EuroDIG 2024 – Get involved!

Agnė Vaiciukevičiūtė

Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania

Biography
Date of birth 1989 June 17

Education

Work experience

Read more at https://sumin.lrv.lt/en/structure-and-contacts/the-management/agne-vaiciukeviciute/

Edita Gimžauskienė

Vice-Rector of Strategic Partnerships at Kaunas University of Technology

Prof. Dr. Edita Gimžauskienė is Vice-Rector of Strategic Partnerships at Kaunas University of Technology since 2023. Dean of School of Economics and Business of Kaunas University of Technology (2014–2023) Professor of Accounting and researcher of Digitalization research group at Kaunas University of Technology. In 2004 gained a Ph.D. degree in Social Sciences (Management and Administration). In 2014 participated in Stanford Technology Ventures Faculty Fellows Program, occupation skilled covered – Entrepreneurship education for engineers. The scientific interests of Edita Gimžauskienė are related to management accounting, performance measurement and assessment.

Irena Guidikova

Head of Democratic Institutions and Freedoms Department, Council of Europe

A graduate of Political Science and Political Philosophy from the Universities of Sofia (BG) and York (UK), Irena Guidikova has been working at the Council of Europe since 1994. She has worked in fields such as youth research, culture policy, democratic innovation anti-discrimination and migrant inclusion, children’s rights and sport Values. She is currently Head of Democratic Institutions and Freedoms Department.

Jūratė Šovienė

Chair of the Council of the Communications Regulatory Authority of Lithuania

She has 20-year experience in competition policy, regulation and strategy including leading positions at the Lithuanian Competition Council. She also served as Chief Legal Adviser to the President of Lithuania holding position of the Head of Legal Affairs Group at the Office of the President of the Republic of Lithuania. Ms J. Šovienė has more than 10-year experience as the Senior Expert/Project Manager in a number of EU projects in the field of competition law.

Ms. J. Šovienė has experience in Academia too as the former Member of Economics Study Program Committee at Kaunas University of Technology, research fellow and the lecturer of administrative law. In 2016, Ms J. Šovienė was awarded a prize by Lithuanian Academy of Sciences for a co-authored monography “The Impact of Cartels on National Economy and Competitiveness”. She was also recognized as one of the 40 Notable Women Competition Professionals in Enforcement in Europe, the Americas, Africa (by W@Competition, 2019) and was awarded the State Award the Medal of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas for the significant contribution to the protection of fair competition by the President of Lithuania (2018). After taking position of the Chair of the Council of Lithuanian regulator, Ms. J. Šovienė participated as the speaker at many national and international conferences, joined the BEREC Board of Regulators.

Ms. J. Šovienė has Master’s degrees in Business Management and Law.

Marija Pejčinović Burić

Secretary General of the Council of Europe

The Secretary General has the overall responsibility for the strategic management of the Organisation. Ms Pejčinović Burić was elected in June 2019.

Biography of Marija Pejčinović Burić

Born: 1963
Nationality: Croatian
Languages: French, English, Spanish – active knowledge; German – passive knowledge

Education

• 1993 – 1994 College of Europe, Bruges (Belgium) and Warsaw (Poland), Post-graduate study – Master in European Studies
• 1980 – 1985 University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia Bachelor of Science Degree

Work Experience

• June 2017 – Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs
• May – November 2018 Chairperson of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe
• November 2016 – June 2017 State Secretary, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs

Read more at https://www.coe.int/en/web/secretary-general/biography

Mirjam Kühne

RIPE Chair

Mirjam Kühne has served as the Chair of the RIPE Community since 2020. Mirjam has been a member of the RIPE community for over twenty years and has served as Senior Community Builder at the RIPE NCC for the past decade. She has a deep knowledge of the Internet community and collaborates regularly with stakeholders from various sectors including technical, security, academic and government. This included establishing and maintaining relationships with regional and local operator communities. Mirjam also created and curated RIPE Labs, a collaborative platform that supports innovative ideas and tools for the community.

Prior to this role, Mirjam worked at the Internet Society as Senior Program Manager where she developed and organised technical workshops primarily in developing countries. During those years, Mirjam intensified her involvement with the IETF where she served as the Chair of the IETF Education Team for over ten years. She is currently a member of the IETF LLC Board of Directors.

Mirjam obtained a Masters of Computer Science at the Technical University Berlin, Germany.

