joining the Commission, she was Deputy Director of the Centre for European Reform think-tank, working with Charles Grant on a wide range of European issues. Her academic experience includes research at the European University Institute (Florence), Chatham House (London), Oxford and Birmingham universities, and teaching at the London School of Economics. Her publications include Can the EU Survive Populism? (with Stefan Lehne, 2016, Carnegie Europe) and The EU's Transformative Power: Europeanisation through Conditionality in Central and Eastern Europe (2006, Palgrave).