Born in Wilhelmshaven on 11 December 1956

Secondary school

Completed vocational training as a shipping agent

1977 – 1979 Expediter

1979 – 1986 Branch manager of a shipping company

1986 – 1991 District party whip for the SPD (Social Democrats) in Berlin

1991 – 1995 Assistant to Berlin’s Senator for Construction and Housing

1996 – 1997 Head of the directorate for construction waste (Senate Department for Construction and Housing)

1997 – 1999 Division head at the Senate Department for Urban Development, the Environment and Technology (currently on leave)

February 1999 – June 2004 State party whip for the SPD in Berlin

Since November 1999 Member of the Berlin House of Representatives

Since 2004 Chair of the Budget Committee

February 2005 – February 2007 Managing director of Image Ident Marketing GmbH, Berlin

Since 27 October 2011 Speaker of the Berlin House of Representatives

Peter Schaar was born in Berlin in 1954. He is married and has two children.

On the proposal of the Federal Government, Peter Schaar was elected the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection by the German Bundestag on 17 December 2003. With the entry into force of the Federal Act Governing Access to Information held by the Federal Government on 1st January 2006, one more function came in addition to his tasks and he became the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information. On 26 November 2008 the German Bundestag reconfirmed him in his office for another five-year term.

Holding a diploma in economics Peter Schaar first worked in different assignments at the administrative service of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg prior to assuming the function of head of section with the Hamburg Data Protection Commissioner in 1986. He was deputy there until 2002 and finally he was a dedicated member of the Commission set up to accompany the modernization of Data Protection Law. On 1st November 2002 he changed into private business and founded a consulting company for data protection which he ran as managing director until October 2003.

In 2008, Peter Schaar was awarded the prize of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation "Das politische Buch" ("the political book") for his book Das Ende der Privatsphäre (The end of privacy). In addition, he is a temporary lecturer at the faculty for mathematics, informatics and natural sciences at the University of Hamburg and he is active in the Humanistische Union (Humanistic Union)."

Prof. em. Dr. Dres h.c. Hans-Jürgen Papier, born in Berlin in 1943, holds the Chair for Public Law, especially German and Bavarian constitutional and administrative law, as well as social law, at the University of Munich since 01/01/1992. After studying law at the Free University of Berlin, there, he achieved his doctorate of law in 1970. He completed his habilitation at the Free University in Berlin for the subjects of constitutional and administrative law, finance and tax law. He worked as a university professor at the University of Bielefeld from 1974 until the end of 1991. For ten years he was judge as secondary appointment at the Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster and until the end of 1993 he was director of studies at the Administration Academy of East Westphalia-Lippe. Professor Papier is co-editor and co-author of the Commentary of Basic Law "Maunz-Dürig" and of the North Rhine-Westphalian constitutional and administrative law and of "Constitutional and Administrative Law in Bavaria" (“Staats- und Verwaltungsrecht in Bayern”) already in its 6th edition. His other research priorities are primarily in the area of judicial doctrine on fundamental rights, public finance law, the constitutional law implications relating to social law, general administrative law, public commercial-, planning-, engineering- and environmental law as well as state liability law. He edits the public liability law in the Munich Commentary on the Civil Code.

From 1991 to early 1998 he was honorary chairman of the Independent Commission on the review of the assets of the parties and mass organizations of the GDR, from 1994 to 1998 he was member of the Commission of the Federal Republic of Germany for the law to suspend pensions and for the Compensation Pension Act, and from 1996 to 1998, he was member and Deputy Chairman of the Ethics Commission of the Bavarian Medical Association. On 18 February 2003 Professor Papier was awarded an honorary doctorate in law by the Faculty of Law of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, on 11 July 2006, he was awarded this honorary doctorate by the University of Administrative Sciences Speyer. On 28 February 2006, Professor Papier was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash for services rendered to the Republic of Austria, on 16 March 2010, he was awarded the Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and on 20 July 2011, he was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit.

On 27 February 1998 Prof. Papier was appointed Vice President and on 10 April 2002 he was appointed President of the Federal Constitutional Court. He was Chairman of the First Senate of that Court. On 16 March 2010, he resigned after his 12-year tenure from the Federal Constitutional Court. He then started work as a university professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich and fully performed this task. On 30 September 2011 he became Professor Emeritus.

Professor Dr. Klaus Töpfer is the founding Director and current Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) based in Potsdam. He is also the former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) based in Nairobi and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (1998-2006).

He graduated from Mainz, Frankfurt and Munster in 1964 with a degree in Economics. From 1965 to 1971 he was a Research Assistant at the Central Institute for Spatial Research and Planning at the University of Münster, where he graduated in 1968 with a PhD in "Regional development and location decision."

From 1971 to 1978 he was Head of Planning and Information in the State of Saarland, as well as a visiting Professor at the Academy of Administrative Sciences in Speyer. During this period he also served as a consultant on development policy on the following countries Egypt, Malawi, Brazil and Jordan. From 1978 to 1979 he was Professor and Director of the Institute for Spatial Research and Planning at the University of Hannover.

In 1985 he was appointed by the University of Mainz Economics Faculty as an Honorary Professor. He has since 2007 been a Professor of Environment and Sustainable Development at Tongji University, Shanghai. He is also a visiting Professor at the Frank-Loeb Institut, University of Landau.