Sandra Hoferichter

Secretary General
Germany, Leipzig

Shortbio

She became involved in Internet governance processes in 2006 by managing projects – such as the European Summer School on Internet Governance (EuroSSIG) – for Medienstadt Leipzig e. V., a German not for profit organization which she is chairing since 2020.
In 2010 Sandra was elected as one out of three European representatives to ICANN’s At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), where she served until November 2016 and later on represented the ALAC at ICANN’s Nominating Committee (NomCom) from 2016 – 2018.
In 2017 she was appointed to EURid’s Strategic Committee, served as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of EURid – the registry for the .eu domain starting in May 2018, and was elected as the Chair of the Board of Directors of EURid in May 2020.
Sandra’s contributions, both to the ICANN community and the efforts within the IGF fora, are dedicated to facilitate a collaboration ground for different stakeholder groups and to develop participation processes that are public, inclusive and transparent.
Sandra holds a degree in Architecture from the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK) and worked as a single entrepreneur architect from 1997 – 2011. How she moved from Architecture to Internet Governance you can find out at hoferichter.eu 

Tomas Lamanauskas

Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

Tomas Lamanauskas took office as Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on 1 January 2023.

In this key elected role, he assists the ITU Secretary-General with managing the organization, addressing the needs of ITU’s unique, global public-private membership, and pursuing key strategic objectives to promote inclusive digital transformation in line with sustainable development.

Mr Lamanauskas aims to forge impact-driv​en partnerships to advance global connectivity, help the information and communication technology industry cut emissions and address the climate crisis, and implement results-oriented management, with maximum transparency and accountability, to ready ITU for a dynamic future. As Deputy Secretary-General, he fosters close collaboration across varied radiocommunication, standardization, and development activities, reinforcing the collective role of ITU’s five elected officials as a single, highly effective team.

Read more at https://www.itu.int/en/osg/Pages/biography-itu-dsg-tomas.aspx

Thomas Schneider

Ambassador, Swizerland; President, EuroDIG Support Association

Ambassador Thomas Schneider is leading the Swiss delegation in various fora in the field of digital and internet governance, including AI.

In the past 20 years, he has been chairing several international committees and co-initiated several dialogue fora on national and international levels. He is currently the chair of the Council of Europe’s Committee on AI (CAI), mandated to negotiate a binding convention on AI.

He has been a co-initiator of EuroDIG and is the president of its Support Association, since 2012. He is a bureau member of the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (he was its chair in 2018-19 and vice-chair in 2020-21). He chaired several CDMSI expert groups. He has also been a member of the bureau of the CoE’s Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence in 2019-2021. From 2014-2017, he was the chair of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee and in this role negotiated the compromise among governments and with the other stakeholders regarding the “IANA Stewardship transition”, the biggest reform in the ICANN system. He was a vice-chair of the OECD’s Committee for Digital Economy Policy (2020-2022). He was responsible for the organization of the 12th UN IGF in Geneva in 2017 co-chair of the IGF’s Multistakeholder Advisory Group in 2017. He participated in the meetings of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, as personal advisor of Swiss president Doris Leuthard (2018-2019). He has also been a co-initiator of the Swiss Internet Governance Forum, since 2013. Since 2003, he has been coordinating the Swiss activities with regard to the follow-up of the UN World Summit on the Information Society.

Dr. Desara Dushi

Postdoctoral researcher, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)

Dr. Desara Dushi is a postdoctoral researcher at the Law, Science, Technology & Society group (LSTS) of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). An expert at the intersection of law and technology, she is currently involved in the COHUBICOL and ALTEP-DP projects, focusing on the implications of legal technologies in the rule of law and fundamental rights, automation and GDPR compliance, cybercrime, online sexual abuse of children, and other AI related topics. She has a double PhD degree in Law, Science and Technology from University of Bologna and University of Luxembourg.

Desara has been involved in the EuroDIG community since 2016, both as member of organizing teams and as Focal Point of sessions related to cybercrime.

Inga Rimkevičienė

Chief Advisor on International Cooperation at the Communications Regulatory Authority (RRT) of the Republic of Lithuania.

Works at the national regulator for more than 18 years. She coordinated and participated in several EU projects in the field of electronic communications, was the member of Standardization Technical Committee on Electromagnetic Compatibility (TK 8). Since 2018, Member of Lithuanian delegation at the main ITU events. Since 2020, the main coordinator of preparations of Europe for the World Telecommunication Conference. Active participant of the Network of Women (NoW) for Europe Region, member of the Advisory Board of the Network of Women for ITU-D.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ingarimkeviciene/

Dr. Jörn Erbguth

University of Geneva

Jörn Erbguth has a background in computer science and law. He offers consultancy services for sustainable innovation, data protection and blockchain. Jörn Erbguth is a board member at the EDV-Gerichtstag in Germany at the association entscheidsuche.ch and a member of the senate of the academic blockchain bloxberg.

