World’s 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government | 2018

Audrey Tang is Taiwan’s digital minister, the first transgender official in the top executive cabinet. She is a software developer and former entrepreneur: she dropped out of school at age 12 to focus on coding, and founded a search engine company before she was 15. She is now helping Taiwan in its bid to become an Asian Silicon Valley by devising and implementing a strategy to create “digital Taiwan”.

Beth Simone Noveck directs The Governance Lab and its MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance. She is based in New York City where she serves as a professor in Technology, Culture, and Society at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering. The author of numerous books and articles on governance innovation, she works with governments around the world to implement innovative and responsible approaches for using technology to solve public problems. Previously, she was the first United States Deputy Chief Technology Officer and director of the White House Open Government Initiative.

David Eaves is a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty, Eaves advised the Mayor of Vancouver in the late 2000s, proposing and drafting the Open Motion, one of the world's first open data portals. He was also the first director of education at Code for America, and has worked with 18F and the Presidential Innovation Fellows at the White House.

Evgeny Morozov is a writer and researcher, whose work examines the societal impacts of technology. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University and a Schwartz fellow at the New America Foundation. His books include The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom and To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism. He has been a fellow at the Open Society Foundations, which work to strengthen democracy internationally.

Francesca Bria is the Chief Technology and Digital Innovation Officer for the City of Barcelona. Under her leadership the city has created Decidim, a digital participatory platform through which citizens can suggest, debate and vote on ideas through social media. Previously a senior project lead at the innovation lab Nesta, she has a background in social science and economics and has advised the City of Rome on technological innovation.

Hillary Hartley is Ontario’s first chief digital officer. She leads the Ontario Digital Service, which is redesigning provincial government services to focus on users’ needs. She previously co-founded 18F, a US government agency created in 2014 to support government bodies’ digital development, and was one of President Barack Obama’s Presidential Innovation Fellows in 2013. Outside government, Hartley worked for seven years at NIC Inc, a digital government consultancy based in San Francisco.

Jennifer Pahlka is the founder and executive director of Code for America, a nationwide program to make government smarter, more creative and more effective for its citizens. Founded in 2009, Code for America has brought thousands of tech and design professionals into dialogue with city, state and federal government to apply design thinking and innovative practices to governance. In 2013, Pahlka served as deputy chief technology officer at the White House.

José Clastornik is the Executive Director at AGESIC, Uruguay's e-government and information society agency. The body has made Uruguay a digital leader in the region, the only country in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to break into the most advanced cohort of the UN's 2018 e-government survey. Clastornik was also the first president at Red GEALC, a digital innovation network spanning LAC region which promotes digital collaboration.

Malcolm Turnbull is the prime minister of Australia, and has long been a champion of digital government. As Minister for Communication, he oversaw the creation of Australia’s Digital Transformations Office (DTO), which produced an innovative performance dashboard and a digital marketplace that transformed the administration’s information & communications technology (ICT) procurement. As Prime Minister, Turnbull has overseen the replacement of the DTO with the Digital Transformations Agency, and has expanded its role to central oversight over the government’s ICT agenda.

Martha Lane Fox is founder of Doteveryone, a charity fighting for a fairer internet and building a movement for responsible technology. She previously co-founded Lastminute.com, Europe’s largest travel and leisure website. From 2009 to 2013, she was the UK’s Digital Champion and helped to create the Government Digital Service, the team that launched the Gov.uk website. She entered the House of Lords as a crossbench peer in 2013 — its youngest female member.

Matt Hancock is Britain’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care where he has prioritised digitisation and improving technology. He previously served as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, where he was responsible for the development and roll-out of the UK’s seven-pronged Digital Strategy. He also launched the Culture is Digital Report, a framework for linking culture and tech to increase participation and boost capability of cultural organisations, via initiatives such as digitization of public collections and development of virtual reality exhibitions.

Mounir Mahjoubi is France’s secretary of state for the digital sector, responsible for turning the country into a “Digital Republic”. This includes bolstering the growth and standing of French digital start-ups. Prior to this, Mahjoubi served as digital manager of Macron's campaign team where he has been credited for stemming a cyber attack. Previously he served as president of the French Digital Council where he advised on the impact of digital technologies on economy and society.

Nana Akufo-Addo is the President of Ghana. During his presidency he has been a strong advocate for the digitisation of Ghana and has launched a number of initiatives including a new national digital ID scheme, an electronic payment platform and a digital property adressing system all of which are considered some of the most innovative in the region. Under his leadership Ghana has signficantly improved its digital services and gained a reputation as one of the most advanced digital societies in Africa.

