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Markus Beckedahl
Founder and Managing Director
Markus is the founder and managing director of the Center for Digital Rights and Democracy.
He has been campaigning for a more informed debate on digital society for almost 30 years. Markus is co-founder and curatorial director of the re:publica conference. Together with the Bonn Institute, he curates the b-future festival for journalism and constructive dialog. In a previous life, he founded netzpolitik.org and built it up as editor-in-chief for many years. He writes a newsletter for Digitalpolitik.de.
Benjamin von der Ahe
Deputy Managing Director and Head of Finance and Organization
Ben is an expert in change, OE, impact orientation and agility in public and non-profit organizations.
In 2016, as part of his many years of work for the non-profit PHINEO AG, he initiated the think tank Kommune 360° in cooperation with two foundations, which he headed until 2023. Most recently, he worked as a
Work4Germany Fellow in the data lab of a federal ministry.
Ramak Molavi Vasse’i
Head of Advocacy
Ramak (The Law Technologist) is a digital rights lawyer and interdisciplinary AI researcher. As an expert on AI governance and technology regulation at EU level, she works on transparent and human-centered AI systems.
She led the "Meaningful AI Transparency Research Project" at Mozilla and was recognized as one of the "100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics" in 2023.
Michael Kolain
Head of Policy
Michael is Head of Policy at the Center for Digital Rights and Democracy. He has worked in legal research, legislation, policy consulting and for think tanks. As a parliamentary group advisor in the German Bundestag, he was able to get to know the political engine room from the inside.
His areas of expertise are EU digital laws, the digital state and cyber security. Thematically, he is passionate about fundamental digital rights and democratic self-determination.
Joris Leander Kanowski
Senior Advisor Policy & Strategy
Joris holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a master's degree in political science from the Free University of Berlin. He studied at the University of California San Diego on a direct exchange scholarship and was supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Previously, he worked as a consultant at the industry association Bitkom on digital policy issues at federal level, focusing in particular on issues of business location, lobby transparency and the creation of the Digital Ministry.
Jasmin Ehbauer
Editor
Jasmin studied journalism, political and social sciences in Passau, Berlin and Ankara. At the same time, she worked as a journalist for clients such as dpa, Tagesspiegel, Medyan and ZDF. She works as an editor at the Center for Digital Rights and Democracy and writes freelance scripts for knowledge podcasts.
In her work, she combines technological developments with questions of social power relations and ecological transformation.
Marc Nikoleit
Head of Socials
Marc is a digital publicist and has been successfully supporting organizations with a focus on social media and web video for over 15 years and is now using his expertise with us.
As an impact creator, he specializes in content with social impact.