Meet the ESA team

Garlich Von Essen - Secretary General
Garlich is German and studied Agriculture and Economics at the University of Göttingen. He started his professional career in the European Commission’s DG Agriculture before graduating in Administrative and Political Sciences from the College of Europe.

Szonja Csörgő - Director IP & Legal Affairs
Szonja is Hungarian and holds a degree in Law from ELTE Budapest University, an MA in French and European Law from Panthéon-Assas University (Paris) and an L.LM. in IP and Competition Law from the University of Liège.

Christophe is French and studied plant breeding and seed technology at Ecole Superieure d’Agriculture d’Angers in France and University of applied sciences of Dronten in the Netherlands.

Amalia Kafka - Manager ESTA
Amalia is Greek and graduated from Wageningen University in the Netherlands with a double MSc in Plant Science and Food Safety & Food Quality Management. She also holds an MSc in Plant Protection from the Agricultural University of Athens.

Valentina Garoia - Manager Communications
Valentina is Italian and holds an MA in International Relations. Since 2008 she has been working as Communications Coordinator in a number of European organisations in Strasbourg and Brussels, including the Italian Permanent Representation and European Schoolnet.

César is Spanish and studied agricultural engineering at the Technical Universities of Catalonia and Madrid.

Petra Jorasch is German and holds a PhD in plant molecular biology from the University of Hamburg in 1999. In 2000 she became IP Expert at GFPi Service Ltd., a company which supports the German breeding industry in questions of IP and technology transfer.

Ángela is Spanish and studied law at the University of Navarra (Pamplona, Spain) concurrently with two Diplomas in International Business law and Anglo-American law.

Marguerite Ryan - Administration and Accounting
Marguerite is Irish and studied Business Administration in Ireland. She started her career in office management and assistance in a Brussels based policy consultancy and has also worked as a finance assistant in a European communication agency.

Ewa Józefowicz Amador is Polish and graduated from the Department of English Philology (M.A.) in Wroclaw University (WSF). She has worked for a number of years for the Seed Agency in Poland (Agencja Nasienna) as the Manager of Foreign Affairs.

Catherine Chepkurui Langat is Kenyan and holds a Master’s in Plant Breeding from UniLaSalle, France with exchange programs in Ghent University, Belgium & Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Sweden following a first degree in Seed Science & Technology from Moi University, Ke

Amelie is German and studied Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences and Molecular Ecology at the Technical University of Munich and at the University of Bayreuth.