Park Won-soon, human rights lawyer and mayor of Seoul, is a pioneer in government data visualization and open data. He is currently spearheading a movement to establish Seoul’s own crypto-currency, dubbed “S-coin,” and leading an initiative to increase government transparency using blockchain technology. Won-soon likes to use data and technology to enact policy changes. For instance, after receiving a tweet from a constituent requesting night time bus services, Soon’s office used data from private phone companies on which areas had the most late-night phone calls to design Night Owl bus routes.

Pia Andrews is service integration lead at New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs, and is recognised internationally for driving the idea of government as an API. Beginning her career in IT, Andrews directed an open source consultancy in her native Australia before holding a number of roles in government, including director of data infrastructure and government engagement at Australia’s Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Ravi Shankar Prasad is India’s minister for electronics and IT. His ministry is working on a new data protection framework for India, digital inclusion and cyber security. It has initiated several new e-governance initiatives, including a unified mobile app for services, an online procurement platform and an open government data platform. He was critical in bringing digital TV to India and also led the corporatization of the Indian film industry. He is a designated senior advocate in India’s Supreme Court.

Siim Sikkut has been the Estonian government’s chief information officer since March 2017. He previously worked as a digital policy adviser to the government for five years, where he was one of the founders of the flagship e-Residency program and helped to author the Estonian Digital Agenda 2020. Sikkut has alkso been an adviser on e-Government for Jersey and a member of the digital government advisory group at the Inter-American Development Bank.

Sophie Lohde is Denmark’s Minister for Public Innovation. Under the helm of Ms. Lohde, the newly-created department led a massive reform of Denmark’s information and communication technology systems, used AI and blockchain to streamline government services, and released the world’s first ever survey on government innovation. Denmark were recently ranked first in a UN Survey on digital government. Ms. Lohde was elected to the Danish Parliament in 2007.

Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web and president and co-founder of the Open Data Institute, a non-profit organization that works with companies and governments to build safe and open data systems that collect data ethically and confidentially. He is also a co-founding director of the World Wide Web Foundation and Director of the World Wide Web Consortium. Knighted by the UK’s Queen Elizabeth for his groundbreaking work in the technology sector, Berners-Lee is a global advocate of open government data and a member of the United Kingdom’s Transparency Board.

Yolanda Martínez Mancilla is co-ordinator of Mexico’s national digital strategy. She has more than 15 years of experience working on digital transformation. She has worked in Mexican federal and local governments, with the consulting firm Deloitte, and in development with UNDP. As national digital strategy coordinator in the president's office, Mancilla is responsible for promoting the use of ICT in the federal public administration.

Aaron Snow is chief executive officer of the Canadian Digital Service, a position he took up this year after previously having enjoyed a top-flight career in US digital government. He co-founded 18F, an influential tech fixes team that sits within the American General Services Administration (GSA), in 2013. He later advised the GSA’s Technology Transformation Service. He has also worked as chief operating office at cBrain, a government digitsation and automation company based in Denmark.

Alex Benay has been chief information officer for the Canadian federal government since 2017. He has previously worked in government running the Canada Science & Technology Museums Corporation, overseeing its digital transformation, and in the Canadian foreign affairs ministry. In the private sector, Benay worked for five years at OpenText, Canada’s largest software company.

Al-Khouri is the former Director General of Emirates ID. Under his leadership, the authority helped to entrench a culture of innovation and high performance among staff. It successfully implemented government plans to register the UAE's population and build an identity management infrastructure which now supports e-government and and the digital economy. Emirates ID has received international accolades, including a UN Public Sector Award. In 2011, Al-Khouri "Most Influential Personality in Digital Identity in a Decade" by the 10th ID WORLD International Congress, and has published over 100 books and research articles.

Andrés Bustamante Valenzuela is head of the Digital Government Office in the President of Chile’s General Secretariat. He has coordinated digital government projects including pension reform and led the “Chile Sin Papeleo” initiative (Chile Without Paperwork) which digitalized 500 procedures and synchronized 40 government agencies (now interoperable). As the head of the Digital Office he created and implemented the public “One-Stop Multichannel” citizen centered service ChileAtiende, led the implementation of the new Transparency Law, the National Digital Identity “ClaveUnica”, and the first Open Government intiatives and platforms on Open Data and Citizen Engagement. From 2014 to 2018 he was a founding partner at Asimov Consultants, a firm assisting public agencies on digital transformation and the use of disruptive technologies.

At the start of 2018, Åsa Zetterberg was appointed Sweden’s first ever chief digital officer. She is responsible for implementing the country’s digitalisation strategy, which includes a range of issues from broadband access to cybersecurity. A particular focus for Zetterberg is exploring the potential of artificial intelligence to strengthen Sweden’s welfare system, along with improving the nation’s competitiveness. Appointed by the Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, she has previously led similar projects at a municipal level.

