Team

Pablo Gándara

Managing Director

As a distinguished expert with over 20 years of experience in international development, Pablo founded EU Consulta in 2010 and coordinates the company's operations. His career, spanning more than 20 years in Europe, Asia, Australasia, the Americas, and Africa showcases his commitment to international cooperation. Pablo has successfully led teams across major international projects, including IURC AA, GCoM Asia, IUC Asia, IUC NA, World Cities, ECER and GO-EuroMed. He has also drafted several successful bids for EU Consulta and its clients.

His global expertise, combined with his fluency in German, Spanish and English, enhances his effectiveness in leading diverse teams and engaging with stakeholders worldwide. Pablo studied Social Sciences at the Catholic University in Santiago (Chile) and Political Science at the Free University of Berlin (Germany).

Supporting an international research project on Patagonia at the Institute for Urban and Regional Planning of the Technical University of Berlin, he started to work on regional development. After working at the Federation of German Industries (BDI), he joined the Jean Monnet Centre for European Integration at the Free University of Berlin, where he worked for three years as a senior researcher (PhD candidate), deputy project coordinator and lecturer under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Michael Bolle.   

Jacqueline Chang

Senior Consultant

Jacqueline is a senior international development expert with 19+ years of experience working with international donors, development partners, regional bodies and national governments. Her portfolio has covered 19 countries (Southeast Asia, Europe, North Asia, Australasia, North and South America).

From 2011 – 2014 (EU-funded projects), she led 40 policy dialogues with media coverage of 78 clippings together with the support of the Delegation of the European Union to Malaysia. She also co-authored and published green financing policy papers with PwC Malaysia and 17 position papers to promote EU-Malaysia trade and investment. From 2014 – 2018, her public sector advisory portfolio involved public policy making and programme management involving 117 National Blue Ocean Strategy transformational initiatives working closely with the Ministry of Finance and 86 ministries and federal agencies.

Most notably, her circular economy experience includes providing technical assistance and capacity building working on circular cities (Malaysia’s Blueprint for Circular Cities) for the IUC-Asia project (2017-2020), and for the IURC Asia & Australasia project (2021-2024). She coordinates the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) 

Jacqueline has earned an LLB. Hons degree and was admitted as a Barrister (Inner Temple) in the United Kingdom with 7 PQE in private law practice. She also has an MSc. International Business from the grande école IÉSEG École de Commerce, Université Catholique de Lille (France) and completed the Business Sustainability Management certification at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Oscar Prat van Thiel Coovels

Business Development Consultant

With a 25-year professional experience in the private and public sectors, Oscar is finely tuned into matchmaking, project and business development in challenging environments of South East Asia, Korea and China and more recently with South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. Having worked for Messe Stuttgart’s subsidiary in China, Oscar developed and scaled up tailor-made matchmaking events for the Land Baden-Württemberg and European SMEs to enter the Chinese market. From the public perspective, Oscar has supported EU-funded projects such as CETREGIO, World Cities and IUC in Asia notably connecting European businesses and Chinese cities. Since 2022, he has been a Senior Expert in Business to City Matchmaking for the global secretariat of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM). Oscar studied Business Administration in Madrid.

David Zeller

Communications Consultant

David is a US American native based in Europe for the last 25 years. 

With a business development and communications track record, David is passionate about creating and delivering effective strategies and solutions for diverse and global clients. David’s long-standing affiliation with EU Consulta focuses on the World Cities, IUC-Asia and IURC Asia / Australasia projects, where he worked as the Communications Expert. David disseminated project information, engaged with stakeholders, and amplified project impact. He maintained social media accounts and produced several videos. He also prepared several bids for large-scale projects. 

David studied humanities and environmental science at UCLA and holds a Physics degree from the Claremont Colleges.

Andreas Sieren

Senior Consultant

Andreas is an author, analyst, researcher, and programme manager with international development experience. His focus is on economic development, geopolitical trends and intersections between these in South Africa, Africa and beyond. Specific research areas include: China's influence in Africa, urban development in Africa and Asia, infrastructure, energy and resources, and governance.
Andreas provides advisory and public speaking services.
Working with EU Consulta as subcontractor of GIZ and Ramboll, Andreas coordinated the World Cities and ICP AGIR activities with South Africa. He has a track record managing large-scale country or multi-country programmes in governance for the United Nations and other international organisations in Africa and Asia.
Since early 2023 he has been working as the Africa Correspondent of Table.Media, Germany’s No. 1 briefing publisher, analysing economic and political developments on the African continent. A German national, Andreas studied in Anthropology, Geography and International Relations in Trier, Freiburg and at Brock University, Ontario (Canada).

Yookyung Oh

Associate

A Korean national, Yookyung studied at Myongji University in Seoul and has currently started her Masters in Environment Management and Policy at Lund University (Sweden). From 2021-2024, Yookyung worked on the IURC and ICP-AGIR projects, coordinating activities between European and Korean cities. She gained experience in urban diplomacy, international relations and sustainability. Yookyung speaks is native Korean and speaks fluent English. Yookyung has been associated with EU Consulta on bid preparation and project implementation.

Kanyarat Aksorn

Associate

A Thai national, Faii studied Humanities with an English major at Srinakharinwirot University Bangkok. Faii’s collaboration with EU Consulta dates back to the IURC AA project, where she worked as an Administrative Assistant for over 2 years in the Bangkok office. Faii supported the coordination of an international team based in 9 Asian and Australasian countries and took over the budget management and logistics of the project activities. Faii skilfully delivered a wide range of tasks encompassing office management, stakeholder engagement and site visits organisation in all project countries.

Mateo Gándara Palzer

Research Assistant