Who we are

The European Summer School on Internet Governance is organized by Medienstadt Leipzig e.V. a German non for profit organisation and recognized “At Large Structure” (ALS) under ICANN Bylaws. DENIC (.de) was crucial in launching EuroSSIG in 2007 and is the Golden Sponsor.

Members of the faculty are outstanding international experts from the world leading universities and experienced manages from the Internet community who are active in WSIS, WGIG, IGF and ICANN.

People behind programme and organisation

Wolfgang Kleinwächter, Medienstadt Leipzig e. V.
Wolfgang Kleinwächter

The EuroSSIG faculty is chaired by Wolfgang Kleinwächter, Professor Emeritus for Internet Policy and Regulation at the Department for Media and Information Studies, University of Aarhus.

Previous academic teaching includes University of Tampere, School of International Services, American University, Washington, D.C, Halle University, University of Moscow, University of Oerebro and Heilbronn Business School. He is active in the field of transborder data flow and Internet Governance since the 1980s and a former member of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance. read more…

 

Sandra Hoferichter, Medienstadt Leipzig e. V.
Sandra Hoferichter

The organisation of the EuroSSIG lies with Sandra Hoferichter, Chair of Medienstadt Leipzig e.V.

She acts also the Secretary General of the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG), the European IGF. In 2020 she was elected as Chair of the Board of Directors of EURid – the registry for the .eu domain. From 2010 – 2016 Sandra served as European representatives to ICANN’s At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC). Later on she represented the ALAC at ICANN’s Nominating Committee (NomCom) from 2016 – 2018. Sandra’s contributions, both to the ICANN community and the efforts within the IGF fora, are dedicated to facilitate a collaboration ground for different stakeholder groups and to develop participation processes that are public, inclusive and transparent.

Sandra holds a degree in Architecture from the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK) and worked as a single entrepreneur architect from 1997 – 2011. How she moved from Architecture to Internet Governance you can find out at hoferichter.eu 

 

Ayesha Hassan, AH Consulting
Ayesha Hassan

Ayesha Hassan is leading the creation of the EuroSSIG’s alumni network, with Sandra and Carsten, and has been a regular faculty member at the EuroSSIG since its creation.

She is a Strategic stakeholder relationship builder who helps companies and organizations to improve and reach their engagement objectives in an effective, smart and connected way. Ayesha is passionate about initiatives focused on women and youth, family, and eco-friendly approaches. She is a member of the Advisory Board of Markup, a company focused on improving accountability and transparency in legislative and policy development processes, a member of the Board of the World Computer Exchange (WCE) and a consultant. Ms. Hassan was Vice President Stakeholder Relations and Partnerships at the Internet Society (ISOC) and former Senior Policy Manager for the Digital Economy, Executive in charge of ICT policy at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Secretariat, Paris. She managed ICC’s Commission on the Digital Economy, ICC’s initiative, Business Action to Support the Information Society (BASIS) and the Coordinating Committee of Business Interlocutors (CCBI), a vehicle mobilizing and coordinating the involvement of the worldwide business community in the process leading to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Summits of 2003 and 2005. In 2004 Ms. Hassan accepted the UN Secretary General’s invitation to participate in his Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). She also served on the UN Secretary General’s Task Force on Financial Mechanisms, and on the multistakeholder advisory group (MAG) for the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) from 2006 to 2013. She represented ICC at international and regional events including the G8 Dot Force and the UN ICT Task Force, OECD, WTO, ITU Telecoms and the EU Commission.

Ms. Hassan is an experienced lawyer, and has a background in dispute resolution, international policy, and e-commerce issues. She is former head of online dispute resolution services at SquareTrade. Ms. Hassan obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago in Political Science, law degree from the University of San Diego, and a masters degree in International Policy Studies from Stanford University. She is fluent in both English and French.

 

Carsten Schiefner
Carsten Schiefner

Carsten is supporting EuroSSIG in many ways, but you will remember him as the one ringing the bell.

Carsten Schiefner works at the intersection of Internet Infrastructure’s policy, technology, economy and security for 25 years, be it e.g. registries, registrars, Internet exchange points or data centers. Amongst various other projects and duties, Carsten served on the Executive Board of DENIC, the Registry for the Top Level Domain .de; he worked at the RIPE NCC, the Regional Internet Registry for Europe and the Middle East, and in the Registrar and Local Internet Registry department of Deutsche Telekom. He also did business development and policy work for e.g. ECIX, an Internet exchange point operator, and Carrier Colo, a Berlin base data center operator. Carsten is deeply rooted in the various Internet Governance communities, like the technical and business community or civil society.

 

Rainer is responsible for all technical matters at EuroSSIG, such as the website, mailing lists, and remote participation and taking pictures.

Rainer Rodewald runs a small advertising agency he co-founded in 1991 in Leipzig. He is member of the board of Medienstadt Leipzig e. V., a not for profit organisation active in the field of Internet governance. He cares about privacy.

Find out more about the organisers in the video interview.