Karin Riis-Jørgensen - Chairwoman

Karin Riis-Jørgensen is born in 1952 and is married with two grown sons. After graduating from law school in 1978 Karin Riis-Jørgensen started her carer in The Danish Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises where she later took a leading position and headed up the Brussels office. She continued her career in Price Waterhouse Coopers where she was the driving force behind the company's establishment in the Baltic countries.
In 1994 Karin Riis-Jørgensen was elected to the European Parliament for the liberals (Venstre). She is the vice-president of the liberal group and member of the committee for the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, the monetary Committee and the USA delegation. Her main interest areas are competition, consumer rights, privacy and trafficking in human beings.
From 2006; board member of the International Centre for Minority Issues. In 2008 she was appointed board member in PA International.
Personal website: www.karinriis.eu

Pat Cox - Vice Chairman

Pat Cox is the President of the European Movement International and the former President of the European Parliament. He was an active campaigner for the successful enlargement of the European Union and the European Parliament senior representative on the Intergovernmental Conference on the Constitutional Treaty of the EU.
Having worked as an economist and broadcaster, Pat Cox was first elected to the European Parliament in 1989, leading the Liberal Democrat group there from 1998 to 2002.
Earlier he was the founding Secretary General of the Progressive Democrats in Ireland and a Member of Dail Eireann (Irish Parliament) in the early nineties.
Born in Ireland in 1952, married with six children, Cox graduated from Trinity College in Dublin in 1974.

Luca Bolognini

Luca Bolognini is the Chair of the Italian Institute for Privacy, Graduated in Law from the University "Alma Mater Studiorum" of Bologna, he is a consultant for e-business, privacy, and new technologies laws in Italy. He is the President of the Italian Institute for Privacy. In addition to the many business activities launched in e-comm, he was also co-founder and president of the Gullivertown multimedia book company in Italy. Bolognini is currently involved in a number of italian think tanks and has been writing for italian newspapers (Sole24Ore, Affari Italiani) and magazines for many years. He was the editor and author, with Diego Fulco, of the first italian commentary on "Privacy Code for lawyers and private investigators" (Giuffrè, Milan, 2009).

Gus Hosein

Gus Hosein is an academic, an advocate, and a consultant. He is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science where he lectures and researches on technology policy. He is a Senior Fellow with Privacy International in London where he co-ordinates international research and campaigns on civil liberties. He is also a Visiting Scholar at the American Civil Liberties Union, advising on international technology and liberty issues. Finally, he is a consultant to international, governmental, non-governmental, and private sector organisations on data governance, civil liberties, and privacy.  He has a B.Math from the University of Waterloo and a PhD from the University of London.  For more information please see http://personal.lse.ac.uk/hosein

Dr. Birgitte Kofod Olsen

Dr. Birgitte Kofod Olsen acts as vice director in the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR). She has 16 years of research experience in the field of human rights and extensive analytical experience in the field of privacy, including a PhD thesis in biometrics and data protection. Throughout the years she has contributed to the public debate on privacy issues, conducted training, seminars and workshops and created dialogue among civil society, industry and public authorities on the privacy impact of new technology.
From 2006-08 she served as member of the advisory board of the EU FP7 project PRISE and is currently involved in the management board of the EU FP7 project Detecter, both focussing on surveillance technology and privacy.
In 2008 she was appointed member of the Danish IT Security Committee by the Danish Minister of Research and Science.

Pietro Paganini – Executive Director

Pietro Paganini serves as  Professor at John Cabot University (Rome, Italy). He held a Researcher position at LUMSA University of Rome  (Rome, Italy). He also served as Researcher and Visiting Lecturer at Karlstad University (Sweden). He holds a Doctorate in Communication and Complex Organizations. 
Pietro is also co-founder at Competere - Geopolitical Management - a transatlantic consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.  
He is Board Member of Istituto Italiano per la Privacy and BAIA - Network Italy America and Associazione Italia-India.
His first book “Innovation: from Theory to Territory: Paradigm and Strategies in the Information Society” was published in January 2006. He is also the author of several articles in various Italian and international papers, journals, radio and TV, in which he has continuously advocated free market, entrepreneurship and innovation. He served as Vice President and political officer for the European Liberal Youth, a pan European classical liberal youth organization standing for free market and individual rights.
Personal website: www.pietropaganini.it

Richard Purcell

Richard Purcell is the President & Executive Director of the Privacy Projects and the CEO of Corporate Privacy Group, and a leading voice in addressing consumer privacy and data protection challenges.

He advises multi-national corporations, Internet start-ups and government agencies about developing and implementing sustainable and effective information security and privacy programs, with emphasis on security and privacy awareness and practices.

As Microsoft’s original privacy officer, he designed, developed, implemented and managed one of the world’s largest and most advanced privacy programs. He is the prior chairman of TRUSTe, former director of IAPP, and currently Chairman of the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee for the Department of Homeland Security.