WHO WE ARE
MEET THE ACCESS INFO TEAM, OUR EXECUTIVE BOARD AND THE INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
Meet the Access Info Europe Team!
The Access Info Europe team consists of our board, staff, consultants, interns, and volunteers. The core team is based in the office in central Madrid, although some consultants are based elsewhere. We get out and about a lot, implementing projects across the wider Europe region – check out our events – and you can also track us down on social media. Don’t hesitate to contact us, and we hope to meet you sometime soon!
Helen Darbishire is a human rights activist specialising in the right of access to information (freedom of information) and the development of open and democratic societies with participatory and accountable governments.
Helen established Access Info in Madrid in 2006, with the goal of promoting the right to information across Europe and globally.
Helen started her career as a campaigner at Article 19 (1989 to 1998) based in London and Paris. She then worked with the Open Society Foundations (1999-2005), based first in Budapest and then in New York, directing global programmes on freedom of expression and freedom of information.
Helen has provided expertise to a wide range of non-governmental and inter-governmental organisations, including UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and the World Bank. She currently serves or has served on the boards of a number of CSOs, including Fundación Civio (founding board, Spain), DATA (Uruguay), Diritto di Sapere (Italy, of which she is a founder), and the Request Initiative (UK). She is a founder of the global Freedom of Information Advocates Network and served two terms as its chair (2004-2010).
Helen is a member of the Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership, and is Chair of the UNCAC Coalition, a global network of civil society organisations working to combat corruption.
Helen holds a degree in Philosophy of Science and Psychology from Durham University, United Kingdom.
Resident in Madrid, she speaks English, French and Spanish.
Juan Sobrino is Finance and Accounting Manager at Access Info.
Juan has a degree in Business Science and Tourism, as well as having studied Technical and Higher Accounting at the Centro de Estudios Financieros in Madrid.
In 2003, he founded the consultancy Numéritas to offer accounting services to a wide range of companies, associations and professionals. Numéritas has advised Access Info Europe on accounting, tax and labour matters since the foundation of the organization in 2006.
Previously, Juan worked as an accountant for Trisa Asesores. Between 1994 and 2001 he organized adventure trips with the company Viajes Sanga.
Juan speaks Spanish and some English.
Patricia is a lawyer with a Master’s Degree in Governance and Human Rights from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She also holds a degree in Public Accounting with a specialization in Commercial Law. She is currently a Legal Researcher and Campaigner at Access Info Europe, where she participates in projects on the right of access to information across the EU, with a special focus on Spain.
Prior to moving to Spain, Patricia worked in organizations dedicated to the protection of victims of government violence in Venezuela. Her commitment to the defence of human rights led her to work as a volunteer for organisations such as Doctor Yaso (Venezuela), which runs children’s activities in hospitals, and Cesal (Spain), which teaches Spanish to young people in Africa.
Patricia speaks Spanish and English.
Rachel joined the Access Info team as Legal Researcher and Campaigner in July 2019.
Rachel has a degree in Civil and Common Law with Spanish studies from Queen’s University of Belfast (2015), and a master in International Human Rights Law, specializing in the rights of unaccompanied foreign minors.
Rachel has both national and international experience in human rights. In Belfast, she has worked with two local NGOs, promoting refugee rights and countering human trafficking. In 2017, she interned at the Executive Office of the UN Secretary General in New York, where she worked in the Sustainable Development Unit focusing on the nationalization of Sustainable Development Goals.
Rachel speaks English and Spanish.
Marta joined Access Info as Research Assistant in September 2019.
She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the Rey Juan Carlos University.
Marta was a volunteer in Access Info back in 2013. Afterwards, she spent her final year of studies as Erasmus student at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands.
In 2015, Marta moved to Brussels where she worked in communications at different international organisations such as the United Nations Capital Development Fund and the European Microfinance Network. She was also communications intern for the German MEP Julia Reda at the European Parliament.
Marta speaks Spanish, English and French.
Greta is a research intern with interests in EU transparency, freedom of information, digital policy, and journalism.
Greta is a recent graduate from the master’s program in investigative journalism at the University of Gothenburg, where she researched and published articles on EU lobbying. She also has a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Political Science, Economics and Sociology from Trinity College Dublin. She has previously interned with Twitter’s Trust & Safety team in Dublin, and with Chilean environmental advocacy organsation Ecoceanos.
Greta speaks English, Spanish and Swedish.
Anna is an intern with interests in human rights, refugee law and international relations. Anna has a bachelors in History and Hispanic Culture and Languages from the University of Kent. (2020) Anna recently graduated from the University of Kent with a Masters in International Law with International Relations (2021) specialising in the complexities of international and refugee law with a focus on the island of Cyprus. Anna has volunteered for other NGO’s including ASVO Costa Rica and After Exploitation based in England.
