Who we are
We join forces from across Europe to help reimagine politics.
Our board and staff work together across Europe to support a community of changemakers working to reimagine politics.
The team
Kitty von Bertele
Deputy Director
Kitty von Bertele
Deputy Director
Kitty was previously Principal for Western Europe at Luminate, where she spent nearly five years sourcing and managing grants in the UK, Germany and France and supporting efforts to improve the environment for work on independent media, civic empowerment and data and digital rights. Before joining Luminate, Kitty worked for the Open Government Partnership and for the British government as a civil servant for eight years.
The board
Seyi Akiwowo
Board Member
Seyi Akiwowo
Board Member
Seyi Akiwowo is a multi-award-winning founder and leading global expert at the intersection of technology, democracy, and human rights. As the founder of Glitch, she built one of Europe’s most influential nonprofits tackling online harms, digital citizenship education, and digital threats to democracy. A former elected politician, Seyi made history at 23 as the youngest Black woman to serve as a councillor in East London, where she shaped policy and advocated for systemic change. Her career-defining contributions include shaping the UK’s Online Safety Act 2023, a landmark regulatory framework for social media companies that now mandates an intersectional, risk-based approach to gender-based violence and integrates digital citizenship education. She has also played a key role in shaping UN Human Rights frameworks and has advised major platforms such as TikTok and Twitter as part of their European Trust and Safety Councils. Additionally, she serves on Yoti’s Guardian Council, contributing to ethical digital identity solutions. A seasoned international facilitator and strategic advisor, Seyi has been recognised as a Knight Fellow at the George Washington Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics, a WIRED Magazine Changemaker, and an Amnesty International Human Rights Defender. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed How to Stay Safe Online (Penguin, 2022)—a practical toolkit and blueprint for systemic change in digital spaces. Her thought leadership has been featured in the BBC, New York Times, The Guardian, and The Telegraph.
Paul Alarcón
Co-founder & Board Member
Paul Alarcón
Co-founder & Board Member
Paul is the Secretary General of the Daniel Sachs Foundation. He is an entrepreneur recognised as one of Sweden’s most influential leaders in social sustainability and brings senior leadership experience from business, nonprofits and the public sector. He is a co-founder of several nonprofits and impact-driven startups. Paul served as the first ever Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Stockholm between 2015-2019 and was elected as an Obama Leader in 2023.
Daniel Sachs
Co-founder & Board Member
Daniel Sachs
Co-founder & Board Member
Daniel is a Swedish business leader deeply committed to the idea of the open and democratic society and a founder of numerous organisations aimed at revitalising democracy. He is the founder and CEO of P Capital Partners, a leading corporate lender and strategic financial partner to entrepreneurial and family-owned companies in Northern Europe. Daniel is vice chair of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and chair of the OSF Investment Committee. He is a member of the Panel of senior advisers of the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House and a Council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Gauri Van Gulik
Co-founder & Board Member
Gauri Van Gulik
Co-founder & Board Member
Gauri is a human rights professional who currently works at Luminate as a senior adviser to Luminate Strategic Initiatives on management, strategy, and impact and previously led Luminate’s grants and investments in Western Europe. She brings 20 years of hands-on experience in human rights, research, international law, strategic communication, women’s rights, European civil society, and refugee rights, which has led her to build Multitudes. She was previously Europe Director at Amnesty International, and worked globally on women’s rights at Human Rights Watch. Gauri started her career in Brussels where she worked in the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee and at Marie Stopes International, where she ran the European Parliament Working Group on Reproductive Health. She is Dutch and lives in Berlin.
The Grantmaking Council
Ouassima Laabich
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Ouassima Laabich
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Ouassima Laabich, project lead at Superrr Lab, where she initiated and leads the project “Muslim Futures”, and research associate and fellow at Yale University. She is mainly concerned with empowerment and action strategies of young Muslims affected by racism and their self-organisations
Iva Čukić
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Iva Čukić
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Iva Čukić, co-founder and lead of the collective Ministry of Space, which aims to contribute to the democratic and just development of cities. She is a member of the advisory board of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Vienna, the board of the Guerrilla Foundation and the boards of the Trag Foundation and the Jelena Šantić Foundation (Serbia).
Mar Garcia Sanz
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Mar Garcia Sanz
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Mar Garcia Sanz, Spanish politician and political scientist. She served as the Secretary General of the European Green Party (EGP) between 2014 and 2022 and is currently the director of the European Center for Digital Action.
Priscillia Ludosky
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Priscillia Ludosky
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Priscillia Ludosky, co-founder of The Social and Environmental Struggles Coalition and a member of the collective that initiated the Citizens’ Climate Convention. In 2018, she launched a petition that opened a public debate on social inequalities and gave rise to the Yellow Vests movement in France.
