Richard Addy

Richard is a Co-Founder of AKAS an international consultancy founded in 2012, delivering impact, audience, corporate, narrative and communication strategies to a wide range of purpose-led organisations predominantly in the media, philanthropy, international institution and NGO sectors. In the media space AKAS has worked with The Guardian, BBC News, BBC World Service, BBC Media Action, Channel 4 News/ITN, EUObserver, Balkan Investigative Reporters Network, Hromadske, CPJ (Committee To Protect Journalists), ICFJ (International Center For Journalists), The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Thomson Foundation, Luminate, Adessium, Deutsche Welle Akademie, Rudolf Augstein Foundation, Wellcome, Civitates, Internews, Participant Media and Warner Bros. Prior to setting up AKAS, Richard gained 20 years’ experience working as a Strategist and a Government Economist advising CEOs, Government ministers, and organisational leaders. After being a trustee of Mind, the UK’s leading mental health charity, for 8 years, Richard was appointed by the Board as chair of Mind's Race Equality Advisory Board and as a board advisor. Since 2020, Richard also sits on the Creative Council of Africa No Filter, an organisation that aims to change global narratives about Africa.

Miguel Castro

Miguel Castro is an experienced philanthropy professional, strategic communicator, and advocate. His career has been defined by navigating complex sociopolitical environments at the intersection of stressed information ecosystems and social change. He spent the last fifteen years at the Gates Foundation, where he served as the Head of Global Media Partnerships and oversaw the media and communications investment portfolio. He developed well over a hundred projects in journalism, edutainment, broadcasting, social media, live-journalism, including catalyzing the creation of several news and information outlets. During his tenure, he led as well the advocacy communications function and managed a sprawling portfolio of projects across the world, a role that honed his ability to translate high-stakes social issues into compelling human stories capable of positively affecting policy and advocacy. Prior to this, Miguel spent almost a decade at the Open Society Foundations, helping on efforts to improve the free flow of information in conflict, post-conflict and transitional countries across all continents. Before moving into the international media, global development, and human rights space, and adopting English as his main language in the early 2000s, Miguel’s career began in the trenches of daily journalism and public service, working as a reporter and staff writer. More recently, he co-founded and serves as President of The Conversation in Spanish, an independent news platform that brings verified academic research directly to the public in the Spanish-speaking world. He has also taught Advocacy Communications at postgraduate level. Miguel is currently advising a nascent global campaign, The Off Movement, to advance digital wellbeing, particularly to address the effects of hyperconnectivity and algorithmic-driven addictive screen experiences on the mental health of children and adolescents.   A journalism graduate of the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, with a Master’s in Communications Management from the Instituto de Direccion de Empresa (IDE-CESEM), Miguel juggles his time between his base in London, international conferences and airports, and his home in Galicia, where he has his roots (and enjoys wine from his own vineyards). He played competitive handball in his teens, basketball in his early twenties, and competed in sport tournaments over those years until an injury forced him off the courts. He published a book in his native Galician language portraying the lives of 20 women who had worked as cooks or chefs in their kitchens for over 50 years.

Sabrina Chueh Ellis

Sabrina Ellis is an experienced corporate director and C-suite technology executive with a distinguished record of scaling global platforms and guiding public companies through pivotal transformations. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Asurion, a global technology services company with over 20,000 employees. As a former Chief Product Officer at Pinterest and Vice President at Google, Sabrina has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to lead globally recognized products, impacting billions of users and delivering multi-billion dollar business outcomes. She is a proven business leader who builds world-class teams and creates significant enterprise value through technical innovation and landmark strategic partnerships. With deep expertise in artificial intelligence, consumer technology, and privacy-centric design, Sabrina excels at translating complex technology into market-defining products. Her passion for harnessing innovation to improve lives has guided her 25-plus-year career, from defining early email spam-filtering at Yahoo to introducing Digital Well-Being features at Google and pioneering "AI for Good" initiatives at Pinterest. Her commitment to digital integrity and ethical technology aligns with the mission of theguardian.org to sustain independent, high-impact journalism. Sabrina has a BS in Computer Science and an MBA, both from Stanford University.