Anna speaks English and Spanish and has basic knowledge of Greek and German.
Maximilian will be an intern at Access Info Europe until June. He studied History and Literature at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and is hoping to pursue a Masters in Digital Humanities in September. Maximilian has interned at media organisations, for example the German news website netzpolitik.org in Summer 2019. Starting from this internship, he has worked as a freelance journalist with focus on labour topics and digital politics, especially outside of the EU and US.
Maximilian speaks German, English and soon a better Spanish.
Anja is a Legal Research Intern with interests in freedom of information and transparency, the protection of children’s digital rights and disaster management in the EU. She is currently pursuing her law studies with a focus on international law and human rights and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Vienna. She was hosted as a speaker at the Fundamental Rights Forum 2021 to inform participants about the human right freedom of information. As a volunteer firefighter for over six years, she engages in regional state disaster management and crisis response in Austria.
Anja speaks German, English and Italian and has a basic knowledge of French and Spanish.
The Executive Board
Access Info Europe’s governance body is the Executive Board (“Junta Directiva”) which is elected by the Assembly General. Access Info Europe members are those directly associated with the organisation (we currently have ten members plus five honorary members). The functions of the Executive Board are set out in the statutes and are essentially oversight of all operations of the Association. The President and the Vice President have the legal power to represent the Association; the Vice President also acts as the Executive Director and assumes day-to-day responsibility, reporting regularly to the other Board members.
Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet Professor of Law at HEC Paris, Global Clinical Professor at New York University School of Law
President
Originally from Italy, Alberto is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the College of Europe and holds a PhD in International Law & Economics from Bocconi University.
Prior to entering the academic world full-time, he worked at the European Court of Justice and obtained his law degree in New York. Alberto was named Young Global Leader 2015 by the World Economic Forum. He lives in Bilbao, Spain.
Helen Darbishire, Right to Information Activist and Founder of Access Info Europe
Vice President and Executive Director
Helen is a member of the Open Government Partnership Global Steering Committee and the Advisory Board of the International Open Data Charter.
Helen started her career as an activist and project manager at Article 19 (1989-1998), based in London and Paris. Afterwards, for the Open Society Institute (1999-2005), she directed programmes on freedom of expression and freedom of information in Budapest and New York. Helen has advised organizations such as UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the World Bank. She is founder and former president (2004-2010) of the Global Network of Freedom of Information Defenders.
Helen holds a degree in Philosophy of Science and Psychology from Durham University, United Kingdom. Resident in Madrid, she speaks English, French and Spanish.
Carlos Cordero Sanz, Director of Sustentia, expert in corporate justice, development, transparency and human rights, and a founder of Access Info Europe
Secretary
Carlos conducts research on corporate social responsibility, in particular an annual report on Spanish companies listed on the IBEX 35, and has worked on projects to monitor access to information, such as the study “Transparency and Silence”. Carlos actively collaborates with several Spanish civil society organisations, including Amnesty International and Oxfam, and is president of the Association of Professionals for the Quality of Development Aid (ACADE), and a member of the Control Committee of the Fair Trade Label in Spain (FLO), as well as the Commission for the Code of Conduct of the Spanish Platform for NGO Coordination for Development (CONGDE).
Graduate in Economics and Business Studies (Universidad Complutense) and Executive MBA (Instituto de Empresa), Carlos is an expert in development projects for the Universidad Abierta de España (UNED), as well as lecturer in several postgraduate courses all over Spain.
Carlos lives in Madrid and speaks Spanish and English.
Christian Mihr, Journalist, international media policy expert and human rights professional, Director of RSF Germany
Treasurer
His current work at RSF requires him to pay attention to the whole world, but he has a special interest in Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Russia. Before joining RSF Germany, he worked for a long time as an editor and freelance for several print and online media in Germany and Ecuador, and as a journalist trainer for a German foundation in southern Russia. He studied journalism with a specialization in Latin American Studies and Political Science at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and the University of Santiago de Chile.
The International Advisory Board
Access Info’s International Advisory Board provides strategic advice, guidance and moral support, helping the team shape projects so that they have the maximum possible positive impact on transaprency in law and practice.
Paivi Leino-Sandberg
Adjunct Professor of EU Law, University of Helsinki
Chair of the International Advisory Board and Liaison with the Executive Board
She has participated in several legislative dossiers, including the Lisbon Treaty, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, the PNR agreements and Regulation 1049/2001 on public access to documents. She publishes and lectures frequently in her areas of expertise, both in Finland and abroad, and has recently written on Europe’s economic crisis, the relationship between public access to documents and democracy, fundamental rights, external relations and good governance in the EU.
In 2011-2012 she has also acted as an expert to the European Parliament on issues related to good administration in the EU.