Casper Klynge is the world’s first ambassador for tech, representing Danish authorities in direct dialogue with the global tech industry. TechPlomacy is an acknowledgement of the key role that technology and digitalization plays and will increasing play in the future for individuals and societies alike. With his global and interdisciplinary team based in Silicon Valley, Copenhagen and Beijing, Casper Klynge works in new ways to build partnerships and engage directly with tech-giants, other governments, international organizations, and civil society to proactively address both the opportunities and risks of the fourth industrial revolution. Casper Klynge has previously spent nearly two decades working in foreign affairs for Denmark, the EU and NATO, and has served as ambassador to Indonesia and Cyprus and as Head of Mission for the EU in Kosovo.

Darja Isaksson is founder of the digital consultancy Ziggy Creative Colony, who have worked on Swedish social security services. In 2015 Isaksson joined Prime Minister Stefan Löfven’s National Innovation Council, which meets four times a year and has helped to build innovation partnerships with India and Germany. She sits on the boards of organisations including the Interactive Institute Swedish ICT and the Advisory Board for the National Co-ordinator of Life Sciences.

David Ferguson is the director and cofounder of the Center for Development Innovation at US Global Development Lab USAID. Under his leadership, the lab partnered with government and private organisations to source, test, and scale innovative development enterprises in over 60 countries. Its investment in programs supporting access to digital technology helped nearly 50 million people gain access to the internet. He previously served as the deputy director of USAID’s Office of Science and Technology, as well as vice president of professional services at AT&T.

Elizabeth Blandón Bermudez is director of digital government in the Colombian Information and Communication Technologies ministry. As a major proponent of the Open Data movement, Ms. Bermudez founded Columbia's Open Data contest, To the U, which encourages students and teachers to use data published by public entities to solve national problems. Bermudez has a long record of public service in national and regional government, across areas from ICT to risk and financial policy.

Jacqueline Poh is Deputy Secretary at the Singapore Prime Minister's Office Strategy Group. She previously served as founding chief executive of GovTech Singapore, the country’s digital transformation agency. At GovTech, Poh helped lead the digitisation of Singapore’s public services, which included the roll-out of the SingPass digital identity which allows citizens to quickly access online services across government and to the improvement Singapore's cybersecurity and ICT resilience.

Janne Viskari is director at the Population Register Centre of Finland, a key actor in the digitalization of the Finnish public sector, and is in charge of the implementation of the government’s National Architecture for Digital Services. This program has created a digital infrastructure platform, the Suomi.fi services, for both public and private use, which includes an e-ID service and digital post for public organizations. The Centre is now working on a pilot to incorporate the idea of consent into Finland’s public digital services.

Kevin Cunnington is the director general of UK's Government Digital Service (GDS), a central government body spearheading the digital transformation of other departments and deisgning new digital services for UK citizens. GDS has been credited with making the UK the world's leader in digital government, and has inspired similar units in the governments of the US, Australia and New Zealand. Prior to leading GDS, Cunnington was director of business transformation at the Department for Work and Pensions and head of online at Vodafone.

Kit Collingwood-Richardson is a co-founder of One Team Gov, a global movement to radically reform how the public service works. After stints in digital at the UK Ministry of Justice and and the Office of the Public Guardian, she is now deputy director of data for the flagship Universal Credit welfare reform program at the Department for Work and Pensions.

Lou Downe is the director of design and service standards for the UK government. They founded and spearheaded a £5million ($65million) program for people working in teams at the forefront of the government service design field. They also established an international forum dedicated to building and maintaining international government design standards. Previously, Downe was a producer at the Tate art galleries.

Luis Felipe Salin Monteiro is the new ICT secretary for the Government of Brazil. He previously worked at the planning ministry, where he led the modernisation department, leading on public sector innovation projects. While there, he emphasised the importance of system-wide change, rather than small fixes. From 2012-15 he was general coordinator of Information Technology in the Ministry of Communications.

A former director at tech giant Microsoft, María Inés Baqué was appointed Argentina’s Secretary of Public Management and Innovation in 2016. She brought to the role experience in major IT businesses — prior to Microsoft she worked at Electronic Data Systems, a subsidiary of Hewlett Packard. She champions women in leadership as a member of Vital Voices, a nonprofit supporting high-level women, and the Americas Society/Council of the America’s Women's Hemispheric Network.

