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Speakers

Keynote Speaker

Giuseppe Busia

President of the National Anti-Corruption Authority – ANAC
Dr Busia has served as President of the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC) since 2020. He is the vice president of the Network for Integrity and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities – IAACA. Dr Busia worked at the Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA) from inception in 1997 and took office as Secretary General to the DPA in July 2012. He was a member of the Europol Joint Supervisory Body as set up by the Europol Convention from 1998 to 2005, where he was appointed as Chair of the Appeals Committee; he was also a member of the Joint Supervisory Authority set up by the Customs Information Systems Convention and served as deputy Chair of that Authority. From 2012, he is Alternate Member of the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party set up under the Directive 95/46/EC and has been a member of the ad hoc Committee on Data Protection (CAHDATA) established by the Council of Europe to modernize the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (ETS No. 108). He served as Secretary General to the Italian Independent Oversight Authority for public procurement contracts (2008–2012) and was appointed as Director of the Permanent Board for the Relations between State and Regions (2006–2008). He held and still holds teaching courses in several Italian universities and has authored many scientific papers.

Blanca Lilia Ibarra Cadena

INAI Commissioner

Communicator, journalist and promoter of the development and respect for women’s human rights. She has held several management positions in the media sector, including Director of the Mexican State Congress Television Channel and Director of Information to Media State of the Office of the President of Mexico. She has chaired the guarantors’ institutions of transparency, right of access to information and the personal data protection, municipal and state level. In 2018, the Senate of the Mexican Republic elected her as Commissioner of the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Personal Data Protection (INAI). From December 2020 to December 2023, she was the Chairwomen of INAI and the National Council of the National Transparency System. She currently holds the position of Commissioner of the Institute.

Adrián Alcalá Méndez

President Commissioner, INAI 2023-2026

He has a Law degree, a Master in Amparo and a Doctorate in Law. He has been a speaker, panelist and columnist on topics of the right of access to information and personal data protection.
He works as a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Likewise, he has been a teacher on transparency and access to information in several diploma courses, programs and workshops, as well as an exhibitor and speaker at both national and international events since 2009. In 2011, he was named Proprietary Advisor of the Institute for Transparency and Access to Public Information of the State of Baja California; Being the first President Councilor, he was later elected Coordinator of the Northern Regional Assembly of the then Mexican Conference for Access to Public Information.
From 2014 to 2020 he was appointed as Secretary of Access to Information. Likewise, he was appointed Commissioner of the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Personal Data Protection (INAI) for the period from November 18th, 2020 to November 17th, 2027. He is currently President Commissioner of the INAI for the period 2023 – 2026. He is simultaneously an external member of the Permanent Seminar on Open Government of the Autonomous University of Tlaxcala.

Toby Mendel

Executive Director, Center for Law and Democracy
Prior to founding the Centre for Law and Democracy in January 2010, Toby Mendel was for over 12 years Senior Director for Law at ARTICLE 19, a human rights NGO focusing on freedom of expression and the right to information. He has provided expertise on these rights to a wide range of actors including the World Bank, various UN and other intergovernmental bodies, and numerous governments and NGOs in countries all over the world. In these various roles, he has often played a leading role in drafting legislation in the areas of the right to information and media regulation. Before joining ARTICLE 19, he worked as a senior human rights consultant with Oxfam Canada and as a human rights policy analyst at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). He has published extensively on a range of freedom of expression, right to information, communication rights and refugee issues, including comparative legal and analytical studies on public service broadcasting, the right to information and broadcast policy. Toby has an Honours B.A. in mathematics from McGill University and an L.L.B. from Dalhousie University.

María Gracia Andía

Chair, Guarantor Body for the Right to Access the Information of the Buenos Aires City Government
María Gracia Andía is the chair of the Guarantor Body for the Right to Access the Information of the Buenos Aires City Government. She has a PhD in Law and Public Policy from Northeastern University. She is Law Professor law professor at Universidad de San Andrés. She is member of the Institute of Methodology of Social Sciences of the National Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. She has been a consultant to international organizations (World Bank Group, Americas Society and Council of the Americas), and an advisor to the National Congress and to the Legislature of Buenos Aires.

