Noel took up the role of Director General of the EBU in September 2017.

Noel is the former DG, Managing Director of Television and Editor of Current Affairs of RTÉ, Ireland's national television and radio broadcaster. As Director General, he radically restructured RTÉ following the financial crisis that began at the end of 2008 and successfully positioned RTÉ as a robust digital media organization.

A strong and long-time advocate of public service media, Curran is also an award winning investigative journalist and producer. As an editor and producer, Noel's programming won numerous awards for journalism and he was Executive Producer on a range of live television events, including the Eurovision Song Contest in 1997, general election coverage, live entertainment series and factual programming.

Noel attended Trinity College, Dublin, and graduated from Dublin City University in both European Studies and Communications, specialising in national and international broadcasting policy. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Dublin City University.

Noel is married to the singer and former Eurovision Song Contest winner Eimear Quinn and they have two daughters.

Jean Philip De Tender has been EBU Media Director since 2015, overseeing strategy, management, networks and content. In 2021 he was nominated Deputy Director General of the organization.

For more than 25 years Jean Philip worked for VRT, the Flemish public broadcaster in Belgium. He started his career as a journalist working on various television and radio programmes. Later on, as television programme manager, he was responsible for a wide range of programmes covering all genres, from fiction to entertainment, current affairs and reality.

From 2007 to 2013, he was the channel manager of Eén, the biggest television channel in Flanders. During his tenure, Eén grew to achieve enormous success, cornering a share of more than 33% and plotting a clear course for public broadcasting. During his last two years at VRT, he was in charge of all television channels (Eén, Canvas and Ketnet).

Jean Philip loves writing and sharing his ideas. Social media has become second nature to him. In 2010, he published his first book, Alles is een verhaal (Everything is a story). An inspiring personality, he often lectures internationally, both inside and outside the media industry.

He loves reading and is inspired by everything that crosses his path. His motto in life is to “create order in the chaos and chaos in the order”.

Antonio Arcidiacono is the EBU’s Director of Technology & Innovation.

Antonio has extensive experience in conceiving, developing and taking new products and services to market.

He is an internationally acclaimed expert in digital television, satellite communications, IP-based multimedia services and mobile telecommunications. With strong knowledge of the European market, he has worked closely with the leading players in the fields of Digital TV and Multimedia Services, and with European institutions at a technical, standardization, regulatory and competition level.

Antonio was Director of Innovation, and a Member of the Management Committee, at Eutelsat from 2008 -2018 where he was responsible for launching innovative IP based satellite services. He joined Eutelsat in 1990 and took part in key phases of its development from an international organization to privatization in 2001 and to the IPO in 2005.

Before working at Eutelsat, Antonio worked for the European Space Agency and started his career working for Telespazio and Selenia Spazio.

Antonio has a Doctorate in Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Pisa. He is fluent in Italian, English and French.

Melanie Brown Cocchetti is the EBU’s Head of HR.

She has extensive experience in delivering the full range of HR services across a wide range of sectors, including experience at the Merck Group, Newell Rubbermaid and the International School of Geneva. She has worked in both the UK and Germany, as well as in Switzerland, 

She has a proven ability to build and mobilise high performing HR teams and is committed to developing strong employee relations and designing and delivering training programmes across a variety of subject areas.

Melanie gained her Masters at the University of Geneva and obtained a Swiss Diploma in HR Management in 2001. She is also qualified in conflict mediation and compensation and rewards management.

Melanie has dual Swiss and British nationality and speaks fluent English, French and proficient Swiss German.

Richard Burnley joined the EBU in 2010, he was subsequently appointed Head of Legal Regulatory Services in 2012 before taking the position of Legal Director on 1st July 2016.

Prior to joining the EBU, Richard was a Senior Legal Advisor at the Office of Communications (the UK media and telecommunications regulator) and before that, an Associate in the EU & Competition Department of a global law firm in Brussels and London.

