The purpose of ESGAB is to provide an independent overview of the European Statistical System as regards the implementation of the European Statistics Code of Practice. The ESGAB has been established to enhance the professional independence, integrity and accountability of the European Statistical System, key elements of the Code of Practice, as well as to enhance the quality of European statistics.

The members of the Board have been selected from among experts possessing outstanding competence in the field of statistics. The members perform their duties on the Board in a personal capacity and must act independently. The members on three-year-terms between 1 February 2015 and 31 January 2018 were:

Mr Martti HETEMÄKI (Chairperson)

Since 2013, Martti has been serving a seven-year-term as Permanent State Secretary in Finland's Ministry of Finance. He assumed the position after a long and distinguished career in the ministry, including 10 years as a Permanent State Under-Secretary. From 2003 to 2013, he chaired the Statistics Sub-Committee of the European Union's Economic and Financial Committee, and served as a Director of the European Stability Mechanism.

Martti's career includes several board memberships. He is Chair of the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and Vice-Chair of the Financial Supervisory Authority. Other board activities cover areas such as security and defence, technology, health, and social economy.

Martti is Finnish. He holds a PhD in economics, a Licentiate degree in economics and statistics from the University of Helsinki, and a Bachelor of Science degree in economics from the University of Hull.

 
Ms Patricia O'HARA

Pat chairs Ireland's National Statistics Board and is Honorary Professor at the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. An expert on rural and regional development, she has more than 35 years' experience in research, teaching, policy analysis and public service.

Previously, Pat worked at the Western Development Commission where she led a series of analyses on regional policy issues. Prior to that, she taught at University College Cork, she was a national and international consultant, and was also a senior research officer at Teagasc, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority.

Pat is Irish. She has been a member, and served as chair, of various government boards and advisory committees, and NGOs. She studied at University College Cork, the University of South Carolina and Trinity College Dublin, from where she holds a PhD. Pat has published extensively on development and social issues.

Mr Enrico GIOVANNINI

Enrico is an Italian economist and statistician, and a member of the Club of Rome. Since 2002, he has been full professor of economic statistics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and Senior Fellow of the LUISS School of European Political Economy. In October 2014, Italy's President made him Cavaliere di Gran Croce al Merito della Repubblica, Italy's highest-ranking honour.

From April 2013 to February 2014, he was Minister of Labour and Social Policies in the Italian Government. From August 2009 to April 2013, he was President of the Italian Statistical Institute (Istat). From January 2001 to July 2009, he was Director of Statistics and Chief Statistician of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. From December 1982 to December 2000, he was a researcher and then Director at Istat. He was and is a member or chair of various national and international committees.

Enrico is Italian and an author of more than 90 articles and four books on economic and statistical topics.

Ms Pilar Martín Guzmán

Pilar is Professor of Statistics and Applied Economics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She was President (Chief Statistician) of the Spanish National Statistics Institute from 1996 to 2000.

Elected member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) in 1980, she has chaired the Standing Committee on Regional and Urban Statistics (1992-93), been President of the International Association of Official Statisticians (1999-2001) and was Vice-President of ISI (2003-05). In 1997, she was awarded the Adolphe Quetelet Medal. She has also served as Vice-President of the Conference of European Statisticians and as a member of the Committee of Statisticians of the Americas, a consultative body of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (1999-2000). She has been a member of Spain's Higher Statistical Council (1991-94), and taken an active part in the Working Groups for Social and Economic Statistics.

Since 2000, she has been an expert and consultant in statistical systems and various domains of social statistics for many international projects financed by the European Commission, the UN and aid agencies, and was a panel reviewer for EU research projects. She has published several books and research papers. In 2000, she was awarded the High Cross of Excellence for Civil Service by the Spanish Government. She is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, elected in 2004.

Pilar is Spanish. She graduated in Mathematics (1964) and Economics (1968), was Senior Statistician at the Spanish National Statistics Institute, (1966-69), and gained a Ph.D. in Economics in 1974.

Mr Günter KOPSCH

Günter is a senior consultant, advising and reviewing national statistical offices, in particular with regard to institutional environments. Previously, he was a departmental Director, responsible for programme planning, international relations and cooperation, methods and data quality, dissemination, and press office, at the Federal Statistical Office of Germany.

Günter is German. He is a member of the International Statistical Institute; in 2002-03, he was Vice-Chair of the National Organising Committee of the 54th ISI session, and in 2010-11 was an ISI member auditor. He is also a member of the International Association for Official Statistics and of the German Statistical Society.

Mr Constantin Marius PROFIROIU

Marius is a professor at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE) and lectures in public policy, European institutions and policies, and good governance. He is also visiting professor at the University of Toulouse, Carlos III University, Madrid, and Monash University in Australia. In 2010, he was Senior Fulbright Scholar at the University of Kentucky's Martin School of Public Policy.

Since 2010, he has been Dean of the Faculty of Administration and Public Management, at ASE Bucharest, and since May 2014, he is President of NISPACee (Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe). In 2009, he was president of the National Commission for Public Servants Recruitment in Romania and an expert evaluator for the European Union 7th Framework Programme for socio-economic sciences and humanities. He was Director-General of the European Integration Department in the Ministry of Public Administration from 2001 to 2002 before becoming State Secretary in the Ministry of Administration and Interior for the period 2002-04. He was responsible for the coordination of public administration reform and for European Union assistance in the field of civil service reform and decentralisation in Romania.

Marius is Romanian and holds a doctorate. He is author of numerous publications in the field of civil service, decentralisation, and governance.