Prof. Grütters was born in Münster and studied German, history of art and political science at the universities of Münster and Bonn. She gained professional experience working at the opera, in publishing and in museums before managing art and cultural programmes in large companies.

From 1998 to 2013 she was a member of the governing board of the Foundation “Brandenburger Tor” (Brandenburg Gate). Since 1999 she has been honorary professor for cultural management at the Freie Universität Berlin.

Monika Grütters led the Berlin branch of the CDU from 2016 to 2019. Since December 2016 she has been a member of the presidency of CDU Germany. From 1995 to 2005 Monika Grütters was a member of the Berlin parliament where she was the spokesperson for science and cultural policy of the CDU parliamentary group. Since 2005 she has been a member of the German Bundestag where she was the chair of the committee on cultural and media affairs from 2009 to 2013. Since December 2013 she has been Minister of State and Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Valerie Mocker’s mission is enabling more people to shape the future. She is a tech-for-good investor and international speaker. As Director at Nesta, Europe’s largest innovation fund, Valerie has funded and supported many organisations who use the digital transformation as a force for good and tackle society’s biggest challenges: digital education for everyone, strong democracies or innovation in news and journalism. She also built the UK’s Future News Fund. Valerie has lived in Germany, Spain, Peru and the UK, has been named a “40 under 40” leader by Capital and holds two degrees (both first class) from the University of Oxford. She is a trustee on the board of Wikipedia. 

Professor Dr iur. Mark D. Cole (born in 1972) is Professor for Media and Telecommunication Law at the University of Luxembourg (since 2007) and Director for Academic Affairs at the Institute for European Media Law in Saarbrücken, Germany (since 2014).

At the University of Luxembourg, he is also Course Director for the Master in Space, Communication and Media Law (LL.M.) and a faculty member of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT). He is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the Luxembourg Independent Media Authority (Autorité luxembourgeoise indépendante de l’audiovisuel, ALIA), one of the first arbitrators appointed to the German media arbitral tribunal DMS (Deutsches Medienschiedsgericht), Co-Director of the Institute for Legal Informatics at Saarland University and a member of the Advisory Council of the European Audiovisual Observatory of the Council of Europe. For 2020-21, the Council of Europe has appointed him to the Committee of Experts on Media Environment and Reform (MSI-REF)

His work focuses on European and comparative media law across the whole spectrum from the legal framework for traditional media to internet regulation issues to data protection and copyright law.

Prof. Dr Stephan Ory has been a practising attorney since 1988, first at the Regional Court in Bonn and since 1990 at the Saarbrücken Regional Court. He is a founding member of the Institute of European Media Law (EMR) and has been its Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors since 2011. Ory has been a lecturer at Saarland University since 2001 and Honorary Professor there since 2009. He is General Manager of the APR association of private broadcasters, Chairman of the Media Council of the Saarland supervisory authority for private broadcasters, Chairman of the German Data Processing Court Day and a member of the Study Council for Freedom of the Press and Press Law. From 1978 to 1983, Ory studied law at Saarland University, where he completed his doctorate in law and economics in 1986 with a dissertation on freedom of mass communication.

Monika Jones is one of the leading bilingual journalists and presenters in Germany. As an English speaking news anchor at Germany’s global TV broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, she is familiar to a wide international audience, especially in North America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 

Monika is also one of Germany’s leading bilingual presenters of international conferences and business events. Her regular clients include top multinational companies, government ministries, European institutions and NGOs. Monika’s specialist areas are economics, corporate relations, human resources, and transport & logistics.

Monika presented one of the largest Livestream events ever as the official presenter of the European Space Agency’s historic Rosetta mission, which successfully landed the Philae space probe on a comet!

Grégoire Polad, a French national living in Belgium for more than 20 years, is head of the ACT since 2015. He has been involved in European affairs for more than a decade working in several global and niche consultancies. Prior to working for ACT, he was Managing Partner of True Political Communications where he coordinated the Wider Spectrum Group, a group bringing together eleven pan-European associations including trade unions, employers and viewer organisations. Greg has also been active on the tech front, representing application developers as Head of European policy for The App Association. He is a former Associate of McKinsey & Co and holds an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business as well as an MSc and BSc from the London School of Economics.