He also worked at DG Competition of the European Commission. Richard studied law at King's College, London University and at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He holds a PhD in EU law from the European University Institute in Florence.

Liz Corbin is the Deputy Media Director and Head of News at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). She oversees the Eurovision News Exchange, the Eurovision News Events broadcast services team, Radio News, and digital transformation projects. She is also regularly involved in advocating for public service media and trusted, quality journalism.

Liz joined the EBU in January 2020, coinciding almost exactly with the biggest global news story we’ve seen in years: COVID-19. For Eurovision News, the rapidly escalating situation meant a rapid change in working practices, as the team had to find a balance between workplace restrictions and technical challenges with the need to deliver creatively to an unprecedented demand for 24-hour coverage.

Says Liz of that time, “It was an extraordinary time because the absolute basics of broadcast journalism were tested. TV journalism is teamwork. People working physically close to each other, on the road, in the edit suite, in the studio. We had to switch to makeshift arrangements that, by necessity, had to frequently take place in people’s homes. Every part of the news operation had to be reimagined – but it also showed public service journalism at its best, when the need for trusted, reliable information had never been greater.”

Since then, Liz has overseen the Eurovision News response to the election of President Biden; the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban; the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; and, of course, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. All against a backdrop of changing work methods, evolving priorities and increasing pressures on public service newsrooms.

“No-one is in any doubt that we are living and reporting in a time where the sands shift so quickly under our feet, we often wonder how we remain upright at all! But change is not only necessary, it’s desirable. And it must be perpetual. For me, change brought me to this career in the first place. I never wanted a job that was the same, day in day out.”

Prior to joining the EBU, Liz worked at the BBC for 18 years, most recently as Head of News at the international channel, BBC World News. Previous roles include Editor of BBC Reality Check where she oversaw a large expansion in the team. She was also the BBC Singapore Bureau Editor for four years where she created an integrated newsroom.

Emmanuel Frantz joins the EBU after six years as Yahoo EMEA’s Vice-President of Finance Operations, where he led a comprehensive programme of structural and operational enhancements. Before that he was CFO of Kodak EMEA; VP Finance & Operations EMEA for CREO Inc.; and Senior Finance & Administration Director for pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. Inc.

A French citizen, Emmanuel speaks French, English, Spanish and German. He has lived and worked in France, Belgium, Israel and Switzerland and holds a Masters in International Business from the University of Alsace, France.

Glen Killane joined the EBU in August 2018 as Deputy Director of Eurovision Sport, stepping up to the role of Executive Director of Eurovision Sport in June 2020.

As Deputy Director he led the Eurovision Sports acquisition team, overseeing a series of rights agreement extensions with valued Eurovision Sport partners.

Before joining the EBU, Glen was Managing Director of Eir Sport and Eir TV, owned by Irish Telco Eir, where he led the launch of their OTT pay sports business and ran the company’s IPTV platform.

He was Managing Director of RTE Television from 2010 until 2016, during which time he was elected Chair of the EBU Television Committee.

Born in Dublin in Ireland, Glen, 48, was educated at Trinity College Dublin where he gained a degree in English Literature and he holds a Masters degree in Journalism from Dublin City University. Glen and his partner Fiona have four children.

Vanessa O’Connor is Director of Member Relations and Communications at the EBU.

A highly experienced executive, Vanessa has worked in international corporate communications for thirty years.

She joined the EBU in June 2018 from Eutelsat where, as Corporate Communications Director, she took part in key phases of its development, including restructuring from a European intergovernmental organisation into a private company and the expansion of Eutelsat’s global activities across video, telecommunications and broadband markets.

Prior to joining Eutelsat in 1988, Vanessa worked in London as Editor-in-Chief of Digital TV Europe, the first pan-European publication on new media. She graduated in Modern Languages from the University of Oxford and speaks English, French and German.

In this new role, Vanessa is responsible for strengthening the EBU’s relations with Members and developing a long-term communications strategy for the EBU, and for public service media in general.