Karen Mulberry

Senior Manager of Public Affairs at IEEE Standards Association (SA)

Karen Mulberry is Senior Manager of Public Affairs at IEEE Standards Association (SA) where she is manages strategic public and government affairs programs at the intersection of technology, standards, regulation, and policy. Karen has been involved developing and managing initiatives that shape technical policy and provide technical thought leadership throughout her career. Karen’s background includes working at ICANN, the Internet Society (ISOC), Neustar and Verizon. She holds a BS in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. Additional experience can be found on my LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-mulberry

Meri Baghdasaryan

Attorney from Armenia, Senior Case and Policy Officer at the Oversight Board

Meri Baghdasaryan is an attorney from Armenia, currently working on human rights issues at the intersection of law and technology as a Senior Case and Policy Officer at the Oversight Board. Her expertise and experience focus on issues related to global free expression online, intermediary liability, and privacy and data protection.

Meri has prior extensive experience in international human rights litigation and research. She served as a human rights consultant for UNDP and Council of Europe. She further worked on technology and human rights issues in United States and globally as a Legal Fellow at the Wikimedia Foundation and Electronic Frontier Foundation. She also conducted research and writing as a Special Publications Lead at Content Policy and Society Lab (CPSL) at Stanford University.

Meri is an active member of various Internet Governance communities, a former Steering Committee Member of Youth Coalition on Internet Governance, and the IGF Dynamic Coalition on Internet Rights and Principles. She has been a EuroDIG community member since 2019, serving as a programme committee member for YOUthDIG2020 and 2021.

Minda Moreira

Minda is a steering committee member and former co-chair of the Internet Rights and Principles Coalition (IRPC) based at the UN Internet Governance Forum, where she supports the outreach effort of this coalition and its main output document: The Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet. She is also a member of the IGF Dynamic Coalition on Environment (DCE) and the Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability (CODES).

She is interested in issues at the intersection of human rights, Internet Governance, Artificial Intelligence and environmental sustainability and she has organised, coordinated and participated as an invited speaker at events focusing on these issues at the Internet Governance Forum and other conferences.

Minda holds a Master’s Degree in Global Media and Transnational Communications from Goldsmiths, University of London and she is currently a postgraduate law student at Queen Mary’s, University of London, specialising in Human Rights Law.

Minda has recently moved to Germany from the UK where she specialised in creative media, (digital) marketing and communications, and event and audience management. She is originally from Lisbon and there she worked in print journalism and book publishing.

Riccardo Nanni

Researcher in data governance at Fondazione Bruno Kessler

Riccardo Nanni is a researcher in data governance at Fondazione Bruno Kessler (Trento, Italy) and he teaches “Media, Politics and Human Rights” at the University of Padova (Italy). He holds a PhD in Political and Social Science from the University of Bologna (Italy) and is an active member of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (Giganet) and the Italian Internet Governance Forum.

Vlad Ivanets

Journalist and media researcher

Vlad Ivanets is a journalist and media researcher with a strong interest in civil society development, freedom of expression and regulation of digital space. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism and has over a decade of professional experience as a content manager for NGOs and creative companies, and as a reporter for Russian independent media outlets such as Novaya Gazeta and Boomaga.
Since 2020, he has been actively involved in regional and international Internet Governance initiatives, contributing to the Youth Board of CCTLD.RU, SEEDIG, RIGF, IGF, and more. At the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in 2021, he presented a youth generation report on “Inclusive Internet Governance Ecosystem and Digital Cooperation”. In the summer of 2022, he helped organise the Youth Dialogue on Internet Governance (YOU^thDIG) and was a fellow at the European Summer School on Internet Governance (EuroSSIG). In 2023, Vlad was selected for the Internet Society (ISOC) Youth Ambassador Programme and has been an active participant of the EuroDIG community since 2021.

Yrjö Länsipuro

Active in EuroDIG since 2008, Yrjö Länsipuro served as its Subject Matter Expert on media and content issues. His background is in journalism, international broadcasting cooperation, public diplomacy and Internet governance. He is a Board Member and President of the Finnish Chapter of the Internet Society, and Board Member of EURALO, the European regional organisation of the At-Large community of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). M.Sc.(Soc.) from Tampere University, he served the Finnish Broadcasting Co. as Managing Editor of TV News and Bureau Chief in Moscow and Hongkong, the European Broadcasting Union as Bureau Chief in New York, and the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs as Press Counselor of the Embassy in Washington DC and as Director-General of the Department of Press and Culture.