Joseph Langner
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Joseph Langner
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Joseph Langner, Co-Managing Director at JoinPolitics, non-partisan, non-profit incubator for political talents. He serves as a Project Advisor to YoungUP!, a 9-month program for young BIPoC entering politics, and to the 2hearts Community, a European migrant-network for aspiring entrepreneurs
Nika Kovač
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Nika Kovač
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Nika Kovač, founding director of the 8th of March Research Institute, a movement-building organization that uses storytelling and advocacy to confront gender and economic inequalities across Slovenia. She was a member of the 2020 class of the Obama Foundation Leaders program in Europe and Obama Foundation Scholars Program at Columbia University.
The local connectors
Marija Jakovljević
Local connector for Eastern Balkans
Marija Jakovljević
Local connector for Eastern Balkans
Marija is Serbian feminist with 15+ years of grassroots and organizational engagement connecting, human and environmental rights, peacebuilding, social and solidarity economy, and progressive philanthropy. During her studies of Sociology, she joined students’ and workers movements, dealing with the economic and social consequences of neoliberal transformation. She connects theory and practice, systemic analysis with lived experiences of diverse bodies and identities. Marija was Program Coordinator of the Reconstruction Women’s Fund and has been active in a range of local, regional and global initiatives in various roles. She is a panelist advisor for the Global Resilience Fund for girls and young women, member of the Torchlight Collective, and Social Change Innitiative alumna. Marija is interested in building reparative, regenerative, non-extractive, just and caring ecosystem of European pluriverse, with special focus on former socialist and Yugoslav countries.
Nick Antipov
Local connector for Belarus & Ukraine
Nick Antipov
Local connector for Belarus & Ukraine
Nick Antipov is an impassioned human rights advocate, LGBTQ+ defender, and civic activist with a focus on promoting equality across Belarus and other regions since 2006. Expert in tackling issues related to gender, LGBTQ+ rights, and societal discrimination against sensitive groups, he has co-founded multiple antidiscrimination projects to empower vulnurable communities. Among these initiatives is ICanHelp.Host, a solidarity platform committed to providing free accommodation to Ukrainian refugees in Europe. Nick is a graduate of The Obama Foundation’s European Leaders Programme in 2020, and a frequent speaker on issues related to human rights and democracy.
Amiirah Salleh-Hoddin
Local connector for Scandinavia
Amiirah Salleh-Hoddin
Local connector for Scandinavia
Amiirah is the Co-Founder and Chairperson of the Anti-Racist Forum (ARF) in Finland and the former Vice-Chair of the Board of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR). She is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, focusing on racial equality data development in Finland and the production of knowledge by racialised minorities in socio-political processes. In 2018, the Finnish Church Aid’s Teachers Without Borders Network awarded her the Global Educator of the Year. She was selected to be part of the inaugural cohort of the Obama Foundation’s European Leaders Program in 2020 and is a Senior Fellow in Humanity In Action’s 21/22 Landecker Democracy Fellowship Program. Her passion rests in equipping people with the knowledge and tools to be more inclusive and anti-racist in order to address social inequalities. She believes social justice comes from the lifelong processes of learning/unlearning, reflecting, and being accountable to our communities.
Sebene Eshete
Local connector for Southern Europe
Sebene Eshete
Local connector for Southern Europe
Sebene is a human rights advocate, a policy analyst and researcher. She is active in Greece where she has worked with various NGOs on migrant rights, civic participation and anti-racism. She is a Senior Landecker Democracy Fellow (Humanity in Action & Alfred Landecker Foundation 2021-2022). She has launched ourstories.gr, an oral history archive focused on migration history in Greece.
Richárd Damu
Local connector for Hungary
Richárd Damu
Local connector for Hungary
Richárd Damu is the leader of a community based organization, he initiated in 1998. He launched many community groups in Debrecen, from an online radio station to a community service group for homeless people. He has been coordinating capacity building programs in the region for civic organizations and informal groups lately. He has been in a position of a mentor as well, so he could share his knowledge and community focus with other initiatives.
Ergi Bregasi
Local connector for Western Balkans
Ergi Bregasi
Local connector for Western Balkans
Ergi is a climate and energy justice campaigner from Albania. He is actively involved in the environmental and climate movement since 2018, engaged at Western Balkan and European levels. His expertise pertains to youth participation, movement-building, energy and climate justice. In 2019 till 2022, he has been part of Youth and Environment Europe covering different domains of the network, such as network coordination and campaign lead on EU taxonomy issues. Ergi has designed and managed several initiatives intended to empower youth climate grassroots activism, improve energy policies, develop advocacy capacities of environemntal and climate organisations. He provides services and consultancies about strategic communication, youth-led advocacy, intersecitonality, etc. He is author and co-author of several studies and tools on energy issues, climate grassroots movements, etc.