contributors

Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful is the Minister for Communications of the Republic of Ghana and a Member of Parliament.

As the Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusus-Ekuful has oversight over the government’s infrastructure programme for the ICT Sector, national cyber security, the development of a robust framework to support the digitisation of the economy and the scaling up of e-government services with a national broadband and total connectivity for the unserved and underserved at the heart of the agenda.
She is passionate about supporting the local tech start up ecosystem, nurturing the development of indigenous technology and encouraging women, children and persons with disabilities to engage in ICT. Mrs Owusu-Ekuful worked for 10 years as an Associate at Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co., Legal Practitioners and Notaries Public. From Sept 2005 to May 2008, she was the acting Managing Director,
Western Telesystems (Westel), the first female CEO of a Telecoms company in Ghana, and from April 2008 to January 2009, she was the Corporate and External Affairs Director, ZAIN Ghana. Mrs Owusu-Ekuful holds a certificate in Government Integrity from the International Law Institute, Washington DC, a Project Management and Planning Certificate from Ghana Institute of Management
and Public Administration and a Masters in Conflict Peace and Security from the Kofi Annan Internationa lPeacekeeping Training Centre.
She currently serves as a member of the Health and Appointments Committees in Parliament.

Cédric Wachholz heads UNESCO’s ICT in Education, Science and Culture section, which works also on Artificial Intelligence (AI).

UNESCO’s AI work focuses on the ethical dimension of AI, on AI for SDGs through advocacy, capacity development, and public policy development for a human-centred and ethical AI.  The organization also harnesses AI-related opportunities in its field of competence (education, sciences, culture, communication and information), and serves as a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue on AI development. 

Vinton G. Cerf is vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He contributes to global policy development and continued spread of the Internet. Widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. He has served in executive positions at MCI, the Corporation for National Research Initiatives and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and on the faculty of Stanford University.

Vint Cerf served as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from 2000-2007 and has been a Visiting Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 1998. Cerf served as founding president of the Internet Society (ISOC) from 1992-1995. Cerf is a Foreign Member of the British Royal Society and Swedish Academy of Engineering, and Fellow of IEEE, ACM, and American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Engineering Consortium, the Computer History Museum, the British Computer Society, the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, the Worshipful Company of Stationers and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He currently serves as Past President of the Association for Computing Machinery, chairman of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) and completed a term as Chairman of the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology for the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. President Obama appointed him to the National Science Board in 2012.

Cerf is a recipient of numerous awards and commendations in connection with his work on the Internet, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, US National Medal of Technology, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the Prince of Asturias Award, the Tunisian National Medal of Science, the Japan Prize, the Charles Stark Draper award, the ACM Turing Award, Officer of the Legion d’Honneur and 29 honorary degrees. In December 1994, People magazine identified Cerf as one of that year’s “25 Most Intriguing People.”

Jeff Bullwinkel serves as Microsoft’s Associate General Counsel and Regional Director of Corporate, External & Legal Affairs for Europe.  He is based in Amsterdam and oversees the company’s legal and corporate affairs teams across the region, providing support for commercial transactions and regulatory counsel on public policy issues such as IPR, cybersecurity, competition, and international trade. 

Mr. Bullwinkel joined Microsoft in 2000 and previously held a number of senior roles with the company across the Asia Pacific region, based in Hong Kong, Singapore and Sydney.    

Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr. Bullwinkel was with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, an international law firm based in New York.  Mr. Bullwinkel also served as a federal prosecutor with the Office of International Affairs, Criminal Division, US Department of Justice, where he was responsible for a wide range of matters relating to international law. 

Mr. Bullwinkel is originally from the New York area.  He graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts degree and received his law degree from New York University.  He is a member of the New York State Bar. 

Marija Pejčinović Burič has worked as the 14th Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia and Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia from 19 June 2017 to 19 July 2019. On 26 June 2019, she was elected as the 14th Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

In 2000 Pejčinović Burić was appointed Assistant Minister at Croatia’s Ministry of European Integration. In 2001 she was included in the negotiating team for the EU-Croatia Stabilisation and Association Agreement. From 2003 onwards she worked as lecturer on European integration at the seminars of the Croatian Diplomatic Academy.

In 2004 Pejčinović Burić was appointed State Secretary at the Ministry of European Integration and the following year as State Secretary for European Integration at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. She served as National Coordinator for Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA) programs (2004-2006), National Coordinator for Assistance Programmes and Co-operation with the EU as well as member of the working group on the free movement of capital of Croatia’s EU accession negotiations (2005-2006). From 2006 Pejčinović Burić was member of Croatia’s EU accession negotiations team, and negotiator for the acquis chapters on External Relations, Foreign, Security and Defence Policy, Institutions and Other Issues, as well as chairperson for Croatia in the EU-Croatia Stabilisation and Association Committee and chairperson of the Croatia – Baden-Württemberg Mixed Commission (2006-2008).

for a six-month term in 2018. From 2017 until 2019, she also co-chaired the European People’s Party (EPP) trade ministers meetings. As of 18 september 2019 she is Secretary General of the Council of Europe