Lauren Fisher

Lauren Fisher has worked at the intersection of content, media, and technology for many years. She currently spends most of her time working as General Counsel of First We Feast LLC, the media/production company best known for producing the award-winning YouTube series Hot Ones. She also spends a fraction of her time representing other media clients on matters related to content creation, distribution and intellectual property. Previously, Lauren served as Chief Legal Officer for TEGNA Inc. During her time at TEGNA, she served on the Board of the TEGNA Foundation, a nonprofit organization with the goal of improving the lives of people in the communities served by TEGNA’s television stations. Before TEGNA, Lauren spent more than 15 years as the Chief Legal Officer of Vox Media, where she advised the company through tremendous growth – from one brand to fourteen, text to multimedia, and expansion into many new lines of business. Prior to joining Vox Media, Lauren spent 7 years working at AOL where she and her team focused on wide-ranging intellectual property and new media matters as well as complex technology deals. Lauren also serves on the Governing Committee of the ABA Forum on Communications Law and as the long-time co-chair of the Copyright & Trademark Committee of the Media Law Resource Center; she recently completed an appointment to the Board of the News/Media Alliance. Lauren holds her J.D. from the University of Chicago where she was a published member of the law review, and her B.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in political history and concentrated on marketing and economics at The Wharton School.

Jeremy Hillman

Jeremy Hillman is a veteran strategic communicator and former journalist whose career has been defined by navigating complex global narratives at the intersection of economics and social impact. He spent over fifteen years at the BBC, where he served as the Head of Business and Economics and oversaw the newsroom for BBC World News. During his tenure, he led the corporation’s coverage of the 2008 global financial crisis and managed a sprawling international news operation, a role that honed his ability to translate high-stakes economic data into compelling human stories. Building on his journalistic foundation, Jeremy transitioned into the world of global development as the Director of External Communications for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In Seattle, he built a multi-disciplinary team focused on global development and education, working closely with the foundation’s co-chairs to sharpen its digital profile and international reputation. This later took him to the World Bank Group, where he served as Director of Corporate Communications. There, he managed a large team responsible for external engagement for the world’s largest development funder, championing the mission of alleviating poverty through strategic lending and investment. Currently, Jeremy serves as the Senior Vice President of External Engagement for the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, the company’s philanthropic hub. In this role, he drives cross-sector partnerships and thought leadership aimed at building a more equitable digital economy. A law graduate of Bristol University with an MBA from Henley Business School, Jeremy balances his high-level advocacy at events like the World Economic Forum with a grounded set of personal passions; when he isn't tackling global problems, he is likely sharpening tools in his woodworking shop or perfecting a loaf of sourdough.

Susan L. Jurevics

Susan L. Jurevics is a seasoned business leader with a 30-year track record of driving value for global brands through periods of significant transformation. Her career spans the UK and the US, where she has fueled growth for major multinationals including Shiseido, Sony and Nickelodeon. Susan began her career at Nickelodeon in 1990, later joining Mattel as a Director of Barbie Marketing & Design in 1997, responsible for a $100M P&L of doll accessory products. After returning the unit to growth, she joined Sony Corporation of America, where she built the entertainment marketing function, transformed Sony.com from an underutilized media asset into a high-performing consumer site, generated $1B in sales in her tenure, and established the first global CRM program for Sony’s physical retail stores and e-commerce sites. As CEO and Board Director of J.K. Rowling’s digital publishing company, Pottermore, Susan repositioned business strategy, expanding the Harry Potter franchise into award-winning audiobooks, eBooks and interactive content, and more than doubling revenues over a three-year period and securing profitability. Most recently, Susan served as Chief Brand & International Officer at Audible, where she spearheaded expansion across Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America and led brand management, content marketing, creative and social media. During her tenure, she delivered double-digit revenue and subscriber growth for five consecutive years, marketplace profitability, and increases in brand awareness, consideration, and love in every territory. A recipient of a number of prestigious industry awards, including Variety’s Digital Marketing Impact, Variety’s Power of Women and HERoes Top 100 Women Executive Role Models, Susan has built a reputation for creating value for building a pipeline of female leaders. Currently, Susan is a member of the NYU Stern Dean’s Executive Board, an Officer of the NYU Alumni Association and Chair of the non-profit organization BRIC Arts & Media. She is also pursuing a Master’s degree in Media, Culture & Communication from NYU Steinhardt. She holds an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business and resides with her family in Brooklyn, NY.