Maria Roat is the Small Business Administration (SBA) Chief Information Officer where she is respinsible for the SBA's efforts to improve its onliene capabilities. As part of her role as the Federal CIO Council’s chair for innovation she’s leading on digital initatives such as developing an portal which allows federal employees to submit concepts they would like to test. Prior to this Maria served more than two years as the U.S. Department of Transportation's Chief Technology Officer, and for 10 years at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Marushka Chocobar Reyes is secretary of digital government for Peru. Appointed to the position early in 2018, she heads efforts to drive digital transformation across the Peruvian government. She has supported digital teams within Peru’s public service in the past, such as building a single web domain for government in just a few months where all government information is now published, and creating an online provisional driving license service.

Philip Thigo is the lead on data & innovation at the Office of the Deputy President in Kenya. He has previously served as executive director of Infonet Africa. Over the years, he has co-created unique technology initiatives such as Apps4Africa together with the US State Department and Uchaguzi, and initiative to help monitor elections. He currently serves as the point of contact for Open Government Partnership for Kenya.

Randall Brugeaud took up a new role as head of Australia’s Digital Transformation Agency at the start of July, a promotion from his previous position as chief operating officer at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. He has also served as chief information officer of what was formerly called the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. He is also a Senior Executive Fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School.

René Penning de Vries is Chairman of the Dutch Blockchain Coalition, a public-private partnership that wants to use blockchain technology to make a digital exchange system for government bodies, companies and citizens. Mr. de Vries has over 30 years experience working for tech companies in the private sector, including presiding as chief technology officer of NXP Semiconductors.

Roberta has been a director of LabHacker since December 2017. LabHacker operates within the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies and works promote the collaborative development of innovative citizenship projects. Roberta joined the Board in 1999, worked in the area of ​​Information Technology, where she worked on portal development, user experience, internal communication and people management.

Rocio Fonseca is head of innovation at the Chilean Economic Development agency (CORFO), a government platform that serves as a one-stop-shop for entrepreneurs, where she is responsible for accelerating public sector modernisation and digitisation through innovation. Until recently she worked as the executive director of Start-Up Chile during the period when the initiative established itself as the definitive innovation and entrepreneurial hub of Latin America.

Shai-lee Spigelman is CEO for Digital Israel. She leads the government’s national digital program and national strategy around digital education, digital health, economics in the digital age, smart cities and digital literacy. Prior to joining Digital Israel, Shai-lee held several roles at Microsoft Israel. In her last position, she served as VP of Marketing and Social Responsibility and a member of the board of directors of the Microsoft Research and Development Centre in Israel.

Yasmin Mahmood is CEO of the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), which works to develop the country's digital economy. Starting out as an analyst programmer in a local bank, Mahmood worked her way to senior positions at Hewlett Packard and Dell, before heading MDEC. An active advocate of women's empowerment in the workplace, she is also a mentor for Lean-in Malaysia.

Andrus Ansip is vice president of the European Commission and commissioner for the digital single market. He was previously communications minister and then prime minister of Estonia from 2005 to 2014 as the country became a world leader in digital government. He now oversees EU efforts to improve access to online products and services and grow the digital economy, including the abolition of mobile data roaming charges.

A New Zealand Labour MP since 2008, Clare Curran is minister for government digital services, as well as broadcasting minister. She previously lived in Australia working with unions, before running her own communications business, campaigning on environment and social justice issues in both New Zealand and Australia. Her portfolio of government digital services was created in 2017, with a focus on building New Zealand’s digital economy, addressing the digital divide and creating a more open digital government.

Janil Puthucheary is the minister-in-charge of GovTech and senior minister of state, ministry of communications and information for the government of Singapore. He is leading attempts to increase inclusion for all citizens, regardless of their technical literacy or expertise, across government services in Singapore. Closely involved in Singapore’s Smart Nation drive, he is working to increase interoperability between different services to help increase access for citizens.

John Delaney is founder and co-chair of the US Congressional AI caucus. A democratic party representative for Maryland’s sixth district, Delaney set up the AI caucus as a means to inform policymakers in the US government on the technological, social and economic impacts of artificial intelligence. It is designed as a forum for experts from different sectors to meet and ensure that AI innovation benefits Americans. Delaney has a background in business and is campaigning to run in the 2020 presidential election.

Kim Boo-kyum is the minister for the interior and safety for South Korea, and responsible for the management of the country’s administration and e-government initiatives. The latter saw South Korea ranked first in the UN’s e-government survey for three consecutive terms. Reforms include technology which allows citizens 24/7 access to services and the integration of IT systems across government.

