The Team

Georgia Brooks
Founder & CEO

Georgia Brooks founded The Nine & The Nine Equality Initiative in 2020, inspired by the many incredible women and associations she encountered in Belgium. Based in Brussels, she is a passionate advocate for women’s rights and gender equality. Since 2017, she is also the Founder and Managing Director of the Fempower Initiative – a non-profit organisation under the auspices of the King Baudouin Foundation that supports healthcare and education projects for girls and young women throughout the Middle East.

Georgia is originally British-Canadian-Lebanese, and grew up between the U.K., Canada, and Egypt. She holds an MA in Ancient History from University College London and a BA(Hons) in Classics and Ancient History from the University of Warwick. During her undergraduate studies, she spent one year at the University of Bologna as part of the Erasmus programme. In addition to her native English, Georgia speaks French, Italian, Egyptian Arabic, and, in honour of her adopted country, is learning Flemish.


Gloria Cuesta Noguerales
Club Administrator

Gloria started her career at Madrid City Council, with projects in public policy, human rights, and gender mainstreaming and intersectionality. With a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Gloria has research and communication experience in gender and migration topics.

Before joining The Nine, Gloria worked as Editor at La Puerta de África while also completing a Blue Book Traineeship as web content manager in The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). Passionate and ambitious, Gloria finds Brussels the perfect place for her - both personally and professionally. She loves to learn and take on new challenges; skills that serve her well at The Nine!


Michela Punturo
Bar & Restaurant Manager

Michela is an experienced bar manager with over ten years' experience in the horeca industry. She started her career in 2012, working as a chef in her hometown of Palermo, Italy. After this, she trained and worked for two years as a pastry chef, before moving out of the kitchen and finding her passion behind the bar.

For the last eight years, Michela has trained and worked as a bartender in bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and hotels across Europe. She is passionate about everything that can fit in a bottle, and is never happier than when mixing different flavours together to create a unique cocktail for her guest.

Michela moved to Brussels in 2020, and before joining The Nine, worked as bar manager at a leading European hotel chain. In addition to pouring the perfect potion, her passions include plants and cats, and the good Italian that she is, Michela has an especial love of the Negroni. After all, Italians do it bitter!


Pamela Tizzani
Head of Events & BD

Pamela is an experienced events manager with over 20 years in the industry. She has worked across Europe, chiefly in Italy, the Netherlands, and most recently Belgium, where she worked in the Institute of Italian Culture and then Banca Monte Paschi Belgio.

With expertise in marketing, events management, and PR, Pamela is passionate about bringing people together. She is motivated by new challenges and experiences, which lends well to the dynamic events programme at The Nine.

Pamela is fluent in English, French, and Italian, as well as having basic German and Spanish. When she’s not designing unique event experiences, Pamela enjoys hatha yoga, dance, and travelling.


Klaudia Troppová
Bar & Restaurant

Klaudia is passionate about politics and international relations, interests that brought her to study in Brussels, after growing up in Slovakia and spending formative years in the US. Klaudia is currently finishing her Master’s degree, while at the same time growing her skills and experience in the hospitality industry.

Curious, motivated, and always ready for a challenge, Klaudia has worked in a number of restaurants and hotels in Brussels, with experience in both small and large-scale events. She particularly enjoys being surrounded by inspiring women – which brought her to discovering The Nine.


Kelly Deschryver & Maria Akram
Kitchen Team




The Advisory Board

We are honoured to have such outstanding women on our advisory board, helping us to shape and grow the direction of The Nine.
Each are pioneers in their own field, and passionate about gender equality.


Louma Albik

Louma Albik is the CEO & Founder of SB Overseas (Soutien Belge Overseas), an international humanitarian aid organisation. She is an expert in the Syrian conflict and refugee crisis, often working as an immigration consultant. Passionate about women's rights and high-impact leadership, Louma further advises on sustainability action plans, focusing on overcoming barriers and creating a sustainable business. She holds a Master’s in Business Economy from the University of Aleppo, and a License in Communication for Influence and Impact from the University of Cambridge. In addition, Louma holds several certificates in leadership, organisational management as well as war trauma training, NLP, TOT and coaching.

Louma has been widely honoured for her work on the refugee crisis and in empowering women, most recently by the King of Belgium and the Vice President of the EU. She believes in inspiring and motivating others to drive forward sustainability and innovation, and in empowering women to find the key to their lives and achieve meaningful change.

www.sboverseas.org


Roberta Avelino

Roberta works as a methods engineer at Audi, Brussels – the first female methods engineer in the history of the company. She aims to shape the future of mobility with passion through sustainable and innovative solutions, specialising in resource efficiency for "Mission Zero," the company’s global sustainability project.

Roberta founded the official women’s initiative at her company, empowering women and allies about the importance of gender equity and taking a prominent position in a predominantly male environment. With this project, she was globally chosen to represent Audi at One Young World, becoming a reference in female leadership.

Roberta is also a volunteer and speaker at various women’s associations around the world, such as PWI and Rise & Lead. She also launched the ROCKET mentoring programme, aiming to empower leaders to reach their potential with confidence.

Currently, she is writing a book on trust and women in the workplace, and previously co-authored two books on female leadership in Portuguese and English. Her ongoing dedication is driven by her purpose to help more people have a voice and positively impact the world in all areas of human behaviour, thus building her legacy for the next generations.


