Giacomo Zandonini is a Swiss-Italian journalist whose work explores mobility, identities, and European policies in the Mediterranean and West Africa. He contributed to investigations on human rights violations, surveillance programmes, corruption and diversion of public funds. He’s a member of Fada Collective and takes part in Lighthouse Reports’ migration and surveillance newsrooms.
Twitter: @giacomo_zando
Stefano Vergine is an Italian investigative journalist focusing on economics and foreign affairs. He mainly writes for Il Fatto Quotidiano. His works are published also by other media outlets such as RAI, Euobserver.com, RSI, BBC. The investigation “Chinese Underworld” has been conducted by Info.Libre, Il Fatto Quotidiano and Info.Nodes. The video has been made by Visionair Prod.
Twitter: @StefanoVergine
Max von Abendroth is the Executive Director of Dafne – Donors and Foundations Networks in Europe, soon converging with EFC to become Philea, representing 10.000 public benefit foundations across Europe. Philea will host the Journalism Funders Forum. Max developed the interest representation of Europe’s philanthropy sector vis-à-vis the EU institutions to further strengthen the operating environment for donors and foundations across Europe. He is the initiator of PEX, a European collaboration network of more than 70 philanthropy infrastructure organisations. In 2020 he started the Philanthropy Coalition for Climate and co-created the International Philanthropy Commitment on Climate Change.
Before joining Dafne, Max set up and ran the European Magazine Media Association, EMMA, representing 15.000 press publishers vis-à-vis the EU institutions. He is also the founder of the Future Media Lab. (2012-2017), an innovative European advocacy platform for media, technology, journalism, academia and politicians.
Max studied Economics and Business Administration at the Witten/Herdecke University in Germany.
Twitter: @bxlmax
Ekaterina Mandova has been supporting independent public-interest journalism in Europe for two years as part of her role in Civitates. Before joining Civitates, Ekaterina worked for different organisations on topics related to social and environmental issues. Throughout the years, she has been involved in different journalistic projects and initiatives around Europe. As a journalist, she has worked for private and community media outlets in Bulgaria and Austria.
Twitter: @emandova
Nikolaus von Peter is an official of the European Union, working currently in the Representation of the European Commission in Berlin where he is following digital policy, fundamental rights, the rule of law and other policies. Mr von Peter studied law and briefly worked as a lawyer and in the German administration before joining the Commission’s treasury department. Before moving to Berlin, he worked in the private office of the European Commissioner for mobility and transport.
Twitter: @emandova
Ludovica Jona Lasinio is an investigative journalist with a special interest in video and multimedia projects. She is currently a video-maker at La7 national tv channel and regular contributor at Il Fatto Quotidiano online newspaper. She has been team leader in various cross border investigations funded by #IJ4EU, Journalismfund, and European Journalism Centre, covering surveillance, migration, pharmaceutical sector and environmental issues. Her work appeared on The Intercept, Mediapart, FQ Millennium, L’Espresso, and Report Rai3 among others.
Stefano Valentino is an Italian entrepreneurial journalist based in Brussels and Investigations Manager at the European magazine Voxeurop and member of the European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet). He is a specialist of EU affairs and global ecological crises. Over the last years, he has investigated the connections between environment, sustainability, lobbying, security, and conflicts. He has a track record of international investigations funded by grant-making organisations. His work has appeared in leading media outlets in different countries, such as the Guardian, the Christian Science Monitor, EU Observer, Alternatives Economiques, Iil Fatto Quotidiano, El Confidencial, and NRC Handelsblad.
Rudi Bressa is an environmental and scientific freelance journalist, who collaborates with many Italian and international media outlets, focusing on climate change, energy transition, circular economy, and biodiversity conservation. He is a member of Swim (Science Writers in Italy), on the board of the Clew Journalism Network based in Berlin, and an associate of Oxpeckers investigative environmental journalism based in South Africa. His last investigations were focused on illegal wildlife and timber trade and were supported by the Journalism Fund and IJ4EU.
Twitter: @RudiBressa
Věra Jourová, Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency
Věra Jourová is currently Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency and deals with democracy, rule of law, media pluralism and fight against disinformation. From 2014 to 2019, she served as EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality. In 2014, before arriving at 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.
Twitter: @VeraJourova
Annie Hylton is an award-winning investigative journalist and magazine writer from Canada. Through long-form narrative writing, she seeks to create empathy and illustrate the human stakes behind key policy debates. She has been published by The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New Republic, London Review of Books, Esquire UK, The Walrus, and many others. She is an associate professor at Sciences Po Paris, where she teaches investigative journalism, writing, and reporting. She is trained as an international human rights lawyer focusing on situations of conflict.
Twitter: @hyltonanne