Dr. Mathias Döpfner is Chief Executive Officer of the Axel Springer SE. He studied musicology, German and theatrical arts in Frankfurt and Boston. In 1998 he joined Axel Springer SE as editor-in-chief of “Die Welt”. In July 2000 Dr. Mathias Döpfner became member of the Executive Board and two years later CEO of the Axel Springer SE. Since then he has transformed the Axel Springer SE into a digital company. More than 73 percent of revenues now come from the digital business. Holding a stake of about 3 percent, Mr. Döpfner is also one of the company’s largest shareholders.

 He is a member of the Board of Directors of Warner Music Group, holds honorary offices at, among others, the American Academy, the American Jewish Committee and the European Publishers Council (EPC). Since 2016 he is also President of the “German Newspaper Publishers Association” (BDZV), the leading organization of newspaper publishers in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Alan N. Shapiro is a thinker and essayist known for his work in media theory, transdisciplinary and future design, French postmodern philosophy, and science fiction studies. He has published the books Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance (2004), The Technological Herbarium (2010), Software of the Future (2014), and Transdisciplinary Design (2017). He has recently been visiting professor of design at the Folkwang University of the Arts, and currently teaches media theory at the University of the Arts, Bremen and “future design research” at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Lucerne. Since 2011, Shapiro has been keynote speaker at 20 academic or business conferences and art festivals. He has also worked many years in industry as a software developer. At present, he is writing a book on how digital media technologies and “moral algorithms” could be designed for a more decentralized and post-scarcity economy. In this “posthuman” future, humans can live in partnership with animals, the planet, and technological beings such as robots and androids.

Věra Jourová is currently Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency and deals with democracy, rule of law, disinformation and media pluralism. From 2014 to 2019, she served as EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality. In 2014, before arriving to the European Commission, Ms Jourová held the position of Minister for Regional Development in the Czech Republic. Previous to this, from 2006 to 2013, she worked in her own company as an international consultant on European Union funding, and was also involved in consultancy activities in the Western Balkans relating to the European Union Accession. She holds a Degree in Law (Mgr.) and a Master’s degree (Mgr.) in the Theory of Culture from the Charles University, Prague.

Noel took up the role of Director General of the EBU in September 2017. 

He was formerly the Director General, Managing Director of Television and Editor of Current Affairs of RTÉ, Ireland’s national television and radio broadcaster. 

A strong and long-time advocate of public service media, Curran is an award-winning investigative journalist and Producer. He was also Executive Producer on a range of live television events and live music events such as the Eurovision Song Contest in 1997.

Noel originally graduated from Dublin City University with a degree in Communication Studies, specialising in national and international broadcasting policy and wrote a thesis on the role of Public Service Broadcasting. He attended a postgraduate course at Trinity College Dublin in European Studies, where he did specific research on European Broadcasting Policy.

He is currently Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Dublin City University.

Dr Richard Burnley is based in Geneva as Director of Legal and Policy at the European Broadcasting Union, where he has been working since 2010. Prior to that, he was as a senior legal associate at Ofcom, the UK media and telecoms regulator, as well as having spent time as a competition lawyer working for a global law firm in London and Brussels. He holds a PhD in European competition law from the European University Institute, Florence and an LLM in European law from the Humboldt University in Berlin.

Guillaume de Posch, born in 1958, started his career at the international energy and services company Tractebel (1985 to 1990) and then joined the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company (1990 to 1993).

Guillaume de Posch began his career in the media industry at the Luxembourg-based Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT), as assistant to the Managing Director (1993 to 1994) and then became Head of CLT’s TV operations in French-speaking countries (1995 to 1997). From 1997 to 2003, he was Deputy General Manager and Programming Director of the French pay-TV company TPS, before joining the publicly listed ProSiebenSat1 Media AG in August 2003, first as Chief Operating Officer and then as Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO (2004 to 2008).

Guillaume de Posch was appointed Chief Operating Officer and new member of the RTL Group Executive Committee on 1 January 2012. Few months later, in April 2012, Guillaume de Posch was appointed Co-CEO of RTL Group. Under his leadership, RTL Group was transformed into the most digital European broadcasting company via strategic investments in the field of multi-platform networks and ad-tech. He also re-invigorated FremantleMedia’s creative drive.