Klaus Töpfer is a member of the CDU party in Germany and has been since 1972. He is the former Minister for Environment and Health, Rheinland-Pfalz (1985-1987). He was Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety from 1987 to 1994 and Federal Minister for Regional Planning, Housing and Urban Development from 1994-1998. He was also a member of the German Bundestag during the period 1990 to 1998.

He has received numerous awards and honors, including in 1986, the Federal Cross of Merit and in 2008 the German Sustainability Award for his lifetime achievement in the field of sustainability. He received the German Award for Culture 2010 and the Wilhelmine von Bayreuth Award in 2012. In 2012 he has been inducted in the "Kyoto Earth Hall of Fame".

Dr. Alexander Dix, LL.M. (Lond.), was elected as Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information by the Berlin State Parliament (Germany) for the first time in June 2005. Previously he had been Commissioner in the State of Brandenburg for seven years. When he was elected to hold this position in 1998 he was the first Commissioner for Freedom of Information in Germany.

Dr. Dix is a specialist in telecommunications and media and has dealt with a number of issues regarding the cross-border protection of citizen's privacy. He chairs the International Working Group on Data Protection in Telecommunications ("Berlin Group") and is a member of the Art. 29 Working Party of European Data Protection Supervisory Authorities. In this Working Party he represents the Data Protection Authorities of the 16 German States (Länder).

A native of Bad Homburg, Hessen, Alexander Dix graduated from Hamburg University with a degree in law in 1975. He received a Master of Laws degree from London University after studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1976 and a Doctorate in law from Hamburg University in 1984. He has published extensively on issues of data protection and freedom of information. Inter alia he is a co-editor of the German Yearbook on Freedom of Information and Information Law.

Dr. Sadeka Halim, Professor, Department of Sociology in the University of Dhaka now on deputation, is serving as one of the Information Commissioner, Information Commission since 2009 in Bangladesh. As a Commissioner she already has visited 37 Districts and took part in various forums disseminating the use of right to information to general people. She closely works with Human rights organization based in both home and abroad.

1953: born in Jena
since 1974: active in the oppositional movement to the GDR government
1975: start university studies in Jena (economics)
February 1977: removal from the university because of his protest against the forced expatriation of Wolf Biermann
January 1983: after 5 months in pre-trial detention sentenced to 22 months in prison, released one month later after public pressure in the West
June 1983: forced deportation to the Federal Republic of Germany
since 1984: work as a journalist for newspapers, radio and television, continuing his close ties to the GDR opposition movement
1991: editor with the ARD-TV-magazine “Kontraste”
1998: awarded Federal Cross of Merit
March 2011: inaugurated as Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records

Suzanne Legault was appointed as Information Commissioner of Canada June 30, 2010. She was the Interim Information Commissioner for the previous year. From June 18, 2007 until June 30, 2009, Ms. Legault was Assistant Commissioner for the Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada, responsible for the Policy, Communications and Operations Branch.

In 2006, she participated in the Federal Public Servant in Residence Program and worked with Dr. David Zussman, Jarislowsky Chair in Public Sector Management at the University of Ottawa.

Ms. Legault began her career in the Public Service in 1996 at the Competition Bureau, where she held increasingly senior positions, including Special Advisor to the Commissioner of Competition.

She then served as Legal Counsel with the Department of Justice, before returning to the Competition Bureau where she was Assistant Deputy Commissioner, Legislative Affairs, then Deputy Commissioner, Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs.

Prior to joining the Public Service, Ms. Legault practised law as a criminal defence lawyer from 1991 to 1996, as well as Crown prosecutor from 1994 to 1996. Ms. Legault holds a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Bachelor of Common Law from McGill Law School, which she obtained in 1988.

EMPLOYMENT

2010 – present: Executive Director, Centre for Law and Democracy

1997 – 2009: Senior Director for Law, ARTICLE 19, London

1994 – 1996Senior Consultant, Oxfam-Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

1992 – 1994: Human Rights Policy Analyst, Policy Branch, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), Hull, Quebec

1992: Legal Aid Worker, Dalhousie Legal Aid Service, Halifax, Nova Scotia

1990 – 1992: Tutor, Indigenous Blacks and Micmacs Programme, Faculty of Law, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

1991: Human Rights Internship, Funded by the Philippines Environment and Resource Management Project, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, hosted by the Legal Assistance Center for Indigenous Filipinos, Manila

1991: Research Assistant, For Mary Ellen Turpel, Faculty of Law, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

1989 – 1990: Labourer Teacher, C.P. Rail, Vancouver, British Columbia, under the auspices of Frontier College, Toronto, Ontario

1985 – 1988: Department Head (Mathematics), Zimbabwe Ministry of Education, Gutu, Zimbabwe, under the auspices of the World University Service of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

Laura Neuman is Manager of the Carter Center's Global Access to Information Initiative and Senior Associate Director of the Americas Program. She directs and implements Carter Center transparency projects, including projects in Latin America, Africa and China. Ms. Neuman developed the innovative access to information implementation assessment tool and the recent gender and right to information initiative, she also was responsible for the 2008 International Conference on the Right to Public Information and the follow-on 2009 Americas Conference and 2010 African Regional Conference on the Right of Access to Information.