Tracy McVeigh

Tracy is the editor of foundations' and philanthropically funded journalism at the Guardian. She also edits the global development section and two newsletters, HerStage and Global Dispatch. Formerly she was the chief reporter, and previously the foreign editor, at the UK's oldest Sunday newspaper, the Observer, and has reported extensively from around the world with a particular focus on east and southern Africa. Educated at the University of Glasgow, she has been a journalist for 30 years. She is on the Guardian's charity appeals' committee and also holds voluntary advisory roles on impact for at the University of Sussex's global development department and on the Jameel Index Advisory.

Courtney C. Radsch

Courtney C. Radsch, PhD, is Director of the Center for Journalism and Liberty at the Open Markets Institute. She is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where she works with the Center for Technology Innovation, and the Center for International Governance Innovation. Her work focuses on AI governance and tech policy, and she was named a 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics and (Un)Hidden Figure in AI. As a global thought leader she has a track record of influential policy work, regularly publishes and provides commentary and analysis in both specialist and mainstream media, keynotes and moderates events around the world, and advises publishers and media leaders on AI strategy. Dr. Radsch has testified before congressional, parliamentary, and competition authorities and advised publishers, journalism leaders and international organizations about how tech and AI impact journalism and business models around the world. Radsch specializes in transforming research and ideas into action while building cross functional organizational strategies and alliances to advance policy objectives and knowledge. She has been a strategic advisor to leading human rights, media development, and civil society organizations around the world on strategy, tech policy, and legal regulatory issues. Before joining Open Markets, Dr. Radsch was a postdoc and lecturer at the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy. She previously worked for the Committee to Protect Journalists and UNESCO following stints as a journalist and editor in the US and Middle East and has held posts in academia. Dr. Radsch has deep expertise in journalist safety, digital security, and how civil society and media organizations navigate closing civic space both editorially and from a business perspective. She was the lead author and researcher for URGENT: Understanding and Responding to Global Emerging News Threats, a founding member of the ACOS Alliance, which helps instill a culture of safety in newsrooms, and established and oversaw field offices for human rights and news organizations in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America. Dr. Radsch serves on the boards of Tech Policy Press and theguardian.org, and has held advisory roles with the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism the International (GIFCT), the International Science Council's Panel of Experts on the Public Value of Science, and the Observatory on Information and Democracy. She is the author of Cyberactivism and Citizen Journalism in Egypt: Digital Dissidence and Political Change (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2016), holds a doctorate in international relations, and speaks Arabic, French and Spanish.

Vivian Schiller

Nicole Kotzen

Nicole Kotzen is executive director of theguardian.org as well as the SVP, Development for the Guardian. Nicole leads all aspects of the non-profit organization, including its strategy and partnership development aligned with its mission to support independent journalism on the most pressing issues of our time. Before the Guardian, Nicole spent over a dozen years working in non-profit management and fundraising, including roles at Friends of the High Line, StoryCorps, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar College and is a US Department of State Fulbright fellow.

Manie Steyn

Manie is Finance Business partner - Editorial UK, Philanthropic and Platform partnerships. He is an essential part of the Guardian’s finance leadership team. He has worked at the Guardian for over 9 years and has managed the finances of the Guardian’s Philanthropic department for the past 5 years. Prior to joining the Guardian, Manie worked in various finance roles within non profit and media sectors. Manie graduated from the University of South Africa with a degree in cost and management accounting.

Modupeola Oyebolu