In January 2018, at his own request, Guillaume de Posch stepped down as Co-CEO of RTL Group and since then he serves as a non-executive member of RTL Group’s Board of Directors.

Since May 2017 President of the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT).

Peter Limbourg was appointed director general of DW (Deutsche Welle) in 2013 and in September 2018 was re-confirmed by the network’s Broadcasting Board to head the media organization for another six-year term. 

Limbourg studied law in Bonn and later chose a career in journalism. He worked as a correspondent in the former East Germany, London, Bonn and Brussels before he was appointed editor-in-chief of N24 (now WELT). Later, Limbourg became senior VP News & Political Information for ProSieben Sat.1 TV Germany. He was also anchorman of SAT.1’s main newscast for several years.

Carine Léa Chardon studied law in Germany and France with a focus on media law and media management.

She joined Kirchgruppe in 2001 as a media policy officer, worked for EM.TV AG as Contract Manager responsible for television licensing and merchandising, and since September 2004 has worked as Senior Counsel Regulatory Affairs at Premiere AG (now Sky Deutschland). She helped building Premiere’s media policy network at the European Union and in Austria.

Since July 2008, Carine Chardon has been Head of Media Policy / Media Law at ZVEI – Zentralverband Elektrotechnik- und Elektronikindustrie e.V. (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association). In this role, she represents the interests of the consumer electronics industry vis-à-vis legislative and supervisory authorities at national and European Union level. She also represents the managing director of the ZVEI consumer electronics division as head of the consumer electronics team.

Since August 2008, Carine Chardon has been Managing Director of Deutsche TV-Plattform e.V. The non-profit association advocates for the overarching interests of digital broadcasting companies, particularly the introduction of new technologies based on industry standards, such as interactive television with the HbbTV or Ultra HD standard. 

As of 1 September 2020, Carine Chardon will also take over the management of the ZVEI Consumer Electronics Division and the ZVEI Satellite & Cable Division.

Michael Neuber is Google’s Government Affairs and Public Policy Manager. In this capacity, he is responsible for competition and antitrust law as well as for culture and media policy issues. Before that, he worked for the German Association for the Digital Economy (Bundesverband Digitale Wirtschaft e.V., BVDW) as legal advisor/lawyer and head of the policy and legal department, giving legal advice to its members in matters related mainly to data protection, IT, copyright and media law. As a lawyer, he also worked for a Berlin-based law firm specialising in IT and media law. Michael Neuber sat on the Committee on Legal Affairs of the German Bundestag as an expert for the right of associations to take legal action in data protection matters. Since 2009, he has been lecturer at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. Michael Neuber also was an advisory member of the executive committee of the German Association for Voluntary Self-Regulation of Digital Media Service Providers (FSM e. V.).

Dr. Daniel Knapp is Chief Economist at Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Europe. He is an advertising and media analyst with 15+ years of international experience. He has served in leadership roles spanning market analysis, strategy, and business intelligence. Daniel spent 11 years at IHS Markit, latterly as Executive Director for Technology, Media and Telecoms. He was also associated expert on media and AI at the European Commission. Daniel received his PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE). In addition to his IAB role, he is CSO at Twins Digital, a marketing services firm, and partner at Ecuiti, a data science company.

Charlie Beckett is a professor in the Media and Communications Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and founding director of Polis, the LSE’s international journalism think-tank. He was an award-winning filmmaker and editor at the BBC and ITN’s Channel 4 News. He led the LSE’s Truth, Trust and Technology Commission in 2018 and is now leader of the Polis Journalism and AI project. 

Sabine Verheyen has been a Member of the European Parliament for the German Christian Democrats (CDU) since 2009. In 2019 she was elected as Chairwoman of the Committee for Culture and Education, after having served as coordinator for the European People`s Party in this committee for five years. She focuses in particular on education and media policy as well as digital agenda issues. As former mayor of Aachen (1999 to 2009) she focuses additionally on issues that are of relevance to the local authorities.
She has been co-rapporteur for the Audio-Visual Media Services Directive and has been a Member of the European Parliament’s annual delegation to the Internet Governance Forum since 2009.
Sabine Verheyen studied architecture at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences.