Ms. Neuman has written a number of articles and book chapters on the right of access to information, has edited six widely distributed guidebooks on fostering transparency and preventing corruption, and has presented at numerous international seminars on access to information legislation, implementation, enforcement and use. She serves as a member of the International School of Transparency, the Initiative for Policy Dialogue task force on transparency, the Transparency Advisory Group, an advisory member of the Open Democracy Advice Centre and Fredominfo.org; and has consulted to the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and a number of governments. As part of her transparency work, she served as Executive Secretary for the Carter Center's Council for Ethical Business Practices.

Ms. Neuman also has led and participated in international election monitoring missions throughout the Western hemisphere. Prior to joining The Carter Center in August 1999, she was senior staff attorney for Senior Law at Legal Action of Wisconsin and is a 1993 graduate of the University of Wisconsin law school.

Ombudsman of the Federal Government, Ph.D. in Constitutional Law and lawyer with expertise in human rights and mediation.

Professor Maeve McDonagh is an academic lawyer specialising in information law. Professor McDonagh is author of Freedom of Information Law (Thomson Round Hall, 2nd ed., 2006, 597p) and Cyber Law (with L. Crowley) (International Encyclopaedia of Laws Series, Kluwer Law, 2006). Professor McDonagh has published widely in the field of information law and has been an invited speaker on information law matters at conferences in range of jurisdictions. Professor McDonagh has advised on the drafting and implementation of FOI legislation in Ireland, the UK and Kazakhstan. Professor McDonagh has been engaged as an expert on information law matters by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Professor McDonagh has also participated in a range of EU funded information technology law research projects. Professor McDonagh has taught law at National University of Ireland Galway, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia and University College Cork and she has served as Dean of the Faculty and Head of the Department of Law at University College Cork. She has been a visiting researcher at the University of Melbourne, University College London, La Trobe University, Melbourne and Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane. In 2007, Professor McDonagh was appointed to the inaugural Press Council of Ireland and in early 2008 she was elected Deputy Chair of the Press Council. Her terms as both member and Deputy Chair of the Press Council were renewed in 2010. In 2012, Professor McDonagh was appointed as a Senior Fellow at the Law School, University of Melbourne, having been invited to teach an intensive LLM course on FOI law at the Law School in September 2012. In 2012, Professor McDonagh was one of three international experts on freedom of information law appointed as members of the newly established Independent Appeals Panel on access to information of the Asian Development Bank. In 2013, she was appointed by the Irish government to the FOI Implementation Review Group.

Born on February 22nd 1956, Wipperfürth, Germany. Married, four childen.

EDUCATION
1980: Diploma in Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
1985: PhD in Political and Economic Science, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

LANGUAGES
Excellent written and spoken French and English (mother tongue German)

BACKGROUND
1984: Assistant to Mr. Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Vice-Chancellor of Germany, President of German Liberal Party, Minister of foreign Affairs and Member of Bundestag, Electoral district Wuppertal, Germany.
1985-2004: High civil servant of UNESCO, Paris, France.
2004-2008: Self employed in the humanitarian field, Callac, France. Education of young horses with special working methods for handicapped people.
2009-2011: German teacher in the fields of politics and society, Académie de Versailles, France. Appointment in first category (PhD).
Since Sept. 2011: Senior Advisor, Office of the Executive Director for Germany, The World Bank Group, Washington, USA.

Cobus joined Transparency International in 2004 and was appointed Managing Director in 2007. His experience spans the fields of globalisation, development policy, international relations and business management. Cobus has taught and worked at universities, multinational corporations, trade unions and research institutes in managerial and research related roles around the world. During the 1980s and early 1990s, he was active in the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa as Chair of the African National Congress in Cape Town. He is a member and former chair of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Agenda Council on Corruption. In addition he serves on the Board of the WEF Partnering against Corruption Initiative (PACI) and is Chair of the Berlin Civil Society Centre. Cobus holds a PhD in Sociology from La Trobe University, Melbourne, and an MPhil in Political and African Studies from the University of Cape Town.

Stephan F. Wernicke is Chief Legal Officer of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce and Honorary Professor (European Law, European Economic and Competition Law) at Humboldt-University Berlin; he holds a PhD in Law from Humboldt-University. He lectures on European Law in Berlin (FU and HU) and Zürich (University of Zurich) and has world-wide speaking engagements. He advises on German Legal Policy, arbitration and a wide range of EU-matters, with a special focus on Competition law and the functioning of EU institutions. Prior assignments include: Member of Cabinet of the Vice President of the European Commission (Cab. Verheugen), Brussels; Directorate General Competition of the European Commission (Hearing Officer); Head of Cabinet at the Chambers of the German Judge at the European Court of Justice, Luxemburg.

Gerardo Laveaga holds a law degree from the Escuela Libre de Derecho (1981-1986), with the thesis: The Political Structure of Law (Laureate). Post graduate studies at the University of London (1989-1990). He also holds a Masters in Law from the Universidad Iberoamericana (1997), and a Masters in Human Rights, Universidad Iberoamericana (2004). He is a Ph.D. candidate from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM).

