People.

Audrey Tang is Taiwan's digital minister in charge of social innovation. She is a software programmer known for revitalising the computer languages Perl and Haskell and building the online spreadsheet system EtherCalc in collaboration with Dan Bricklin. Audrey served on Taiwan's National Development Council's Open Data committee and K-12 curriculum committee, and led the country's first e-Rulemaking project. She has also worked as a consultant with Apple on computational linguistics, with Oxford University Press on crowd lexicography, and with Socialtext on social interaction design. She actively contributes to g0v ("gov zero"), a vibrant community that focuses on creating tools for civil society with the call to "fork the government."

Mélody Patry is Advocacy Director at Access Now where she leads on global advocacy, communications, and campaigns, and works closely with the Policy and Tech teams to develop the strategies and partnerships needed to protect the internet and those who use it. Mélody was previously head of advocacy at free speech organization Index on Censorship in London, where she worked with human rights defenders, government officials, and in coalitions such as the Global Network Initiative, the Civic Solidarity Platform, and Don’t Spy on Us. Before Index on Censorship, she worked with Cairo-based grassroots organisations and artists on campaigns addressing women’s rights issues, assisted the Representative to the European Union for Doctors Without Borders, and acted as a political advisor for the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations. She holds an MA in International Security from Sciences Po Paris and a BA in Law and Political Science from Lille II University.

Matt Mitchell is a hacker and Tech Fellow at the Ford Foundation where he works with the BUILD and Technology and Society teams to develop digital security strategy, technical assistance offerings, and safety and security measures for the foundation’s grantee partners.

Matt was recently named by WIRED magazine as one of the WIRED25, a group of “innovators who are using technology to lead society through this period of global uncertainty and pointing the way to a safer future.” He was previously listed by VICE’s MOTHERBOARD as a HUMAN OF THE YEAR for his work protecting marginalised communities from surveillance.

Committed to using his vast digital skills — as hacker, developer, operational security trainer, security researcher, and data journalist — for good, Matt has worked in various capacities at the intersection of technology and social justice. He directed digital safety and privacy for Tactical Technology Collective (a global NGO based in Berlin), and has trained numerous activists, journalists, and NGOs in digital security, safety, and privacy. In line with his personal work (which focuses on marginalised, aggressively monitored, and over-policed populations), Matt founded and leads CryptoHarlem — impromptu workshops teaching basic cryptography tools to the predominantly African American community in Upper Manhattan. He has worked for private security firm GJS Security, helping to protect devices from hackers, and has also worked as a data journalist at the New York Times as well as a developer at CNN, Time Inc., NewsOne, and other media outlets.

In 2016, Matt served as a Ford-Mozilla Open Web fellow, embedded at Color Of Change. He has also been an Internet Freedom Festival fellow, a New America Cybersecurity Initiative fellow, and an adviser to a host of organisations including the Open Technology Fund, Internet Freedom Festival, Human Rights Foundation, Digital Security Exchange (DSX), UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. 

Swee Leng Harris is a Principal at Luminate where she works with the Data & Digital Rights team to identify funding opportunities, support funding execution and portfolio management, and undertake policy research and analysis. She is also a member of the Privacy and Consumer Advisory Group for the UK Government.

Prior to joining Luminate, Swee Leng was Head of Policy and Public Affairs at The Legal Education Foundation where she led a portfolio of policy grants focused on the technical legal capacity of civil society to engage with the legislative process relating to the UK’s exit from the EU. She was also responsible for developing the Foundation’s activity on data processing by government, public law, and rule of law principles. 

She previously worked at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law where she led the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Rule of Law. Swee Leng began her career as an environment and planning lawyer.

Amira El-Sayed is a Principal at Luminate where she sources and manages Luminate’s global Civic Empowerment grants and investments to help ensure that everyone – especially those who are marginalised or underserved – can participate in governance, receive the services they need, and hold those in power to account.

Amira was most recently Director of Programs and Strategy at Reboot, leading its New York-based Programs Team and working to advance civic participation and social action with a variety of philanthropic, government, and private sector partners. She also worked on Reboot’s theory of change and organisational strategy.

Prior to Reboot, Amira was a Programme Manager at Transparency International – Defence and Security. While there she led the Africa Programme and later managed an initiative to develop global norms for responsible defence governance, as well as the Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index (Transparency International’s flagship publication on defence and security). 

A former Tahrir Square activist, Amira started her career with non-profit organisations in Egypt. 

As Deputy Director, Meetali assists in setting and achieving Reset’s strategic direction. Her mission is two-fold — to ensure organizational effectiveness and to strengthen programmatic work in campaigning, litigation, and policy development and advocacy. She brings two decades of experience to Reset as a lawyer, academic and campaigner, both in the United States and in South Africa. Meetali began her legal career post 9/11 representing individuals charged with terrorism. She later focused on holding corporations accountable for human rights abuses, and facilitated the development of the African Coalition on Corporate Accountability. She’s lectured extensively in the theory and practice of international human rights law and advocacy. Most recently, she served as Legal and Campaign Director at Avaaz, where she worked to safeguard human rights and to protect democracies and vulnerable communities from hate speech and disinformation.

As Advocacy Director, Alaphia is in charge of developing our advocacy and campaigning strategy, including partner engagement. Her mission is to build a diverse and global network of civil society groups and stakeholders working to tackle digital threats to democracy. She brings a decade of campaigning experience to Reset, first at Amnesty International and then as a senior campaigner at Avaaz, where she focused on issues of media reform, human rights, and the impact of digital hate speech on minorities. One of Alaphia's successes includes protecting Sky Television in the UK from a takeover by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. She previously worked as a news anchor and journalist at New Delhi Television, where she expanded the network's coverage of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami to some of the most remote parts of South Asia.

As Executive Director, Ben is responsible for Reset's strategic direction. In this capacity he oversees the coordination of our policy, technology, and civic engagement work, while providing expert counsel on policy development and advocacy. His mission is to create a global network of organisations working to achieve Reset's aims by coordinating and integrating financial, knowledge, and relational resources across the globe. Ben’s role at Reset is an evolution of his previous position as Luminate’s Director of Policy & Advocacy (he continues to be policy and advocacy advisor at Luminate). Ben previously co-led the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (SNV) in Berlin, helping develop the organisation into a leading tech policy voice in German politics. He was also a Senior Adviser to New America in Washington DC, helping design the Public Interest Technology Initiative. Ben led the technology policy advisory group for the 2016 Clinton US presidential campaign.

As Chief Technologist, Dan oversees our technology-centred efforts. He leads Reset's technology funding and implementation work, provides strategic counsel, and connects a network of experts to support Reset and our partners across the full portfolio of our work. His mission is to build Reset's capacity as a trusted source and sharer of knowledge at the intersection of technology and democracy. Dan previously served as Principal Director and Chief Technologist of the Open Technology Fund (OTF), which he co-founded in 2012 and remains involved with as a strategic advisor to the team and board. Prior to his work at OTF, Dan served as Senior Producer and Technologist for the Al Jazeera Network, modernising traditional investigative journalism and protecting reporters in the field.