Bernd Reichart, born in Scheidegg (southern Germany) in 1974, was appointed CEO of Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland in January 2019.

After graduating from university, he started his career in sports rights advertising sales at UFA Sports in Hamburg in 2001. In 2003, he became Marketing Manager for Sportfive, a sports rights agency in Madrid. A year later, he changed career and became Head of Investor Relations at Antena 3 (now ATRES Media) in Spain – an RTL Group affiliate. From 2007 to 2013, he was Managing Director Multichannel at the Spanish broadcaster, responsible for up to five free-to-air TV channels. In February 2013, he returned to Germany as Managing Director of VOX and was as well a member of the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland Management Board.

Being CEO of the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, he also has been assigned to the Operating Management Committees of RTL Group and Bertelsmann as of 2019.

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz is Director of the Leibniz Institute for Media Research │ Hans Bredow Institute (HBI) and holds the chair “Media Law and Public Law including its Theoretical Foundations” at the Faculty of Law at the University of Hamburg. In February 2012, he was also appointed Director of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin. His work focuses on the area of communication freedoms, on regulatory problems with regard to media content, questions of the law of new media and the legal foundations of journalistic work, but also on the legal-philosophical foundations of communication freedoms and the effects of changing public spheres on the law. In addition, he has worked on forms of state actions, for example within the framework of concepts such as “regulated self-regulation” or “informational regulation”. Many of his works are internationally comparative.

Anthony Whelan currently works as digital policy adviser in the cabinet (private office) of European Commission President von der Leyen. Since 2013 he was Director for Electronic Communications Networks & Services at the European Commission, designing and negotiating EU initiatives on topics such as net neutrality, roaming reform, the revision of the telecoms regulatory framework, and the financing of advanced broadband networks. A barrister, he has lectured and researched in public law at Trinity College Dublin and has worked as a lawyer at the European Court of Justice and in the Legal Service of the European Commission. Between 2008 and 2013, he was head of the cabinet of EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes in the competition and digital agenda portfolios.

As an owner-managed agency, Grothe Medienberatung works at the interface of politics, media, digital economy and science and is intensively engaged in digitalization and media convergence. Founded in 2005, the agency has reliable contacts in politics, business and science, many years of experience in strategic communication and public affairs as well as comprehensive expertise in managing complex projects. Grothe Medienberatung works in the dynamic field of media and creative industries as well as the digital economy. Topics include the economic development of these areas as well as the design of the media legal framework, including discussions on platform economics and internet governance. Grothe Medienberatung consists of the partners Dr. Friederike Grothe and Dr. Thorsten Grothe. Clients include well-known private and public media providers from Germany and abroad, infrastructure operators and companies in the digital economy.

Sarah („Sally“) Broughton Micova is a lecturer in communication policy and politics at the School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies at the University of East Anglia (UEA). She teaches courses on politics, media and political communication. Prior to joining UEA, she was an LSE Fellow in Media Governance and Policy and Deputy Director of the LSE Media Policy Project in the Department of Media and Communication, where she received her PhD in December 2013. She remains a Visiting Fellow at the LSE and has also been a visiting lecturer at the Institute of Communications in Skopje, Macedonia, since 2012. Her research focuses on media and communications policy in Europe. She is currently looking into new forms for potential control in communications, with the progression of convergence in technology and services and the rise of competitive authoritarianism. She is also interested in the consequences of convergence and globalization in creative and communications industries, especially in small linguistic media markets and in relation to the cultural and communication rights of national minorities.

Dr. Corinne Schweizer is a senior research and teaching associate at the Media and Internet Governance Division of the Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ) at the University of Zurich. She conducts research on media and communication policy and governance in the Swiss context and beyond. Between 2013 and 2015, she co-authored four research reports for the Federal Office of Communications in Switzerland on media regulation in western countries. Between 2015 and 2017, she worked as an LSE Fellow at the Department of Media and Communications of the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2016, she successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on public service media organizations as media commons and received her Ph.D. from University of Zurich in 2019 when publishing her dissertation with Nomos.