Has broad experience as General Director in government positions: Institutional Relations (DDF/1991-1992). Public Prosecutions in the Family and Civil court (PGJDF/1992-1993). Crime Prevention and Community Services (PGR/1994). Crime Prevention (PGJDF/1995-1996). Social Communications of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (1996-2000). Publications and Dissemination of Legal Studies of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (2001). The National Institute of Penal Sciences (2001-2012).

Was appointed Commissioner of the Federal Institute for Access to Information and Data Protection, IFAI, on April 2012. As of January 2013 holds the position of President Commissioner.

Laveaga has been lecturer on State Theory at the Faculty of Law of the Universidad La Salle (1988-1998). Director of the Mexican Journal on Justice Procurement of Mexico City’s General Attorney (1996-1997). Member of the Academic Committee of the Judicial Institute of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (1995-1999). Professor of Legal Sociology at the Department of Law of the Universidad Iberoamericana (1999-2002). Lecturer on Criminal Law and State Theory at the Department of Law of the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, ITAM, since 2002.

He has published several books: Young people in peace (Coordinator/CREA, 1986). Amongst lawyers (Coordinator/EDAMEX, 1993). The Culture of Lawfulness (UNAM’s Institute for Legal Research, 1999). Faces and Characters of Criminal Sciences (Coordinator /INACIPE, 2003). Democracy and its Chimeras (Coauthor/Fondo de Cultura Economica, 2006). The Criminal Law on Trial, Critical Dictionary (Coordinator/INACIPE, 2007). Government Men (2008). Challenges on the training of prosecutors before the constitutional reform in criminal matters (Coauthor/UNAM/Chihuahua State Government, 2009).

Has received several awards: National Youth Award (1985). Honorable mention of Excellence “Jesus Reyes Heroles” (1985). Merit award for Public Administration (Law Society "Forum of Mexico", 1998). Grand Cross, awarded by the Argentinian University John F. Kennedy, (2004). Grand Order of the Reform, awarded by the National Academy (2006). National Journalism Award “José Pagés Llergo” in the area of legal journalism (2006). National Order of Merit, Knight Degree, awarded by the government of the Republic of France (2012).

Besides all of the above Mr. Laveaga has also participated as, lead writer of the Novedades newspaper (1994-1998). Member of the Mexican Bar Law School (1992-2007). Member of the Editorial Council of The attorney world (1998-2006). Member of the Distinguished National Lawyers College (2008). Presenter of the television shows Struggle of Rights/Efekto TV (2010-2012). Writer on Excelsior newspaper (since 2010). Occasional collaborator on the Universal and Reforma newspapers, as well as in various legal journals.

Mr. Mukelani Dimba is the Executive Director of the Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC), a South African law centre that specialises on freedom of information and whistleblower protection laws.

Mr. Dimba’s has work experience on accountability and transparency issues in South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Egypt. This work includes advising civil society formations on campaigning for, and application of, Right-to-information laws, advising foreign legislators on drafting these laws, advising governments on implementation strategies and doing research on behalf of development agencies.

Mr. Dimba is a member of the board of directors of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group (South Africa), a former chairperson of the Africa Freedom of Information Centre (Africa Regional) and a former member of the Advisory Board of the Open Society Foundation's Right-To-Information Fund.

Elisabeth Kotthaus studied Law and Islamic Studies. She obtained her law degree (First and Second State Examination) in Germany and a postgraduate Diploma in Middle East Studies from the American University in Cairo (scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD). During her legal training she worked also as a research assistant at the Institute for International and Private Foreign Law at the University of Cologne (Prof. Lüderitz, Prof. Kegel).

In 1993 she was admitted to the German Bar, in 1996 she became a Certified Lawyer for Employment Law (Fachanwältin für Arbeitsrecht). From 1998 she was partner of a law firm with 7 offices and around 300 lawyers. From 2003 to 2004 she was partner of a law firm with about 60 lawyers, all specializing exclusively in employment law. This firm was chosen as JUVE law firm of the year for employment law in 2002.

Her activities at the European Women Lawyers' Association (EWLA) - as President since its foundation in 2001 until 2005 - and for the German Women Lawyers' Association (DJB) since 1994 (Vice- President 2003-2005, member of the Board 1999- 2001, member of the Commission on European Law 1994- 1999) motivated her to change career and to join the European Commission in 2005. There she took care of the legal affairs of the Trans-European Network for transport (in the beginning also for energy) from 2005 to 2008. From 2002 to 2010 she coordinated infringements concerning the internal electricity and gas market. She joined subsequently the Cabinet of the Commissioner Šemeta (Lithuania), responsible for Taxation, Customs, Statistics, Audit and Anti-Fraud. In the Cabinet she was the member responsible for Antifraud and OLAF; Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Agencies, Institutional Questions, Ombudsman. In 2011 she became Assistant to the Director General Matthias Ruete (Directorate General for Mobility and Transport). Since December 2012 she is reporting on Legal and Institutional Affairs at the Representation of the European Commission in Berlin.

In September 2009, Miriam Nisbet became the first Director of the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) at the National Archives and Records Administration. OGIS is the new Freedom of Information Act ombudsman office created by the 2007 FOIA Amendments; the office is charged with providing mediation services to resolve disputes between FOIA requesters and the Executive Branch agencies and with improving FOIA administration.