Anjali Bhardwaj

Founder of SNS (Satark Nagrik Sangathan), Co-Convenor, National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information

Anjali Bhardwaj has been closely associated with the Right to Information (RTI) movement in India since the year 2000 and is a Co-Convenor of the National Campaign for Peoples’ Right to Information (NCPRI). The NCPRI played a pivotal role in campaigning for a strong RTI Act in India and since the passage of the law in 2005, has been working to ensure its effective implementation. NCPRI has been advocating for a series of anti-corruption and grievance redress laws, including the Whistleblowers Protection Act. Anjali is the founder of Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS), a citizens’ group working in the slum settlements of Delhi, with a mandate to promote transparency and accountability in government functioning and to encourage active participation of citizens in governance. Anjali has been leading efforts to monitor the implementation of the Right to Information Act in India. She has been anchoring people led assessments of the implementation of various provisions of the law and has co-authored several national reports. She is associated with various rights based struggles in India and is a member of the Steering Committee of the National Right to Food Campaign and the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms.

Krenare Sogojeva Dërmaku

Information and Privacy Commissioner of Kosovo

Krenare Sogojeva Dërmaku is the Commissioner for Information and Privacy. For more than a decade she has headed the Legal Department in the Ministry of Defense, while in the Office of the Prime Minister she has been the coordinator of the legislative roundtable at the Government Coordination Secretariat and Senior Legal Officer in the Legal Office.
As a law graduate in the University of Prishtina, with postgraduate studies in European law at the European College of Parma in Italy, she has a long experience in drafting, interpretation of laws and in providing legal advices, including knowledge in the field of human rights and the field of defense and security. Mrs. Sogojeva-Dermaku is married and has two children.

Caroline Maynard

Information Commissioner of Canada
Caroline Maynard is the current Information Commissioner of Canada. She began her seven-year term on March 1, 2018. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Maynard was the Interim Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of the Military Grievances External Review Committee from January 2017 to March 2018, after serving as Director General, Operations, and General Counsel in the organization for a number of years. Earlier in her career, she was Legal Counsel in the Office of the Judge Advocate General and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee. Ms. Maynard also worked with the Canada Revenue Agency and briefly in private practice. Ms. Maynard holds a Bachelor of Laws from the Université de Sherbrooke, and has been a member of the Quebec Bar since 1994.

Gilbert Sendugwa

Executive Director, Africa Freedom of Information Centre

Gilbert Sendugwa is the executive director of the Africa Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC). In this role he has led campaigns for the advancement of the right to information in Africa and around the world. He has actively supported campaigns for the adoption and implementation of access to information laws in several African countries as well as successful advocacy for the proclamation by UNESCO General Conference and the United Nations General Assembly of September 28th as the International Day for Universal Access to Information. As a member of the ACHPR expert working group, he contributed immensely to the development and application of the Model Law on Access to Information in Africa, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Guidelines on Access to Information and Elections in Africa among other instruments.
His work has included the promotion of AU Guidelines on Access to Information and Elections amongst various stakeholders in The Gambia, Uganda and Zambia as well as promotion of youth and women participation in electoral process in various countries in Africa.

Sabina Aliyeva

Commissioner for Human Rights of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ombudsman
Sabina Aliyeva was born in Baku on May 7, 1980. In 1996 she entered the Law Faculty of Baku State University and graduated in 2000. In 2002 she obtained a Master’s degree in State Law. From 2009 to 2012, S. Aliyeva studied International Relations in the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and in 2016 she obtained a PhD in Law. She defended a thesis in International Law and Human Rights. Since 2000 Sabina Aliyeva has worked in the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Azerbaijan in different positions, since 2015 she has been the Deputy Head of the Office of the Constitutional Court. On November 29, 2019, Sabina Aliyeva was elected as the Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman) of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the Milli Mejlis (Parliament of the Republic of Azerbaijan) among three candidates presented to this position by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. On September 12, 2023, Sabina Aliyeva was elected as a Vice President of the Asian Ombudsman Association (AOA) in the 17th General Assembly meeting of the AOA held in Kazan, Tatarstan.

Besa Velaj

Chief of Staff, Information and Data Protection Commissioner of Albania

Besa is a lawyer with a wide experience in both private and public sector. She started practicing the legal profession near Boga and Associates, the biggest law firm in Albania where she specialized in different areas of law, including corporate, energy, consumer protection, data protection, environment protection, labor law etc.
After a 10 years’ experience at Boga & Associates she joined the team of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner as Advisor. Since January 2021 she holds the position of Chief of Staff of the Commissioner. In these positions she has assisted the Commissioner in drafting and reasoning some headline decisions concerning the right to information and data protection. In addition she has lead the Twinning Project that has assisted the Office of the Commissioner to align the domestic legislation with the acquis communautaire, namely with the GDPR and Enforcement Directive.

