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Plenary session
Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Quality and Trust in European Statistics
4 June 2026
09:30 – 10:30
ŠIBENIK I
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Chair
Athanasios C. Thanopoulos
Deputy Director-General of Eurostat
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Athanasios C. Thanopoulos is the Deputy Director-General of Eurostat, appointed to the position in 2025. Previously, he had been serving as President of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) since 2016. He also chaired the Partnership Group of the European Statistical System from 2022 to 2024. His former professional experience spans economic policy-advising, research and university teaching. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh, postgraduate degrees in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics from the Toulouse School of Economics, and a BSc in Economics from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
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Dr. Jūratė Petrauskienė has been the Director General of the State Data Agency (Statistics Lithuania) since November 2019. She graduated from Vilnius University with a Master’s degree in Statistics and obtained her PhD in Mathematics in 2011. She has been working at Statistics Lithuania since 2004 and has been responsible for different domains of statistics: prices, quality management, development of new methods and technologies for production of official and experimental statistics, new data sources, implementation of GSBPM, and successive reorganisation of processes and the Organisational structure in the office. As Director General of Statistics Lithuania, Dr. Jūratė Petrauskienė initiated the state data reform, which included fundamental changes to the legal basis of data management, as well as massive technological changes in the institution and the state itself. Currently, Dr. Jūratė Petrauskienė is the Deputy President of the Lithuanian Union of Statistics, a member of the Advisory Council of Vilnius University Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics and, since 2024, a member of the Council of Vilnius University. Dr. Jūratė Petrauskienė is an active member of the ESS and the international statistical community. For the period of 2021–2023, she was a member of the Partnership Group of the ESSC, and since 2023 a member of ESAC; she is also a member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) and its IAOS association, and President-Elect of IAOS for 2025–2027.Read more Read less
Francesca joined the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in 2011, after a 20-year career in the private sector in technology, data and transformation. At the ONS Francesca was the Director of both the Economics Statistics and Census and Data Collection Transformation programmes. She was appointed as interim Director General for Data Capability at the ONS in 2019, covering technology, data, methodology and data science. Francesca moved to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in Ireland in 2020, as Chief Information Officer, with responsibility for technology, methodology and data science. She has recently moved roles to Assistant Director General, National Data and Statistical Services with responsibilities for CSO’s Data Strategy, Quality and coordination across the Irish Statistical System. The CSO is currently the consortium lead for the Eurostat Project on AI/ML in Official Statistics and Francesca is the sponsor within the CSO overseeing the delivery of the project. She is also the co-chair of the UNECE Blue Skies Thinking Network and an Executive Board member of the UN High-Level Group on the Modernisation of Statistics.Read more Read less
Maurizio Vichi is a Full Professor of Multivariate Statistics at Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Statistical Sciences, where he served as Director (2016–2022). He was the founding President of the Federation of European National Statistical Societies (FENStatS, 2011–2017), expanding the national membership from 10 to 24, and promoting cooperation between academic societies and official statistics. He served as Secretary General (1998–2002) and President (2008–2012) of the Italian Statistical Society and as President (2014–2015) of the International Federation of Classification Societies. In official statistics, he was Deputy Chair (2013–2018) and Acting Chair (2019–2023) of ESAC, initiating the Conference of European Statistics Stakeholders and co-organising the European Statistics Day with Eurostat and the ECB. He chaired COGIS (2020–2024, ESGAB-like Board) and is currently a member of ESGAB (2024–present). He is Editor of Springer’s Advances in Data Analysis and Classification and former Editor of Statistical Methods and Applications. He has organised major conferences, led research projects, and supervised university groups. Author of 175+ papers on classification, clustering, multivariate and three-way analysis, he teaches multivariate statistics and advanced data analysis.Read more Read less
Ivan Gržeta is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Rijeka, where he was appointed Vice-Dean for Quality, Study Programmes and Digital Transformation in 2025. He holds a PhD in economics and business. His work focuses on artificial intelligence in finance, FinTech, banking regulation, risk management, digital transformation, and AI-supported decision-making systems. He is the co-leader of the EconAI Lab and participates in European AI-related projects, including AI4GOV-X and AISHA. His recent scientific work and project activities focus on AI-assisted forecasting and decision-making, large language models, AI governance, and the institutional implications of artificial intelligence in economics and finance.Hall location
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