Miriam previously served for two years at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris as Director of the Information Society Division, in UNESCO’s Communication and Information Sector. From 1999 to 2007, Miriam was Legislative Counsel for the American Library Association in ALA’s Washington Office, working primarily on copyright and other intellectual property issues raised by the digital information environment. She was Special Counsel for Information Policy, National Archives and Records Administration from 1994 to 1999. Prior to joining the National Archives, Miriam had served since 1982 as the Deputy Director of the Office of Information and Privacy, U.S. Department of Justice.

Miriam received a BA degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a JD degree from the University’s School of Law. She is a member of the Bars of the District of Columbia and North Carolina. Miriam was elected in 2005 as a member of the American Law Institute. She represents the National Archives as a government member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) and of the US National Commission for UNESCO.

Aktham Suliman (43): born in Damascus/Syria. After graduating High School in Syria he studied communication science, political science and Islamic studies at the Free University (FU) Berlin; final degree in 2000. He has been working as a journalist since 1993, in the beginning for various Arab journals in Germany, later he published also German articles in several daily newspapers and professional journals. From 1998 – 2002 he fulfilled various activities for the Arab service of the “Deutsche Welle/radio” (German broadcasting service for foreign countries). In 2002 he established the Berlin Bureau of Al Jazeera, which was headed by him until 2012. Numerous missions in Arab and European countries. Because of violation of journalistic principles he resigned and quit Al Jazeera in August 2012. Now he is a free journalist and expert for Middle East issues.

Nataša Pirc Musar was born in 1968 in Ljubljana. After graduating from the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana in 1992, she passed the national bar examination in 1997. After completing her studies, she was employed for six years at the Slovenian national television station as a journalist and news presenter for the main news programme TV Dnevnik. Subsequently, she worked for five years as a news presenter on “24 ur”, the primary information programme of the largest commercial television broadcaster in Slovenia, POP TV.

She gained additional experience in journalism at CNN, and studied at the Media Department of Salford University in Manchester in the UK for two semesters. During her studies she did professional internships at BBC, Granada TV, Sky News, Reuters TV, and Border TV. She has also written newspaper articles and worked on radio.

Striving for new knowledge, in 2001 she moved to the financial sector, where she joined the largest Slovenian private financial corporation, Aktiva Group, as Head of Corporate Communications. In April 2003 she became the Director of the Training and Communications Centre of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia. On July 15 2004, the National Assembly elected her the second Slovenian Commissioner for Access to Public Information. She was nominated for this position by the President of the Republic of Slovenia. Since 31 December 2005, when the Office of the Commissioner for Access to Public Information merged with the Inspectorate for Personal Data Protection, Nataša Pirc Musar has held the office of Information Commissioner.

Upon the proposal of the President of the Republic Dr. Danilo Türk, on May 21 2009 the National Assembly elected Mrs. Pirc Musar to an additional five-year term as Information Commissioner. She began her new term of office on July 16 2009.

In October 2009, Nataša Pirc Musar was elected Vice President of the Europol Joint Supervisory Body. Members of this supervisory authority are representatives of national supervisory authorities for the protection of personal data from all Europol member states; i.e. the EU Member States. In accordance with the Europol Convention, the mission of the joint supervisory authority is to conduct independent reviews of the activities of Europol in order to ensure that individual rights are not violated by the storage, processing, and use of data held by Europol. The joint supervisory authority monitors the permissibility of the further transfer of data originating from Europol.

Nataša Pirc Musar is fluent in Croatian/Serbian and English.

Born 1966 in Germany, daughter of graphic designers Elisabeth and Gert Alfter.

1985 – Abitur from Rudolf-Steiner-Schule Wuppertal.

1985 – Moved to Skals, Denmark, chocolate worker.

1987-1991 – Car mechanic apprentice at Viborg and Århus Technical Schools and Piero’s Auto, Denmark.

1991-1992 – Car mechanic at Piero’s Auto, Århus, Denmark.

1993-1997 – Danish School of Journalism, Århus, Denmark.

1997-2001 – Local reporter, special reporter and the last two years leader of South Schleswig desk, Flensborg Avis, the Danish minority daily newspaper in Germany.

1999 – 2004 Interesting work on minorities in Austria when far-right party of Jörg Haider came into power in 2000 as one of my tasks as co-founder and deputy editor-in-chief of Eurolang, a European news agency about minority issues.

2001 – series of articles about Albanian virgins, about reconciliation, about Albanian hospitality and not least about medieval law “Kanun” in Northern Albania with photographer Lars Salomonsen.

2001-2003 – editor at Notat, a weekly about European affairs. Parted when editorial independence concept was changed.

2003-2004 – freelance journalist in Copenhagen. Focus on European affairs, media and minorities.

2003 – Co-founder of the Scoop project, a support structure for investigative journalists in the Balkans, the Ukraine and Moldova. Tools are peer-to-peer support, research grants and networking. The money – a bit more than 10 million Danish crowns in the period 2008-2012 – comes from the Danish government.

The Scoop model has functioned so well, that it since has been copied to three countries in the Caucasus, to Russia, two countries in Central Asia and five Western African countries. The initial development of the model was worked out in close cooperation with Henrik Kaufholz and Anne Haubek via Danish FUJ and in cooperation with IMS. Fom 2008-2012 I was the Danish manager coordinating the journalistic aspects of the project.