Meike Kamp

Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information
Commissioner Meike Kamp has served as Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BlnBDI) since 2022. From 2019-2022, she was Legal Officer for Justice, Home Affairs and Sports to the Representative of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen to the Federal Government. She initially joined the BlnBDI in 2010, where she served as Division Head from 2016-2019. From 2005-2010, Commissioner Kamp was affiliated with the Independent State Center for Data Protection in Schleswig-Holstein, where she was Division Head from 2007 on. Commissioner Kamp studied law and legal informatics in Hanover, Göttingen and Stockholm.

Abdul Malek PhD

Chief Information Commissioner Information Commission Bangladesh.

Mr. Abdul Malek, Chief Information Commissioner, Information Commission of Bangladesh joined on 22 March 2023. Prior to this, he worked as Information Commissioner from 30 January 2020 to 21 March 2023.
As a Career Bureaucrat he joined in Bangladesh Civil Service (Administration) in 1986. Mr. Malek has a long and illustrious career in civil service marking diversified experience of working both at field and policy levels. He worked as Magistrate 1st Class, Metropolitan Magistrate and in different positions of field Administration. He served as the Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate of a District named Comilla. His experience covers working in different Ministries of Bangladesh Government. He worked for Local Government Division both as Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary position. He also served as Private Secretary-1 to Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. As Secretary position to the Government he served as Secretary, Local Government Division and also in the Ministry of Information.
Abdul Malek obtained his BSS (Honours) and MSS in Public Administration from University of Dhaka. Later he awarded PhD from Jahangirnagar University and completed LLB Degree from National University of Bangladesh. He also participated in different Courses in Harvard Kennedy School, Duke University and George Washington Institute of Public Policy USA.

Laura Neuman

Senior Advisor, Carter Centre, USA
In addition to advising on the implementation of the Carter Center’s programming regarding transparency and good governance, Laura Neuman developed and leads the Inform Women, Transform Lives campaign. Inform Women, Transform Lives is being implemented in 35 global cities representing metropolitan populations of more than 215 million people. As part of the campaign, she supports cities in improved service delivery, particularly for women and marginalized populations, and in ensuring women have a voice in international and regional forums. Neuman developed the innovative Implementation Assessment Tool for access-to-information legislation and the Center’s Women and the Right of Access to Information programming. In 2018, she convened the Inform Women, Transform Lives Conference, which culminated with the Atlanta Declaration for the Advancement of Women’s Right of Access to Information. She previously led Carter Center programming related to transparency in the security sector and access to justice and has assured a gender focus in all programming. Neuman has written articles, book chapters, and guidebooks on the right of access to information, fostering transparency, and preventing corruption, and has presented at numerous international seminars and conferences. She has served as a consultant to the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, among others. Prior to joining The Carter Center in August 1999, Neuman was a staff attorney at Legal Action of Wisconsin. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Prof. Ulrich Kelber

Commissioner, BfDI, German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information

Born on 29 March 1968
married, 5 children
1987 to 1993 studied computer science and biology in Bonn,
1993 to 1995 worked as research associate at the GMD Research Centre for Information Technology,
1996 to 2002 knowledge management consultant at an IT company (consultative function from September 2000 to September 2002).
2000 to 2018 Member of the German Bundestag,
Won the direct mandate in the city of Bonn in 2002, 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017
2005 to 2013 Vice-Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) parliamentary group for the issues of environment, nature conservation and nuclear safety, food, agriculture and consumer protection and sustainability
December 2013 to March 2018 Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Justice and Consumer Protection,
Since January 2019, Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information
Since July 2019 honorary professor for data ethics at the Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg (Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University)

Maria Baron

Global Executive Director of Directorio Legislativo

Maria Baron is the Global Executive Director of Directorio Legislativo, a regional organization based in Argentina and Washington, DC. Maria is a journalist, with a master’s degree in International Affairs from the University of Bologna, and is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the National University of San Martin. She has worked in civil society organizations in both Argentina and abroad with the aim of reducing unethical practices of legislators and public officials for the last 20+ years andf.  has won the NDI Democracy Award as a “Civic Innovator”. She is a Fulbright-APSA Congressional Fellow. She has published 15 editions of Directorio Legislativo. Quiénes son nuestros legisladores y cómo nos representan in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia, as well as other publications related to transparency, anticorruption and open government. She is a founding member of the Latin American Network for Legislative Transparency, and is currently Chair of the Board of the Open Government Partnership (OGP).

Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw

Chairman and Information Commissioner, RAIC, Sierra Leone
Dr. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw is Chairman and Information Commissioner, Right to Access Information Commission (RAIC) in Sierra Leone. Before taking up this post in October 2018, Dr Shaw worked as Senior Lecturer in Media and Politics at Northumbria university in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. He was Secretary General of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) between 2012 and 2016 following his election at the organisation’s biennial conference in Japan on November 24-28 2012. As head of IPRA, Dr Shaw organised the organisation’s 25th biennial conference at the Bintumani conference centre in Freetown in 2016 with over 500 peace researchers from 82 countries from all the continents of the world in attendance. Dr Shaw holds a PhD from the Sorbonne in Paris in Information and Communication, MSc in Development Studies from the London South Bank University, and BA International Relations from FBC, USL, and has published several articles in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Global Ethics and International Communication Gazette. He is author of five books, including Business Journalism: A Critical Political Economy Approach. (2015, Routledge), and ‘Human Rights Journalism’ Palgrave Macmillan (2012), and contributed chapters to over 14 books by world leading editors and publishers. Dr Shaw has also guest-edited three special issues of leading academic journals published by SAGE and Routledge Taylor and Francis.

Tetyana Oleksiyuk

Vice-President of the Access Info Group, Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents (Tromsø Convention)
Tetyana Oleksiyuk is a Ukrainian expert on access to official information and open data regulations. Her considerable 15+ years of experience includes advocating, teaching, and advising on national legislation and international standards in the access to information sphere. In 2022, she was elected as a member and Vice-President of the Access Info Group under the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents (Tromsø Convention). Tetyana actively advises the main stakeholders of access to the information sphere in Ukraine (Ombudsperson, Council of Europe, UNDP Ukraine, representatives of official authorities, Supreme Court of Ukraine, and NGOs) and is an active member of international professional networks. She is a practicing attorney, has had several successful cases in the European Court for Human Rights, and has conducted numerous training sessions for activists, judges, journalists, representatives of responsible authorities, and the Ukrainian Ombudsperson office. Within her cooperation with the Ukrainian Ombudsperson in 2022-2023, she contributed to the monitoring of ensuring the right to access official information in Ukraine during wartime and to improving the expert capacity of the Ombudsperson’s Secretariat in access to official information sphere.

Marie Whelan

Policy Analyst within the Innovative, Digital and Open Governance (INDIGO) Division OECD

Marie Whelan is a Policy Analyst within the Innovative, Digital and Open Governance (INDIGO) Division of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Her work within the Public Governance Directorate focuses on how governments can better inform, engage, and empower citizens, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders to participate in public decision-making. Over recent years, she has gained extensive expertise in the role of transparency and access to information to foster more inclusive, effective, and sustainable policymaking and service design and delivery, working across a variety of country contexts. Marie has an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and a B.A. from University College Dublin.

Gitanjali S. Gutierrez

Information Commissioner for Bermuda

Gitanjali S. Gutierrez was appointed as Bermuda’s first Information Commissioner on 2 March 2015 and was reappointed to a second term on 2 March 2020. Ms. Gutierrez is an internationally recognised human rights lawyer with nearly two decades of experience with public access to information laws. Prior to her appointment, she taught international human rights law at Cornell Law School, USA and was an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based international human rights organisation. She has practised before all levels of courts in the United States and provided investigative and legal research to support human rights litigation in several European countries and international tribunals.
Gitanjali S. Gutierrez graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bucknell University (Pennsylvania, USA) in African-American history and social change movements. She later graduated magna cum laude with a Juris Doctorate with a concentration in public law from Cornell Law School. She then served as a judicial clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She was called to the bar in the State of New York (USA) in 2002.

Bruno Lasserre

Head of Commission for Access to Official Documents

Mr. Bruno Lasserre holds a degree from the Institute of Political Sciences of Bordeaux (1974) and a Bachelor of Laws of the University of Bordeaux (1975). He attended the French National School of Administration (ENA).
He joined the Council of State in 1978. In 1986, he joined the ministry of telecommunications and postal services and became director before being appointed general director for telecommunications and postal services until 1997. He then rejoined the Council of State where he became associate president, president of the 1st chamber and associate president of the Litigation section. He was president of the Competition Authority from 2004 to 2016. In 2016, Bruno Lasserre was appointed president of the Interior Section of the Council of State before being appointed head of the institution (2018-2022). He currently chairs the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (CADA).

Krizia Casey P. Avejar

Head of Freedom of Information - Program Management Office (FOI-PMO)
Krizia Casey Avejar heads the Freedom of Information – Program Management Office (FOI-PMO) as the FOI Program Director. Concurrently, the Chief of the Communications and Capacity Development Division of the FOI-PMO. With over 8 years of experience in public service, Ms. Avejar was part of the pioneer team who established the freedom of information office in the country under the leadership of the FOI Philippines founder Atty. Kristian R. Ablan. She earned a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration at De La Salle College of St. Benilde and a Master of Management in Business Management from the University of the Philippines Manila.