Michael Keenan is Australia’s minister assisting the prime minister for digital transformation as well as the minister for human services. Under Keenan’s lead, the Australian Digital Transformation Agency developed a framework for a digital identity to safeguard online transactions between government and citizens, and also established a Digital Investment Management Office to advise ministers on information and communications technology investments.

Navdeep Bains is Canadian federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. He is responsible for Canada’s newly-launched National Digital and Data Consultations, canvassing industry and citizens about the impact of digital innovation on government and the economy. He launched Canada's Inclusive Innovation Agenda in 2016, establishing as a government priority the need to harness emerging technology to invigorate the Canadian economy.

Paula Forteza is a French politician and advocate for civic technology initiatives across government in France. She works to make digital affairs and citizen participation a priority in French political debate, and has released her agenda and schedule as open data. She has a background in technology and innovation policy, having previously worked at Etalab, the French Prime Minister’s taskforce for Open Data, Open Government and Data Science and on public innovation for the City of Buenos Aires.

Scott Brison is Canada’s first minister for digital government and president of the treasury board, which manages the Canadian public service. He championed the creation of the Canadian Digital Service and leads the Government of Canada Service Strategy, focused on digitisation and simplification of Canadian government. He recently gave a TedX Talk focused on the role of digital government in re-engaging citizens in the democratic process which can be viewed here.

Taavi Kotka is Estonia’s former chief information officer, known for leading its world renowned e-residency program. In 2014 he co-proposed the idea for 10 million e-residents by 2025 at an idea contest of the Estonian Development Foundation. Prior to his government work, he was CEO of Nortal (then Webmedia), one of the largest software development companies in the Baltic states. He is now a special advisor on digital single market issues and e-governance for the vice president of the European Commission.

Toomas Hendrik Ilves was president of Estonia from 2006 to 2016 where he was the pioneer of a number of radical digital ideas. During his presidency he served in several senior ICT positions in the European Union including chairman of the EU Task Force on eHealth and the European Cloud Partnership Steering Board. More recently, Toomas Hendrik Ilves has spoken and written extensively about e-government, cyber security and other topics relating to digital government. He is currently a visting felow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and co-chare of the WEF's Global Future Council on Blockchain.

Vasundhara Raje is Chief Minister of Rajasthan, the first woman to hold the post. In 2018 she was awarded Chief Minister of the Year at Skoch Summit for her work on e-governance. Rajasthan is India’s first state to implement an integrated and unified e-governance framework and architecture, known for leveraging technology and digital government. It launched the Bhamashah Card for cash subsidy transfers (given to the head woman in the household), and before Startup India was launched, Rajasthan announced its own ambitious Startup Policy in 2015.

Yogida Sawmynaden is Mauritius' Minister of Technology, Commmunication and Innovation, a position he took up in January 2017. Since then, he has played a leading role in launching the Indian Ocean Exchange submarine cable system project, a new open access path which will connect the island to South Africa and India. Sawmynaden has also overseen the country's open data portal, which has begun to release government datasets.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak has served as state minister for ICT in Bangladesh since 2014, and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2016. He is the youngest member of the country’s cabinet. He oversaw a win for his department at the 2017 Mobile Government Awards, where it took first prize for its National Mobile Application Awareness Development and Capacity Building Program.

Eric Garcetti is the Mayor of Los Angeles, California. Under his tenure, LA was named the US' #1 digital city by the Center for Digital Government for two consecutive years. The city received the award for projects including the LA CyberLab, a public-private partnership to combat cybercrime, and OurCycleLA, a project helping to bridge the digital divide for some of the city's most underprivileged residents. The city is also experimenting extensively with chatbots in an effort to better engage residents and improve services.

Kristen Titus is the chief technology and innovation officer at New York State and former founding executive director of Girls Who Code, a leading advocate of gender parity in the technology sector. She leads the New York City government’s $10 million commitment to support tech sector growth, and her policy work has served as a template for President Obama’s TechHire and CSforAll initiatives, which now operate in more than 50 cities.

Liora Shechter has spearheaded Tel Aviv's digital transformation, focusing on connecting the muncipality to its citizens. Her work as CIO has included creating the award-winning e-government app DIGI-TEL, which provides residents with location-specific services and information. The platform has almost 200,000 registered users, which is over 60% of the eligible population.In 2014, the annual Smart City Expo dubbed Tel Aviv the "world's smartest city," naming it above 250 other cities.

Samir Saini is CIO and IT commissioner for the City of New York. He previously served as CIO of the city of Atlanta, where he centralised the city’s data onto a secure and reliable cloud system and rolled out Smart Cities initiatives. The SmartATL program partnered with academic and City Leadership partners to use big Data and internet of things sensors on city streets, improving public safety, mobility, and the city’s operational efficiency. Prior to his work in the public sector, Saini served as VP for Corporate Systems for MGM Mirage and the General Electric Company.