2004 – Co-founder and member of the Farmsubsidy network. First work with FOI-requests on EU farmsubsidies at European level. In 2005 I co-founded the network Farmsubsidy.org along with European datajournalism pioneer Nils Mulvad amongst others. Filed an FOI-request for all EU-data on beneficiaries in 2004, was turned down by Commission the same year – wrongly, as the EU-ombudsmand stated in late 2007. Two court cases filed in Germany in 2005 lead to breakthrough stories in 2007 and helped improve case law in 2011.

2004-2008 – Brussels correspondent of Danish daily Information.

2007 – Co-founded Wobbing Europe (with Ides Debruyne, the visionary leader of the Belgian Pascal Decroos Fund). Wobbing Europe is a network and website by and for journalists, who use freedom of information requests to get good, hard information for their stories. Until 2010 I was the editor of the website and network, in late 2010 Staffan Dahllöf joined me as co-editor.

Since 2008 – Freelance journalist in Copenhagen. Years of further work with cross-border research: The Big Pharma Lobby (2008) with Joop Bouma (NL) and Marleen Teugels (B). The Climate Change Lobby (2009) with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ICIJ (US). The Black Market in Bluefin Tuna (2010) with the ICIJ, read more at Journalisten.dk. Christoffer Guldbrandsen’s documentary on the selection of the first EU president, Præsidenten (2011) (DK). Spains 8 Billion Dollar Fish (2011) with the ICIJ.

2008 – Co-founded Journalismfund.eu with Ides Debruyne, where I hold the position of director with the task to establish and develop the model. Journalismfund.eu gives research grants to small teams of journalists for cross-border and European stories, the aim is to strengthen high quality journalism in Europe. In it’s advisory board Journalismfund.eu unites a large number of investigative journalism organisations and centres as well as individual journalists from all over Europe.

In irregular intervals I contribute to my two blogs about various aspects of journalism and transparency in Europe, the Watchdog Blog at the EUobserver is targetted towards a European audience, the Grænseoverskridende blog at the Danish journalists’ magazin Journalisten.dk targetted towards a Danish/Nordic audience.

2012- Lecturer in Journalism at Roskilde University.

Heather Brooke is an award-winning journalist whose investigative journalism and legal action against the British Parliament for disclosure of MPs’ expenses was the catalyst of the expenses scandal of 2009. The following year, she obtained the full batch of 251,287 US diplomatic cables from a Wikileaks insider and worked with The Guardian newspaper on a month-long exposé of global diplomatic relations.

She is the author of Your Right to Know (Pluto Press 2004, 2006), The Silent State (Heinemann 2010) and The Revolution Will Be Digitised (Heinemann, 2011).

Heather is a professor of journalism at City University, London, and a visiting fellow in contemporary history at the University of East Anglia where she is curating a lecture series titled Misinformation: Power, Propaganda & the Press for Thought Out, a new research organisation on critical thinking.

Heather has won numerous awards including the Judges’ Prize at the 2010 British Press Awards, the FOI Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), and a Freedom of Expression Award from Index on Censorship.

Before moving to Britain, Heather worked as a political and crime reporter in the United States.

András Jóri, PhD (41), attorney-at-law, data protection consultant, served as Parliamentary Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of Hungary from 2008 to 2011. Previously, Dr. Jóri worked as an attorney, advising his clients on data privacy and IT law; he also did extensive regulatory work, advising the state and industry groups on many fields of IT and data protection law, as well as e-commerce, e-signatures, e-archiving, and e-procurement. He wrote the first commentary on data protection law in Hungary. Dr. Jóri has published widely about data privacy in Hungary and abroad, and is a frequent speaker at international conferences about data protection and freedom of information. He is also a certified system administrator.

Boris Reitschuster succumbed to the fascination of Russia after a youth exchange with the Soviet Union in 1988. By studying on his own, he learned the language of the country with which he was previously not connected, except for his name. After his high-school graduation in 1990 he moved as a student to the love of his youth to Moscow, with two suitcases and his entire savings. In a host family and in empty shops, he got to know Russia far away from the foreigners’ ghettos. After training as an interpreter, he worked as a German teacher and translator. At the same time he reported for various German newspapers from Russia. In 1995, after five years in Moscow, Reitschuster completed a traineeship at the "Augsburger Allgemeine" and then worked for the press agencies dpa and AFP in Munich. In 1999, as head of the Moscow FOCUS office, Reitschuster returned to the country that has become his second home.

In 2008 he was awarded the Theodor-Heuss-Medal - "in view of his extraordinary commitment with which he has been critically dealing with the political system of Russia for many years and with which he fights on-site with high personal dedication for freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and thus for the guarantee of civil and human rights."

Christopher Graham became UK Information Commissioner in June 2009, with responsibility for overseeing the Freedom of Information Act and Data Protection Act regimes- upholding information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. He is the Vice Chair of the Article 29 Working Party of the European Data Protection Authorities.

Christopher was Director General of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) from April 2000 to June 2009. From 2003-5, he was Chairman of the European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA), the federation of advertising self-regulatory bodies across the EU Single Market.