Ahmed Ahid Rasheed

Information Commissioner’s Office, Republic of Maldives

Ahmed Ahid Rasheed is the Information Commissioner of the Maldives. Prior to being appointed to this position in September 2021, he worked at Transparency Maldives, Transparency International’s local chapter in Maldives, as their Governance Manager. Rasheed has been working in promoting access to information since he joined Transparency Maldives in 2013. His work in this area included advocating for the enactment of a strong access to information law, stronger enforcement of the law, and in raising awareness amongst the public of this right. His work in other areas includes advocating for protections of whistleblowers, migrant worker rights, and asset declarations of public officials. Prior to this he worked as Legal Officer at the Anti-Corruption Board. Rasheed holds an LLB (Hons.) Law Degree from Staffordshire University, UK.

Adv. Pansy Tlakula

Information Regulator of South Africa

She has occupied high profile positions in both the private and public sectors.

In 1995, Pansy Tlakula was appointed by President Mandela as one of the first commissioners of the South Africa Human Rights Commission. The other positions that she has occupied include the following:

  1. Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights and its special Rapporteur on freedom of Expression and Access to Information.
  2. Chairperson and Chief Electoral Officer of the Electoral Commissions.

In June 2019, Pansy was elected to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Warren Seddon

Director of FOI and Transparency, Information Commissioner's Office
Warren joined the ICO in May 2021 where he leads on work related to the Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations. This includes oversight of the casework teams that make decisions on complaints about the handling of Access to Information requests by public bodies. He also acts as a champion for transparency by the public sector – and those that work with it – so that the information that most affects citizen’s lives is published proactively wherever possible, without the need for information requests. He joined the ICO from his role as Director of Strategy and Communications at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, where he had been since 2017. Before that he was at the Electoral Commission, where he spent almost four years as Head of Media and Public Affairs and led the development of a new partnership marketing strategy to increase voter registration. Prior to the Commission he held a number of roles in the Civil Service, including Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Constitutional Affairs, and spent a year at Age UK working on its Government and Stakeholder Relations strategy.

Flutura Kusari

Senior Legal Advisor, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom
Flutura leads ECPMF’s legal support programme which has supported hundreds of media workers across Europe. She also advocates with international organisations to improve legislation to defend freedom of expression. During the last decade, she has been engaged in building capacities of judges, prosecutors, police officers, and lawyers on freedom of expression across the Western Balkans. In addition, she advises journalists on pre- and post- publication legal matters such as defamation, access to information, contempt of court, and privacy. Flutura co-leads the Anti-SLAPP work at the European level as part of the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) and as an expert for the European Union and Council of Europe. She holds a PhD in Media Law from Ghent University, Belgium.

Andrew Ecclestone

Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington

Andrew Ecclestone is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He’s currently helping the International Foundation for Electoral Systems with a project to assist in drafting a Freedom of Information law for Papua New Guinea. Previous roles include: Senior Investigator Official Information Practice Investigations in the Office of the Ombudsman, New Zealand, where he worked for 12 years. Mr Ecclestone also worked for the New Zealand State Services Commission on implementation of its first Open Government Partnership action plan. Before moving to New Zealand to undertake a Master’s in Public Policy, he was a Policy Manager for the UK Department for Constitutional Affairs working on implementation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. He worked for the UK Campaign for Freedom of Information from 1993-2001, and has consulted for the World Bank, UNDP, USAID, the Council of Europe and the Open Society Justice Initiative in various countries. He was the organiser of the 5th ICIC held in Wellington in 2007. Further details about his career can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewecclestone/

Besnik Dervishi

Commissioner - Albania IDP (Albanian Information and Data Protection Commissioner's Office) - Host Authority, ICIC 2024
Besnik was appointed Information and Data Protection Commissioner in 2014, re-elected for a second term in 2019. Prior to this appointment, he served as a Member of Parliament, Minister, Deputy Minister and Secretary-General. He is a graduate of the Law Faculty of Tirana University and an attorney. In his career, Besnik has also acted as judge in the Tirana District Court, and also held a position as advisory board member of the Institute for Public Administration Training. Currently, he lectures at the School of Magistrates of Albania. He has attended many training programmes at various institutions, and contributed in the frame of the constitutional and electoral reforms, drafting of legal acts in the domain of public administration, human rights, etc. Commissioner Dervishi was also part of the Global Privacy Assembly (GPA) Executive Committee from 2018 to 2021.