Biographies - session II: AI and democracy
Damian Tambini
Associate Professor, London School of Economics
Dr Tambini is an expert in media and communications regulation and policy, and active in policymaking as well as academic research. He is frequently called to give evidence to parliamentary committees and provide formal and informal policy advice to government. From 2014-2015 he served on the UK Government Expert Panel advising on the value of electromagnetic spectrum. He was called to give evidence to the Leveson Inquiry in 2012, and from 2009-2010 he served on the Communications Consumer Panel, a non-executive role at the communications regulator Ofcom.
Moez Chakchouk
Assistant Director General for Communication and Information, UNESCO
Moez Chakchouk has served as UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information since May 2018, where he is responsible for the Organization’s programmes on fostering freedom of expression and building inclusive knowledge societies.
From 2015 to 2018, Mr Chakchouk was Chairman and CEO of the Tunisian Post, a leading institution for social and financial inclusion in Tunisia.
A graduate of the Sup’Com Engineering School, Moez received an MS in Telecommunications from ENIT Engineering School in 2001. In 2009, he obtained a PhD in telecommunications and applied mathematics, under the joint tuition of El Manar University, Tunisia and Paris Descartes University, France.
He started his career as a research engineer in CERT, the Tunisian Center for Research and Studies in Telecommunications. In 2005 Mr Chakchouk joined the Tunisian Telecommunication Regulation Authority (INT), first as chief of the technical department, later becoming the Head of Interconnection & Access. In March 2010, he was appointed as Adviser to the Minister of Communications Technology in charge of internet development.
In February 2011, after the Tunisian revolution, Moez was appointed Chairman and CEO of ATI (the former Tunisian Internet Agency), the leading internet operator in Tunisia since 1996. After his nomination, despite the difficult transitional situation in his country and with the support of the Tunisian internet community, he made significant progress in the development of the internet in Tunisia. In June 2013, while organizing and hosting the Freedom Online Conference, he launched an open innovation labs in Tunisia (404Labs) in the same place that used to host online censorship equipment.
Moez is a strong defender of human rights online, has participated in numerous international forums and conferences and was selected in 2015 to serve as a member of the Global Commission on Internet Governance.
Christian Ahlünd
Member of the Bureau of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)
Christian Ahlund is the Executive Director of International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC), an umbrella organisation for a number of international associations of judges, prosecutors and lawyers, with the objective of resurrecting judicial systems in post-conflict countries. ILAC was formed in 2002 and has its head-quarters in Stockholm. Its 36 member organisations represent more that three million individuals world-wide. ILAC has initiated legal reform activities in a number of countries, e.g Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Haiti and Liberia. Ahlund is a senior partner of the Swedish law firm Sju Advokater and a member of the Swedish Bar.
Since the mid ´80s Ahlund has had recurring international assignments in the fields of human rights and international law. During the second half of the ´80s and early ´90s, Ahlund was a member of a government commission, which advised the Swedish Government on politically sensitive matters of assistance to opposition groups in South Africa and Central America. During this period he travelled extensively in these regions. In 1990-1991 Ahlund was part of an international team, appointed by the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, which investigated the internecine violence in South African townships.
During the latter half of the 1990´s, Ahlund´s main field of activity became the Balkans, particularly Bosnia-Hercegovina. In 1997, he was posted in Sarajevo as Director General for Human Rights for the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Bosnia-Hercegovina, tasked with monitoring the implementation of the human rights aspects of the Dayton Agreement. In December 1999 he was appointed jointly by the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia-Hercegovina and OSCE to chair a commission of national and international experts with the task of drafting legislation in the fields of defamation and freedom of information. The group´s law proposals were presented in March 2001 and have subsequently been transformed into law by the Bosnian parliament. In his capacity as chair of the Human Rights Commission of the Swedish Bar Association 1998 -2003, Ahlund was engaged in projects with the purpose of upgrading the bar associations in Republika Srpska and Macedonia.