Prior to joining the ASA, Christopher was for three years Secretary of the BBC. Christopher first joined the broadcaster as a News Trainee in 1973. He was a Current Affairs Producer for BBC radio and TV before becoming Managing Editor of News Programmes for TV and Radio.

Dr Iris Henseler-Unger studied Economics at Bonn and Zürich universities from 1975 to 1981. She gained her PhD from Mannheim university in 1985.

From 1986 to 1993 and from 1999 to 2004 Dr Henseler-Unger worked in a number of divisions at the German Federal Economics Ministry.

During the period 1993 to 1999 Dr Henseler-Unger was the economic policy, post and telecommunications expert with the FDP parliamentary group, during which time she was instrumental in shaping the legislative passage of the liberalisation of the post and telecommunications markets.

Since March 2004 Dr Henseler-Unger has been Vice President of the Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Post (since 13 July 2005 the Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway).

Prof. Dr. Marcel Machill is a tenured professor of journalism and international media systems and Head of the Journalism Department at the University of Leipzig in Germany. When he was appointed in 2002, he became the youngest Full Professor for Journalism in Germany. Until October 2002, he was Head of the department of Media Policy at the Bertelsmann Foundation, where he was responsible for International Media Policy, Internet Governance and Science Journalism.

From 1997 to 1999 Dr. Machill was a McCloy Scholar at Harvard University in Cambridge, USA. Dr. Machill holds academic degrees from three countries: Before going to Harvard and earning a Master of Public Administration (MPA) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government (1997-99), he studied journalism and psychology in both Paris, France, and Dortmund, Germany. He holds an MA (1993) from the French journalism institute Centre des Formation des Journalistes (CFJ), and a diploma (1994 – “with honors”) from the University of Dortmund. In 1997 he graduated (“summa cum laude”) with a PhD from the chair of media policy and media economy. His thesis was honored by the University of Dortmund with the 1997 prize of “outstanding thesis of the year”.

Prof. Machill has spoken at numerous conferences on topics like “Search Engine Policy” and “Internet Governance”. In his research, Dr. Machill strives after combining research results from journalism/media science and computer science. His current focus is on digital gatekeepers and Internet governance. His international work includes research and teaching at the Universities of Zurich and St. Gallen (Switzerland) and several universities in Germany. He has been with Singapore’s School of Communication and Information (Nanyang Technological University) as a Visiting Professor from 2/2007 until 10/2007. In 2011, Professor Machill has been awarded the Fulbright Distinguished Chair for Modern German Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara for the time period 9/2011 until 4/2012.

Professor Machill also worked as a journalist in both print and electronic media: In 1991/1992 he completed a training program with the national public radio broadcaster Deutsche Welle in Cologne and Berlin; he then worked at Radio France Internationale in Paris, and in 1993 presented the first “Europa-Journal”; subsequently, he was a freelance editor with Euronews-TV in Lyon, where he anchored political Live-Reporting (mostly European Parliament). He has engaged in freelance work with various public broadcasting companies like WDR, ORB, and newspapers like Die Zeit, the Frankfurt Rundschau, as well as with the German National Public Television in Washington. In addition to his work as a journalist, Marcel Machill has been published in many renowned scientific and technical journals (for ex., the Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, The European Journal of Communication, The Journal of Media Economics), and has published 14 books. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of JOURNALISM PRACTICE, the scholarly international journal published by Routledge. He speaks fluent French, English and Spanish.

Professor Dr Christopher T. Marsden is Professor of Law at the University of Sussex School of Law. He is author of many articles and four books on Internet law, including "Regulating Code" (2013, MIT Press with Dr Ian Brown), "Net neutrality: Towards a Co-Regulatory Solution" (2010, Bloomsbury), "Internet Co-regulation: European Law, Regulatory Governance and Legitimacy in Cyberspace" (2011, Cambridge), "Codifying Cyberspace" (Routledge/Cavendish 2007 with D. Tambini, D. Leonardi). He is also author-editor of the interdisciplinary Internet policy books "Regulating the Global Information Society" (Routledge 2000), and "Convergence in European Digital TV Regulation" (Blackstone/OUP 1999). He is a committed inter-disciplinarian, having over the last 15 years published several jointly written papers, book chapters and articles with economists (Jonathan Cave and Campbell Cowie), computer scientists (Ian Brown), and social scientists (Damian Tambini, Stefan Verhulst, Colin Blackman, Christian Ahlert, Simon Forge and others). He is the author of the “Oxford Bibliography of Internet Law” (2012) and chapters on Internet law in several Handbooks.

He has been funded to carry out multi-year research projects by the Economic and Social Research Council (1998-2000), British Academy (2005-7), 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission (2011-15), European Commission DG CONNECT (2003-4, 2007-8, 2011-15), and has served as Advisory Board member on several ESRC, EC, EPSRC and FP7 projects. He is Media Board Member of the Society for Computers and Law, member of the Society of Legal Scholars, Chair of the Society for Computers and Law 2012 Policy Forum. He was Programme Committee member of the Telecoms Policy Research Conference 2006-8, and is Associate Editor of the interdisciplinary communications management journal 'info' since 2007. He has presented refereed papers at International Telecommunications Society (since 1998), International Institute of Communications (since 1998) and European Communications Policy Research (since 2004) conferences.

