Members of the Board
REF North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia
Ciprian Necula | Chairman
He began his career as a human rights activist under the supervision and guidance of Nicolae Gheorghe, using innovative tools to address stereotypes and prejudices against Roma. He was a journalist, initiator of public campaigns, promoter of socio-economic projects, political analyst, co-founder of a social enterprise, leader of a Roma non-governmental organization, consultant for international organizations.
He held the position of State Secretary in the Ministry of European Funds and is a founding member of the Roma civic platform Aresel.
Ciprian is a doctor in sociology and teaches the course “Masculinity and ethnicity” at SNSPA University in Bucharest. He coordinates the first European master’s program in Romani Studies.
He is also the Chairman of the Board for both REF Hungary and REF Slovakia.
Tímea Junghaus
She is an art historian and contemporary art curator. She started in the position of Executive Director of the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture in September 2017. Previously, Junghaus was a Research Fellow of the Working Group for Critical Theories at the Institute for Art History at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2010-2017). She is completing her Ph.D. studies in Cultural Theory at the Eötvös Lóránd University in Budapest, Hungary. She is the curator of the Visual Arts Section for RomArchive – Digital Archive of the Roma, funded by Kulturstiftung des Bundes (2015-2018). Junghaus was the founding director of Gallery8 – Roma Contemporary Art Space (www.gallery8.org) in Budapest (2013-2017), the winner of the 2014 Catalyst Contemporary Art Award (of Tranzit Hungary) and the 2014 Otto Pankok Prize awarded by the Roma Foundation of German writer and Literary Nobel Laureate, Günter Grass.
Timea is also serving as a member of the Board of REF Slovakia
Sonja Licht
She is the President of the BFPE for a Responsible Society. Between 1991 and 2003 she was the Executive Director and President of the Fund for an Open Society (Soros Foundation) in Yugoslavia (later Serbia). As a civic activist, she was the co-chair of the international Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly and numerous other national and international organizations and initiatives. She was the head of the Task Force of the Bratislava Process 1999-2002, that supported the broad coalition of democratic opposition forces in Serbia. In 2010 she participated in the Council of Europe’s Group of Eminent Persons that prepared the report: Living Together: Combining Freedom and Diversity in Europe of 21st Century. Sonja is the laureate of numerous awards including the Star of Italian Solidarity, the French Legion of Honor and the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. She is a Richard von Weizsacker Fellow of the Robert Bosch Academy for 2015.
Sonja is also serving as a member of the Board of REF Slovakia
Kinga Rethy
She is the executive vice president of the Roma Foundation for Europe, where she leads operations and supports the institutional development of organisations in the foundation’s network. Until 2024, she was deputy director of the Open Society Roma Initiatives Office. Her experience ranges from working with national governments and international institutions—mostly through the Decade of Roma Inclusion—to working with Roma communities across Europe as well as with majority populations on challenging anti-Roma prejudice and discrimination. Kinga joined the Open Society Foundations in 1997 as an intern and continued to work as a paralegal for the New York–based General Counsel’s Office. She then served as an executive officer to the Open Society Foundations and Central European University, working closely with their respective boards and executives, before transitioning to work on Roma programmes. Kinga holds bachelor’s degrees in communications and sociology, with minors in English and psychology, and a master’s degree in sociology and social anthropology. She has studied and lived in the United States and South Korea and has attended executive courses at Harvard’s Kennedy School and INSEAD. She is a certified coach, accredited by the International Coaching Federation.
Kinga is also serving as a member of the Board of REF Slovakia
Stanislav Daniel
He is a Roma rights activist, advocate, researcher and trainer from Slovakia. Being member of the community himself, his abilities combine first-hand experience with the theoretical knowledge he gained through both formal and non-formal education. His previous work experience includes the Roma Education Fund, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights at the OSCE, European Roma Rights Centre and the Open Society Foundations in Bratislava. After a variety of research and advocacy activities on education, but also housing, freedom of movement, health, and state response to racially motivated violence, he worked with the International Step by Step Association, specifically promoting access to quality early childhood services for Roma children. Currently, he works with Porticus as grant manager responsible for education initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe. He also co-chairs the board of the European Roma Grassroots Organizations (ERGO) Network in Brussels.