From 2003 to 2006, Ahlund chaired the Human Rights Committee of the Human Rights Committee of CCBE (the Council of Bars and Law Societies in the European Union). In 2004, Ahlund received the International Bar Association´s annual “Rule of Law Award”. Ahlund has published articles in Swedish and international press on human rights and international law.
Wolfram von Heynitz
Head of Cyber Policy Coordination Staff, German Federal Foreign Office
Wolfram von Heynitz is the Head of the Cyber Policy Coordination Staff of the German Federal Foreign Office. Previous positions include a term as Research Commissioner of the German Foreign Office and a member of its Policy Planning staff, specializing in Cyberpolicy, Cybersecurity, and, in the face of emerging challenges, the development of future directions and strategies for the Foreign Office. He also served as Head of the Division for Foresight, in the Ministry’s EU Enlargement Division, as the Political Counsellor in the German Embassy in Tel Aviv dealing with the Middle East Peace Process and Israeli interior politics, in the private office of the Minister for European Affairs and in the Office of the Federal President. He was also posted as Deputy Head of Mission to Ireland and Azerbaijan.
Before joining the Foreign Service, he graduated from the Université Paris-Sorbonne with a master thesis (Maitrise) on Artificial Intelligence and lectured philosophy at Berlin university. He studied also in the Universities of Marburg, Berlin as well as in Harvard and holds degrees in both Law and Philosophy.
Lorena Jaume-Palasí
Executive Director, Ethical Tech Society
Lorena Jaume-Palasí is founder and CEO of The Ethical Tech Society. She researches the ethics of digitisation and automation and in this context also deals with legal philosophical questions. In 2017 she was appointed by the Spanish government to the Council of the Wise on Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. She is one of the 100 experts of the Cotec Foundation for her work on automation and ethics. She is also a Bucerius Fellow of the Zeit Foundation. She has co-founded AlgorithmWatch and the IGF Academy as well as the Dynamic Coalition on Publicness of the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Lorena is a member of the advisory board of the Code Red initiative against mass surveillance. Additionally, she heads the secretariat of the German national section of the IGF as well as projects on Internet Governance in Asia and Africa. Lorena is regularly consulted by international organisations, associations and governments. She has co-authored and edited various publications on internet governance and regularly writes on data protection, privacy and publicity, the common good and discrimination.
Frederike Kaltheuner
Programme Lead, Privacy International
Frederike Kaltheuner leads Privacy International strategic work on data exploitation. Privacy International is a global civil liberties organisation that litigates to ensure that surveillance is consistent with the rule of law and advocates for strong regional, national and international laws that protect the right to privacy. As a representative of Privacy International, Ms. Kaltheuner has given expert evidence in the European Parliament, the Belgium Parliament and the UK House of Lords. She regularly speaks at international conferences and comments on the privacy implications of emerging technology in the British and international press. Ms. Kaltheuner holds an MSc in Internet Science the University of Oxford and a BA in Philosophy and Politics from Maastricht University and was a visiting fellow at the philosophy department of Bogazici University Istanbul. Her book DatenGerechtigkeit was published by Nicolai Publishing & Intelligence in Berlin in 2018.
Pekka Ala-Pietilä
Chairman of the Board, Huhtamäki / Chair, EU High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence
Pekka Ala-Pietilä (born 1957) is the Chairman of the Board of packaging company Huhtamaki, media company Sanoma and IT consulting company Netcompany A/S, as well as a member of the Supervisory Board of SAP. In addition, he operates in several expert groups, for example as the Chairman of the steering group that prepares for artificial intelligence in TEM. Pekka Ala-Pietilä acts as a mentor for many young future experts and decision makers.
Pekka Ala-Pietilä was a Co-founder and CEO of Blyk Services Oy during 2006-2011. In 1984-2005 Pekka Ala-Pietilä worked in several different positions in Nokia Corporation. From 1992 onwards, he was a member of Nokia Corporation’s Group Executive Board. During 1992-1998, he was the President of the Mobile Phones segment and during 1999-2005 the President of Nokia Corporation. Pekka Ala-Pietilä has a M.Sc. (Econ), D.Sc. (Econ) h.c. and D.Sc. (Tech) h.c.