Theo Blackwell is London’s first chief digital officer. He plays a leading role in mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan to make London the world’s smartest city, and helped to develop the new Smart London Plan, a vision to transform the city’s services for the digital age. Blackwell was formerly a cabinet member at Camden council, helping it to become London’s leading digital borough through its use of public data. He has also worked at GovTech accelerator Public and at Ukie, the video games industry’s trade body.

Alan Brown is a professor of entrepreneurship and Innovation and executive director of the Surrey Centre for the Digital Economy (CoDE) in the Surrey Business School at the University of Surrey, UK, where he investigates emerging patterns in the digital economy. Much of his current work focuses on developing insights aimed at accelerating digital change in the private and public sectors. His 2014 book Digitizing Government has been praised by digital government experts all over the world.

Debra Lam is the managing director of smart cities and inclusive innovation for Georgia Tech. She received national attention for her role as chief of innovation and performance at the City of Pittsburgh, where she sponsored research in urban development and fast-tracking innovations to city operations via innovative partnerships with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. This collaboration became MetroLab network, a group of more than 30 city-university partnerships that bring data, analytics, and innovation to city government.

Hans Jochen Scholl is a professor at the Information School at the University of Washington, where he specialises in smart governance and government and disaster information management. He founded and presently chairs the Digital Government Track at the prestigous Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, and he supervises the maintenance and publication of the E-Government Reference Library (EGRL). Dr. Scholl was chosen by Oxford Bibliographies to write the encyclopedia's entry on "E-Government." Before entering academia, he held technical and managerial positions at ICT industry firms including Apple, Data General (now EMC) and ITT.

Helen Margetts is Professor of Society and the Internet at the University of Oxford, where she was Director of the Oxford Internet Institute from 2011-8. She is a Turing Fellow and Director of the Public Policy Programme at the Alan Turing Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. She has published over 100 books, articles and policy reports on digital government and politics, including Political Turbulence (2015), which won the W.J.Mackenzie best politics book prize in 2017. She sits on the government’s Digital Economy Council and the Home Office Scientific Advisory Council and is founding editor of the journal Policy and Internet.

Jane E. Fountain is Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and founder and Director of the National Center for Digital Government and the Science, Technology and Society Initiative at the same University. Her book, Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change, was awarded an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice and has been translated into 3 languages. Fountain serves on the Massachusetts Governor’s Council on Innovation. She previously served as Chair of the World Economic Forum Global Advisory Council on the Future of Government.

J. Ramon Gil-Garcia is an expert in government IT, and directs research at the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany. A prolific author in digital government research, he has also taught in Mexico City, and is a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. Gil-Garcia's work covers issues from collaborative electronic government to the adoption of emergent technologies and digital divide policies.

Maria Wimmer is professor for e-government and chair of the e-government research group at the Institute for Information Systems at University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany. Her research focuses on e-government and e-democracy / e-participation, systems analysis and systems design. She co-organises a series of international conferences on e-government and has published more than 150 papers on the topic. From 2004 to 2005, she worked in the ICT operative unit of Austria’s Federal Chancellery in Vienna.

A professor of ICT and governance, Marijn Janssen is head of ICT in TU Delft's Technology, Policy and Management faculty. With a focus on public-private service networks, Janssen also edits a number of academic journals including Government Information Quarterly. Having published over 320 refereed publications, Janssen has been recognised as one of the leading e-government researchers in the world.

Maya Wiley is a distinguished lawyer, academic and founder and co-director of the Digital Equity Lab, a project nested in the New School which seeks to tackle the “structural inequities that persist and evolve as technology transforms our cultural, social and political systems”. Wiley served as a council to New York City mayor Bill de Blasio from 2014 to 2016 and advocated for multi-million pound investment in bringing internet access to public housing projects and phone boxes in an effort to bridge the digital divide.

M Jae Moon is the underwood distinguished professor of public administration at Yonsei University. He has published extensive research on public service reform, including the adoption of e-governance across different branches of the public service. In addition to his academic work he has worked on various training and projects for international organisations such as the Asian Development Bank.

Stefaan Verhulst is co-founder and chief research and development officer at New York University’s GovLab, an innovation lab seeking to improve people’s lives by transforming governance through data, technology and crowdsourcing. Verhulst also advises the Markle Foundation and Global Partners Digital, in addition to holding senior research positions at NYU and the Central European University.

Theresa Pardo is the director of the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the University of Albany and one of the most cited scholars in the world in her field. The CTG conducts applied research and problem-solving projects on issues relating to policy, management, and technology in the governments worldwide. Pardo also serves advises New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo as part of Open New York.