David Goldberg
Academic and right to information activist
Deputy-Chair of the International Advisory Board
David is Associate Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School (Los Angeles) and Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Computer and Communications Law at the Centre for the Study of Business Law, Queen Mary, University of London. From 2007 to 2013, he was Associate Researcher at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at Oxford University.
In 2011, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of the Arts etc (FRSA) and obtained a PhD by ‘prior publication’ (Glasgow Caledonian University).
Ana Petruševa
Managing Editor (Balkan Insight), Country Director Macedonia
As editor-in-chief of Balkan Insight, BIRN’s largest online platform, she manages a large group of Balkan journalists and their news production, analysis and research reports for the region’s leading English-language news site.
Ana manages the web content and works on designing special theme pages and articles on the BalkanInsight website. She also develops and implements several training and publishing projects, and commissions and supervises research, while overseeing the production of BIRN, Belgrade Insight and Prishtina Insight newspapers.
As director of BIRN Macedonia, she manages the editorial team of BIRN Macedonia and its website Prizma, organizes training courses and debates involving journalists from all over the country, and secures funding for the organization.
Prior to joining BIRN, Ana was the director of Macedonia for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, IWPR. She previously worked as a journalist for several media in Macedonia and abroad, including Reuters, Deutsche Welle, Telma TV and the daily Dnevnik.
Ana was the associate producer of the IWPR documentary “Ohrid and Beyond,” and co-authored and produced the BIRN Kosovo documentary “Does Anyone Have a Plan? Ana graduated from the Skopje School of Journalism at the Faculty of Law of the University of Santos Cyril and Methodius.
Kevin Dunion
Honorary Professor and Director of the Centre for Freedom of Information, University of Dundee
From the dismantling office he has provided international consultancy on the implementation of FOI laws (and in particular the role of the Commissioner) for a number of clients, most recently working on projects in Brazil, Croatia and the Republic of Georgia. He is one of three international experts appointed to the World Bank’s Access to Information Appeals Board.
Prior to this, he worked with environmental and international development NGOs, with a particular focus on environmental justice. He lives in a fishing village on the east coast of Scotland.
Staffan Dahllöf
Freelance reporter
Since 1994, Staffan has participated in courses on journalism in the EU organized by the Swedish Institute for the Further Education of Journalists (FOJO), the Danish School of Media and Journalism and the European Centre of Journalists (EJC) in Maastricht. In this sense, he has lectured on the EU and EU reporting in the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia and, for a couple of years, Turkey.
Staffan is involved in a couple of teams of cross-border journalists such as the farmsubsidy.org network and the MEPs project, and co-edits the website Wobbing.eu on journalism and FOI legislation.
Zuzana Wienk
Founder and program director of Fair-Play Alliance
Prior to founding Fair-Play Alliance in 2002, she worked as a reporter and columnist in several opinion media. She was a member of a self-regulatory body for print media ethics, the Press Board, a member of several juries and is one of the most quoted Slovak political analysts.
Wienk is the author of a number of innovative concepts aimed at fighting corruption, for example, a voluntary web dissemination project containing detailed statements by the Slovak Prime Minister, former Speaker of Parliament, members of the Government and parliamentarians. She also developed the philosophy of a respected Prize for public interest fighters (the White Raven) that not only celebrates such individuals but offers them help and support and creates a community of reformers.
Wienk is often a member of government working groups devoted to anti-corruption and transparency legislation and her expertise in party financing, election campaigns, conflicts of interest, access to public information and the judiciary is often used by universities, media, foreign delegations and international institutions during her visits to Slovakia.
Fabrizio Scrollini
President of DATA Uruguay
He is also President of DATA Uruguay, a civil association based in Uruguay building civic technology to promote human development, co-founder of Abrelatam and the Regional Open Data Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, and participates as a Lead Steward in the International Open Data Charter.
Scrollini has also worked with governments, national regulatory bodies and civil society at the international and regional levels on transparency, access to public information and public sector reform.
Gavin Sheridan
Investigative journalist and co-founder of TheStory.ie
He formerly served as Director of Innovation for the social news agency Storyful. He also lectures and trains journalists in accessing information and discovering and verifying eyewitness content.
TheStory.ie is a pro bono site dedicated to open data and access to information. It is behind several successful information appeals, including the “Trichet Letters” and an Irish Supreme Court case involving Ireland’s bad bank, NAMA. Vizlegal is a global computerised legal platform of case law, statutes and rulings.
Julia Keseru
Global Matchbox Lead, The Engine Room
Coming from the Hungarian transparency community, she has been an activist for open government and open data issues, with a special focus on political finance and corruption.
Julia has given international conferences on technology and transparency and writes regularly about the challenges and potential of the global open governance movement.
Julia directs the Matchbox program, supporting partners for positive change and building a network of experts and instigators of social change.
Coalitions, Networks and Organisations We Work With
Cover photo: Paul Gagnon via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)