Elina has worked as an independent, cross-border journalist and co-founder of media projects. Since 2014, she has worked closely with professionals on the creation of technological tools. She is the co-founder of Alpha + Omega, a data analysis platform to help math-challenged journalists and other professionals, as well as the co-founder of Oikomedia, a platform designed to help cross-border collaborations of media professionals. Prior to joining the Democracy & Culture Foundation, she was a Marie Curie fellow working at the intersection of cognitive science and journalism. She has conducted data investigations about water mismanagement as well as international migration. Born in Athens, Elina studied law in France, International and European law in Belgium and was trained on data journalism and computational reporting at the Columbia Journalism School in New York.

Byongjin Ahn is a professor at Global Academy for Future Civilization, Kyung Hee University in South Korea. He has been a guest commentator at Korea Broadcasting System(KBS) and opinion columnist for Joong Ang daily. He has received a ph.d at New School for Social Research in NY(Hannah Arendt Award for Ph.D. Dissertation). He is currently writing the book on the fourth branch of government based on the presentation at Athen Democracy Forum on September (preliminary title: From Democracy to Biocracy)  

Antonio Argenziano is the President of Young European Federalists (JEF Europe). He has a master’s degree in European Integration history. Before being elected as European President, he was Secretary General of JEF Italy. He is also a board member of the European Movement International. He worked as Public Affairs Manager at Euractiv Italy and then as Political and Strategic Communication Consultant. He has been a speaker to countless national and international events on European affairs and, among other things, in 2021 he has been nominated, by the Italian Government, as a member of the Scientific Committee on the Future of Europe.

Alexis Prokopiev is the Director of the Department “Governance and Democratic Innovation” at Make.org (an independent European civic tech organisation) since 2019. He leads the organisation's department in Paris and Brussels. Alexis Prokopiev also taught Economics at Sciences Po Paris and worked for the French National Assembly, as well as for several NGOs.

Stefan Sindelar is Head of Operations at the Vienna-based Innovation in Politics Institute and CEO of the European Capital of Democracy Non Profit Organisation. After his studies of media technology and design, he started his professional career in Journalism, communication, and IT. Entering politics in 2013 with a successful campaign for the Austrian and European Parliament, he served as Managing Director for the Austrian Liberal’s Parliamentary Club and Party. His work experience spans the non-profit, start-up, business and political field. He has leadership skills in managing mixed and networked teams with a focus on developing disruptive products and growing innovative organisations.

Valentina Ciobanu has been an activist for youth participation, youth rights, and democracy for more than 5 years, from the grassroots to the national and international level. In her current capacity as Vice President of the Romanian Youth Council, Valentina channels her energy towards advocating for the rights and interests of young people. She has developed the Manifesto for Increasing Youth Political Participation and the Youth Political Participation Ambassadors Programme, initiatives that bring together not only young individuals and NGOs but also decision makers, political organisations, public institutions and other relevant actors, aiming to educate and construct sustainable mechanisms and tools to facilitate meaningful youth participation in democratic processes and policy-making processes.

Achilles Tsaltas is president of the Democracy & Culture Foundation an independent, nonprofit organization. Born in Australia of Greek origin, he started his media career in 1989 in the advertising department at News Corporation. During his tenure, he launched the business magazine Business Asia, and relaunched the paper’s The Australian Magazine. He moved to Hong Kong in 1999 to join The International Herald Tribune as deputy managing director and in 2004, he moved to Paris as vice president, international circulation and served in a number of executive roles in his two decades of service with The New York Times Company, ultimately relocating to London to become vice president, international conferences in 2014. In 2019, Mr. Tsaltas established the Democracy & Culture Foundation. With a mission to empower society through citizen engagement and better governance, the Foundation develops, programs and convenes the two conferences he conceived at The Times – the Athens Democracy Forum and Art for Tomorrow.