President
Manon Duymelinck
Email: manon.duymelinck@kulmun.be
Manon is a 21 year-old law student with an affinity for international politics and everything that comes with it. After joining the association in her first year at the KUL back in 2019, Manon instantly felt like she had found a passion and some lifelong friends within MUN’ing. Mainly because MUN’ing is about much more than just debating, it’s about growing, learning and having fun while you’re at it.
After being last year’s fundraising manager, Manon decided to take on the role of president for this year, representing the association and serving as a first point of contact for general inquiries
When she’s not busy with KULMUN, you can often find Manon at the local pool, hanging out with friends or dancing her heart out at some nice Leuven bar.
Vice President
Tamara Avetisyan
Email: tamara.avetisyan@kulmun.be
Tamara Avetisyan was bitten by the MUN-bug ever since she attended the KULMUN Conference in 2020. She is an Armenian, born and raised in Antwerp, Belgium and has a strong interest in international politics, especially those of the Caucasus region.
Tamara has always found it incredibly important to submerge herself in diverse environments and was very passionate on strengthening the diverse community of KULMUN members during her previous board year as KULMUN's Secretary and Socials.
Throughout her law studies she discovered a passion for public constitutional law which she is fully committing to during her Master of Law studies at the KUL.
Socializing and meeting new people has always been a source of energy for her and she is eager to channel that passion into her role as vice president. Tamara's biggest responsibility will be the creation and organisation of the weekly trainings that we give to our members. In addition to this, she works in tandem with the president to assure the Executive Board effectively reaches their short and long term goals.
Conference Manager
Wendy Dewit
Email: wendy.dewit@kulmun.be
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Our Conference Manager, Wendy Dewit, has always loved to organize events for her fellow students. Back in her high school years, the bug of politics had bitten her from a young age. She participated in multiple debating projects and discovered her passion for negotiations and policy-making.
That politics bug never let go of her, resulting in her joining KULMUN in her first bachelor and she fell in love with this beautiful organisation. She is currently pursuing her masters in International Politics.
Wendy has two years of experience in the Executive Board as KULMUN's Secretary and President. As Conference Manager, she will be organising Belgium's best conference. This will give her the chance to welcome students and help them grow in the world of MUNing, which she adores so much.
Vice Conference Manager
Koen Kockx
Email: koen.kockx@kulmun.be
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Koen is a law student born and raised in Antwerp, who started his MUN journey in 2021 when he joined the KULMUN association and immediately fell in love with debating about international issues. He has done several MUN’s this year and wanted to bring his passion for this concept to more people in Leuven. He is now studying international law in Leuven and is very passionate about international issues, especially geopolitics. When he is not studying (which happens often), you can either find him in a local bar tasting some of the better Belgian beers or at a local court playing basketball.
Being the Vice-Conference Manager this working year, Koen is in charge of making sure the KULMUN 2023 conference is one of the best, if not the best, events of the year. Koen’s ambition for the 2023 KULMUN conference is to not only make it as international as possible, but to make sure everyone has as much fun as possible during the debates and socials.
Secretary & Socials
Pippa Maertens
Email: pippa.maertens@kulmun.be
Pippa joined KULMUN in 2019 and immediately found it to be a source of interesting debate, friendship, and joy. She believes that the beating heart of KULMUN lies with the members and the genuine social connections that are formed throughout the year. This is why she is more than excited to be this year’s secretary and is looking forward to leading the membership applications and being the first point of contact for new and old members.
Pippa divides her time between the two most beautiful cities in Belgium: Ghent, where she’s originally from, and Leuven, where she studies Law at the KUL. When she’s not MUN-ing or working for university, you can either find her catching up with friends at a bar, trying new recipes in her kitchen, or practicing bass guitar in her room. Even in her free time she loves debating and has spent many hours arguing with her roommate, President Manon, about everything from the cultural significance of Marvel movies to the musicians we would be most likely to beat in a fistfight.
Treasurer
Fausto Zeevaert
Email: fausto.zeevaert@kulmun.be
Fausto is a history student born and raised in the lovely province of Limburg. He caught an interest in international politics and diplomacy since high school. After becoming a member of KULMUN in 2018, Fausto has visited multiple conferences and he always loved to help the association out wherever it was necessary. KULMUN has been a family to Fausto to which he wants to contribute as much as possible. This he does now by organizing the finances of the organisation as treasurer. As he used to be active as treasurer for the student association Mecenas in 2020-2021, Fausto has a lot of experience in the field.
Apart from KULMUN, Fausto is a big fan of Age of Empires 2 and strategy games in general, as well as a good session of Dungeons and Dragons.
Partnerships
Eva Rito Silva
Email: eva.ritosilva@kulmun.be
Eva spent her childhood hoping to take flight, the cause of many injuries, and that was what took her from Lisbon to Leuven.
After her Erasmus experience Eva knew she wanted to live abroad so she decided to continue her studies at KU Leuven. She joined KULMUN during her last academic year and was surprised to feel intriguingly challenged. MUNing became a way to not only to improve herself in a manner she had always enjoyed, debating, but also to meet people with similar interests and hobbies.
This year as KULMUN’s partnerships manager, Eva is intent on building stronger ties with KULMUN’s partners, local and international, and increasing overall visibility. She believes that for KULMUN to be successful it needs to foster the relations with the partners. For that reason, Eva is looking forward to organizing exciting events with these partners.
Marketing Manager
Timea Tia Ilič
Timea is a Political Science student at KU Leuven. She was born and raised in Slovenia and has lived in Belgium since she was 15.
Along with her moving to another country, came her interest of
international politics.
On a rainy september day in 2021 she decide that after a year and a half of being stuck at home because of the pandemic, she'd like to engage in an extracurricular activity. When she read about KULMUN, she knew immediately that it was something she would love to try.
After a year of being in the organisation, Timea fell in love with it
and decided to try and join the executive board. As a marketing manager, her goal is to show the sides of KULMUN she thinks make the organisation as amazing as it is: debating and the people.
Fundraising
Andreas Simons
Email: andreas.simons@kulmun.be
Andreas has been a dedicated member of the KULMUN family since 2020. Coming from theoretical physics, it is still quite unclear how he ended up as a fundraiser in the board of an association dealing with international politics and debate. Regardless, he cares deeply about providing an international and diverse environment in which students can hone their soft skills and learn to overcome their differences through diplomacy.
As Fundraising Manager, he reaches out to sponsors to persuade them into supporting the KULMUN project so that we can keep hosting our international student conference and maintain our day-to-day activities as an association.
Hailing from the Limburgish countryside, Andreas enjoys hiking, brewing strong coffee and listening to the Kurt Darren remix of Kaptein. Andreas is always happy to assist anyone interested in our association or anyone with sponsor-related inquiries.