Sabina Ciofu

Sabina Ciofu works as Head of EU and Trade Policy for techUK, the largest trade association for tech businesses in the United Kingdom. Based in Brussels, she manages techUK’s EU policy priorities as well as the international trade agenda. Sabina leads the engagement with the European Union institutions, as well as the EU Member States. Outside of the EU, her work is focused on key trade partners, such as the USA and Japan, as well as key international organisations, such as the WTO and the OECD. Previously, she worked as Policy Advisor in the European Parliament for almost a decade, where she specialised in tech regulation, international trade and EU-US relations.

Sabina is the founder of the Gentlewomen’s Club, co-organiser of the Young Professionals in Digital Policy and a member of the Global Shapers Brussels Hub, where she led several youth civic engagement and gender equality projects. She holds an MA in War Studies from King’s College London and a BA in Classics from the University of Cambridge. She loves bringing people together, building lasting connections and creating meaningful interactions. And she’ll always choose ‘people time’ over ‘me time’. It’s where she gets her energy, inspiration and joie de vivre from.


Stephanie Manasseh

Stephanie is originally from Montreal, Canada and graduated from McGill University where she earned her Bachelor's Degree. She went on to study at Sotheby's Institute and Goldsmiths in London. Stephanie founded the Accessible Art Fair (ACAF) in 2006, which offers unaffiliated artists an opportunity to network and exhibit their work in an art fair setting. In the corporate sector, she was responsible for developing and implementing the Art & Design Sessions for BMW in Belgium. Her expertise in the art world has brought her ongoing professional partnerships with international brands such as American Express and The New York Times, BMW, Montblanc, Tiffany, Alfa Romeo and recently with The Bicester Shopping Collection.

Launching SM Art Advisory over 10 years ago, Stephanie offers her expertise to all types of clients from sourcing art to consulting on events to helping artists with concept creation and development. Recently, Stephanie has been appointed as curator and head of sponsorships of the Sol Lewitt exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Belgium set to open in 2021. Stephanie Manasseh has been working with Jonathan Prince Studio and Berkshire House since 2018. She is responsible for all communications, special projects and sponsorships. Stephanie is based in Brussels, Belgium and regularly works in Massachusetts, at the studio of Jonathan Prince/ Berkshire House.

www.smartadvisory.art


Dr. Audrey-Flore Ngomsik

Audrey-Flore is TEDx speaker, multi-awarded leader, whose mission is to help CEOs place corporate social responsibility in the DNA of their corporate strategy, and leverage social, economic, and environmental sustainability to boost their profitability, competitiveness, and attractivity. PhD in Physical Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry from the University of Paris VI, Audrey-Flore has centred her career on the promotion, development, dissemination, implementation and commercialisation of innovations in green chemistry and sustainable development, in order to reduce the carbon footprint of companies.

She has developed more sustainable, i.e. less polluting processes, helping industries avoid the pollution she used to clean up. This involved the development of new materials and green processes based on technologies such as (bio)(nano)materials, ionic liquids, and super-critical fluids, in a variety of sectors (such as food, cosmetics, waste valorisation, biorefineries, textiles, material sciences, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals).

Part of the management team of the Brussels Binder, she advocates that diversity should not be denied in policy debates, as much as it should be included in the growth strategy of companies to foster innovation. Convinced that the biggest threat to the planet is the belief that it does not concern each and every one of us, Audrey-Flore is co-writing a blog to demystify CSR and is one of the laureates of the Studiotopia program, where scientists and artists unite to explain sustainable development to the general public.

www.science-by-trianon.com


Jessica Ramos

Jessica Ramos is the Head of Regulatory & Oversight Affairs at EBA CLEARING which she joined in 2018. Since 2011 she held a number of positions at SWIFT, namely in Oversight Affairs, Legal & Compliance, Finance and as Chief of Staff to the global CEO. At SWIFT she was also responsible for diversity and inclusion initiatives for the business. She started her career as an Associate in Consortium Central America in 2006, focusing on banking, finance, and corporate law.

Jessica is currently a member of the Belgian Company Lawyers Bar, the New York Bar, the Honduran Bar and the In-house Competition Lawyers Association. In addition to her law degree, Jessica holds an MBA in Finance, an LL.M. in Corporate Law from New York University (NYU), and an LL.M. in Competition Law and Economics from the Brussels School of Competition.

Jessica founded Mizbiz in 2016, an organisation aiming to connect, inspire, and empower women in Belgium. She is a Board advisor to CyberWayFinder and a mentor for ConceptionX.


Dr. Beatrice Vos

Dr Beatrice Vos is a partner at the Stonehaven Cozmix Group and leads its transactions advisory practice which offers end-to-end M&A and other transaction advice to the life sciences sector. She is a corporate lawyer and has been leading legal and compliance departments in the pharmaceutical industry for the majority of her career, most recently as VP Legal of Elanco Animal Health, a spin-off of Eli Lilly and Company and a leading global innovator of veterinary medicines and other animal health solutions. Beatrice started her career in private practice as a competition lawyer and M&A lawyer with the international law firms Freshfields and Allen & Overy.

Beatrice is an avid supporter of gender equality and female empowerment in the workplace. She is a strong believer in flexible working hours and flexible work locations (remote / hybrid) as a way of empowering working mothers to pursue meaningful, rewarding careers and enjoy motherhood at the same time. She practices what she preaches and has a large group of engaged full-time working mothers in her team.

Beatrice is currently a member of the Cologne Bar, the New York State Bar and the European Company Lawyers Association. In addition to her law degree from University of Cologne, Beatrice holds an LL.M. in corporate law from New York University (NYU) and a Ph.D. in corporate law.





Our Partners

With the support and collaboration of:

Degroof Petercam
thehappyskin
environ-skin-care
jane-iredale
Veuve Clicquot
Chandon Spritz
Lillet
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