He has both LL.B (1989) and LL.M (1994) in Law from LSE, Ph.D. from Essex 2010. He has been Research Fellow or Research Associate of the following universities: Melbourne (1999, 2012), Harvard (1999-2000), McGill (2010), Keio (2008-10), International University of Japan (2009-date), Oxford (2004-6), Warwick (2000-4).

He has given invited keynote speeches for the following international conferences: Council of Europe Network Neutrality (May 2013), Society for Computers and Law Annual Policy Forum (SCL 2006-12), British and Irish Law Technology and Education Association (BILETA 2008), International Conference on Internet, Law & Politics (UOC Barcelona 2011). He was a participant in the Wharton Colloquium on Media and Communications Law (CMCL 2006-2010) and ever-present at the Harvard-Ruschlikon conference on information policy (2001-7). He chaired the ESRC European Media Regulation Group 1998-2000. He chaired the European Presidency High-Level Conference on broadband policy in 2010, and was the only academic expert invited to address the European Parliament-Commission conference on the open Internet and net neutrality in 2010, and European parliament-Access Now workshop 4 June 2013. He is a regular international speaker on Internet law and policy issues, and has been cited in The Economist, El Pais, Wall St Journal, Gigaom, and many domestic newspapers and journals. He has 20 years’ experience in Information Society analysis, research and consulting in academic, thinktank (World Economics Forum, RAND Europe, RE: Think!), government (Independent Television Commission) and commercial (Media Week, MCI WorldCom UK, Shortmedia) organisations. He has consulted for the governments of Netherlands, UK, Ireland, Japan, the European Commission, Council of Europe. He has worked on four continents in these roles.

Scott is a well-known expert in technology, media, and telecommunications policy with cross-sectoral experience in academia, politics, civil society, government and international relations. For six years, he led the Washington operation for Free Press, the largest NGO in the US working exclusively on technology policy. Most recently, he served in the Obama administration as an adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He is now an independent consultant and directs technology policy programs for two think tanks in Washington and Berlin.

EMPLOYMENT

Since July 2012: Senior Advisor, Open Technology Institute, New American Foundation (Washington DC). Visiting Fellow, Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, (Berlin).

May 2010 – June 2012: Policy Advisor for Innovation, US Department of State At the State Department, I served as a policy advisor on innovation and technology issues to the Secretary of State.

June 2004 - May 2010: Policy Director, Free Press

June 2003 – May 2004: Legislative Fellow, Office of Congressman (now Senator) Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

Professor Doctor Johannes Caspar was born in 1962 in Salzgitter, Germany. After his military service he started to study jurisprudence at the University of Göttingen where he received his doctor‘s degree in 1992. From 1995 to 1999 he was a research fellow at the University of Hamburg in environmental law. In 1999 he habilitated in constitutional and administrative law as well as in legal philosophy. Afterwards he worked for a while as a lawyer in Hamburg and Berlin until he took office at the German Institute for International Educational Research in Frankfurt am Main. There he worked from 2000 to 2002. From 2002 to 2009 he was deputy head of the research section of the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein, a northern German state. In 2009 he was appointed as the Hamburg Comissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

coming soon

An economist and computer scientist, Dr. Buhr is a member of the cabinet of Digital Agenda Commissioner and EU Commission Vice-President Neelie Kroes. Among others, he advises her on ICT research policy, including in the field of micro-/nano-electronics, standardisation, data protection, interoperability policies as well as the European Cloud Computing strategy. He previously dealt with antitrust and merger control investigations by the Commission, such as the Microsoft antitrust case and the Oracle/Sun Microsystems merger.

Born in 1960, he studied law at the University of Trier. From 1989-1995 he worked as a research associate at the Institute for Public Law at the University of Freiburg; he received the PhD in 1991, postdoctoral lecture qualification 1995.

Since 1996 Dirk Heckmann has been holding the Chair for Public Law, Security Law and Internet Law at the University of Passau. In the same year he was appointed deputy spokesperson of the “Institute for IT-Security and Security Law” (ISL) at the University of Passau.

In 2003 he was nominated as an additional member of the Bavarian Constitutional Court, reelection 2008. In 2009 Dirk Heckmann was appointed head of the “Center of IT-Compliance and Trust” at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen. In addition he is member of the board of management of the German Association of Law and Computer Science and participates in the research group 5 at the National IT-Summit organized by the German Government.

Dirk Heckmann is the editor of the Internet Law volume “jurisPraxiskommentar Internetrecht (3rd edition 2011) and author of various legal textbooks and scientific articles relating to Constitutional Law, Security Law, Privacy Law, Law of Electronic Government, data protection and IT-Security.

Nigel Shadbolt is Head of the Web and Internet Science Group at the University of Southampton and the Research Director of the Web Science DTC. He has made significant contributions in Psychology, Cognitive Science, Computational Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, the Semantic Web and the emerging field of Web Science. He has recently been awarded £6M funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to lead a 5-year project on The Theory and Practice of Social Machines (SOCIAM). He is a past-President and Fellow of the British Computer Society and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is also the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Open Data Institute.

Bryde, Brun-Otto, Dr. jur; Professor (em.) for Public Law and Political Science, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen; January 2001 to February 2011 Judge of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, since 2012 member of the Television Council of ZDF (German Public Television)