Eeva Furman, the newly elected Council Chair has been involved with ALTER-net since 2004. She has been responsible for research on future options for regulation and management practices for biodiversity and for interdisciplinary research, an area for which she was responsible in the management group of ALTER-net from 2009. Here are Eeva´s greetings to the ALTER-Net community:

"Greetings to all new and old ALTER-Net partners and their staff! For those of you who do not know me, I can make a short introduction. I work at the Finnish Environment Institute as a director of the Centre for Environmental Policy. I am originally a marine biologist with a PhD from the University of Wales. However, most of my career I have worked on environmental policy issues in an international context. I am married and we have three almost grown up children.  

"I am very excited about this new commitment and feel that I have big boots to fill after Terry Parr. However, I do have ideas on how to develop ALTER-Net further and keep it alive and thriving. The new Management Board structure reflects the key issues where muscles are needed. We also need a stronger dialogue within the Council on the focus of ALTER-Net in the future. This will materialize in the Fall, and we will invite young researchers and stakeholders to this discussion. Although there is a committed permanent ALTER-Net community, I feel very strongly that ALTER-Net should be able to provide activities to a broader community within its partner organizations and I will work to make this happen. We have an excellent secretariat lead by Jiska and a dynamic chair of the Management Board, and I therefore feel that things are in good hands."

- Eeva is the Director of Centre for Environmental Policy, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)