Toshio Obi is a professor at the Institute of Digital Government at Waseda University and director of the APEC e-Government Research Center. During his distinguished career he has held senior positions on a as a member of various advisory committees of the Japanese Government including the National e-Government Promotion Council, the Prime Minister’s IT Strategy Council, the International Academy of CIOs and the UNESCO/UNITWIN Program on Disaster Management. He has published more than 40 books, including The Aging Society and ICT and annual World e-Government Rankings. He has received the MIC Minister’s Award (twice) and an Emperor Blue Ribbon Medal.

Yannis Charalabidis is an associate professor at the University of the Aegean, specialising in government transformation, e-participation, e-government and e-governance. He is also director of the university’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit and is head of the Information Systems Laboratory, coordinating policy making, research and pilot application projects for governments and enterprises worldwide. He has published more than 200 papers in international journals and conferences and won three ‘best paper’ awards at the International IFIP e-government Conference.

Antti Pennanen is the CEO and Founder of MONI, a Finnish start-up. In 2015, the Finnish government partnered with the company to launch a pilot digital financial services programme enabling refugees to receive money and pay bills without opening a bank account. Prior to this Antti created a number of animation studios and has sat on the board of IT companies.

Diego Molano Vega is a consultant advising governments and businesses on major digital transformation projects. From 2010 to 2015 he was Colombia’s minister for information and communication technologies. His “Plan Vive Digital”, which won Colombia several international awards for its commitment to digital government, included projects expanding fibre-optic transmission to remote communities, bringing computers into public schools and subsidising internet access for poor households.

Juan Pablo Escobar Luque is the co-founder of Cívica Digital, where he is currently the CEO. In 2013, Luque co-created Codeando México, a community which develops technology to solve public problems. Two years later, he co-founded Cívica Digital, which develops mobile and web applications to strengthen civic participation. Based in Mexico City, their products can be used around the world.

Julia Glidden is general manager in the global government industry department of IBM Corporation. She is an internationally-renowned pioneer in the field of digital government, and an expert advisor on Open Data to the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and the European Commission. She founded 21c, a London-based innovation consultancy which advised governments across the globe on technology disruption, and election.com, which ran the world's first legally binding online political election.

Lars Frelle-Petersen is the digital director at for Danish Industry, a trade body, where he manages the digitisation policy unit. He was previously director-general of the Danish Agency for Digitalisation, where he worked on the NemID system used by millions Danes to interact with government, banks and other services. He worked in government for more than 16 years, including as head of digitalisation in the finance ministry.

Linet Kwamboka is the Founder and CEO of DataScience LTD, a data insights company, and an open data and open government activist. She has helped to coordinate the Open Kenyan Initiative, a project designed to open government data to the public in reusable formats and to Open Government Partnerships initiatives in Kenya. Previously a Software Engineer with Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University, Kwamboka taught her many of her data analysis and visualisation skills.

MarÍa Isabel MejÍa Jaramillo is executive director at Info Projects, a digital consultancy based in Bogotá. Before moving to the private sector, she helped make Colombia one of the leading Latin American countries in digital government, spending four years leading the online government strategy and four years as Vice-Minister of Information Technologies and Communications.

Mike Bracken is a partner at Public Digital, a consultancy working with governments and large organisations around the world, advising them on adapting to the digital era. From 2011-15 he held a range of positions in the British government including chief data officer and director of digital. He was a co-founder of the UK’s Government Digital Service. Other work has included helping to set up mysociety.org, which educates the public about digital and social rights.

Barbara Ubaldi is a senior project manager at the OECD, leading the organisation’s work on Open Government Data (OGD), Social Media and Digital Government. The OGD project works to improve impact measurement of government open data projects. Ubaldi has championed a set of principles of digital innovators in national government including transparency, international co-operation, the development of solid frameworks and securing political commitment.

Nuria Simo Vila is the Chief Information Officer and General Manager at the Department of Information Technology of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). In this position she is driving the digital transformation of the IADB in order to help the bank accomplish its development challenges. Before joining the IADB, Nuria held CIO positions at several global operations such as FrieslandCampina in the Netherlands, EADS in Germany, and Cargill in Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Stefan Schweinfest first joined the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) in 1989 and now serves as its director. UNSD is the statistical heart of the United Nations, collating and standardising data, developing capacity across member states and coordinating a range of international statistical programs. He is also officer-in-charge at the UN's Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government, assisting and advising government across the world on digital transformation and innovative public administration.

Tiago C. Peixoto is senior public sector specialist at the World Bank Group, where he leads the Bank’s Digital Engagement Evaluation Team. He’s published several papers on the intersection of technology and government, including a much-cited meta-analysis of various governments’ usage of information and communication technologies platforms to project citizen voices and improve public service deliveries. Before joining the World Bank, Piexoto was an advisor for the OECD and the UN, and research director of the Electronic Democracy Centre at the University of Zurich.

Alex Howard is founder of government technology blog e-PluribusUnum.org, a top resource for open government and press freedom communities across the world. Previously, he was the Deputy Director of Sunlight Foundation, a US-based nonprofit that uses civic technologies, open data, policy analysis, and journalism to increase government accountability. In this position, he helped enact reforms of the Freedom of Information Act, draft the Honest Ads Act, which would increase transparency of online political advertising, and advocate for democratic principles to be encoded into digital government platforms, services and policies.

Andrew Rasiej is the founder of Civic Hall, a New York City community center that pioneers technology for public interest, and co-founder of Civic Hall Labs, Civic Hall’s research and development arm. In 2004, Rasiej co-founded the Personal Democracy Forum, the world’s largest conference that focuses on the intersections of technology, politics, and government. He is also the founder of MOUSE.org, a youth development nonprofit that provides students in New York City public schools and across the the world with technology education.

Eddie Copeland is director of government innovation at Nesta, a global innovation foundation based in the UK. His remit includes digital democracy, city data analytics and behavioural insights. Prior to joining Nesta, he was head of teachnology at Policy Exchange, a think tank, and worked as a researcher in the UK parliament. He wrote a book on working for a think tank and currently advises the Mayor of London as a member of the Smart London Board.

Hamzat Lawal is an open data activist and the co-founder and CEO of Connected Development (CODE), a non-government organization which uses digital technologies to increase government accountability. With mobile and web platforms CODE provides citizens in countries across Africa with information on government activity and economic development in their local area. He is co-founder of Follow the Money, which measures and tracks service delivery in rural communities in Nigeria.

James Anderson leads Government Innovation at Bloomberg Philanthropies, which promotes local leadership, data-driven management, and innovative solutions in government in more than 250 cities across the globe. Anderson’s programming includes What Works Cities, an initiative to support mayors and local leader leaders make data-driven policy choices, the Mayors Challenge, an ideas competition that encourages cities to uncover inventive solutions to urgent problems, Innovation Teams in 20 cities, and the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. Previously, he served as director of communication for the City of New York’s Mayor’s Office for four years.

Jeni Tennison is the CEO of the Open Data Institute. The ODI provides analysis and research into the ethical issues behind the adoption of new technologies and their impact on government and society. As the public face of the organisation Tennison regularly comments on how organisations in the public and private sector should govern the use of data. Before joining the ODI, Jeni was the technical architect and lead developer for legislation.gov.uk where she helped engineer new standards for publishing statistics as linked data.

Justin Arenstein is the founder of Code for Africa, an open-data initiative for countries across the continent. An award winning journalist and media strategist, Arenstein set-up Code for Africa to drive improvement in the availability and quality of government information in African countries. Code for Africa also provides fellowships and skills training for pioneers in civil society and government, and supports the development of tools to increase access to data.

Nnenna Nwakanma is the interim policy director for the World Wide Web Foundation (WWW) where shen advocates for open data, open government and the open web across Africa. She works to drive forward the Africa Data Consensus, the Africa Open Data Network, the Africa Open Data Conference and the African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms. She represents the Web Foundation at a number of international fora, including the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data. She has over 15 years of experience working with the United Nations Systems on subjects such as the information society, gender and data digital equality.

Pia Mancini is the co-founder of Democracy Earth, a non-profit that builds platforms for decentralized and incorruptible online governance, and Open Collective, a collaborative and transparant fundraising platform. After serving as the chief advisor for political affairs for the City of Buenos Aires, Mancini co-founded Democracy OS, an open-sourced mobile app that breaks down complex policies for voters. She also co-founded a political party centred around the principles of digital governance, Partido de La Red (The Net Party), which received 1% of Buenos Aire's votes in the city's 2013 congressional elections.

Tom Steinberg is the digital transformation lead at the Big Lottery Fund, a distributor of funding from Britain’s National Lottery. Previously, he founded and directed mySociety, an international nonprofit which builds and popularises digital tools that give citizens power over institutions and decision makers. Under Steinberg's leadership, mySociety ran popular British social and political accountability websites including WhatDoTheyKnow.com and FixMyStreet.com. He's advised a range of private and government institutions across a spectrum of political ideologies, including Code For America. He sat on the UK government’s Public Sector Transparency Board for two years.