Our Board
The Digital Freedom Fund has a Board with seven independent members.
Audrey Gaughran
Audrey is an expert on corporate accountability. She began her career as a journalist in her native Ireland, later using her journalistic skills to carry out investigations into human rights, environmental and economic issues for the UN and non-governmental organizations in Europe, Africa and Asia. She worked with Amnesty International for 17 years, where she led the Global Issues and Research programmes at the International Secretariat. In 2021, she joined Amsterdam-based Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (known by its Dutch acronym, SOMO) as its executive director. Audrey tweets at @AudreyGaughran
Jiefan Hsu
Jiefan Hsu is an independent finance consultant based in Amsterdam. She mainly works for pension funds and financial institutions in The Netherlands and the Caribbean. Jiefan is also a board member of the Volksuniversiteit Amsterdam and advisory board member of the Aruba Growth Fund.
Björn van Roozendaal
Björn is a civil society leader and philanthropic professional with extensive experience in advocacy, strategy development, resource mobilisation, grantmaking and capacity building. He is currently team manager with Open Society Foundations in Berlin and was previously the Programmes Director of ILGA-Europe (the European LGBTI umbrella organisation, from 2012-2022). Björn was also previously involved with advancing LGBTI rights at the United Nations and within European youth activism, and has various other volunteering roles
Rupert Skilbeck
Rupert Skilbeck is specialised in human rights law and international criminal law and has directed strategic litigation around the world. He is the Director of Redress, a UK-based organisation dedicated to ending torture and seeking justice for survivors worldwide, and previously was the Litigation Director at the Open Society Justice Initiative. Rupert tweets at @RupertSkilbeck
Karmen Turk
Karmen Turk is a litigation attorney and partner at the Pan-Baltic TRINITI Law Firm, based in Estonia. Karmen has expertise in AI regulations, human rights, intellectual property and media law. She co-ordinates the Dynamic Coalition of Freedom of Expression and Media on the Internet of the UN Internet Governance Forum. Karmen tweets at @turkkarmen
Joan Monique Steijns (Monique)
Joan Monique Steijns is a human rights and technology expert, senior research fellow at the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), and is engaged with NJCM, the Dutch Section of International Commision of Jurists. She stepped down as chair to focus on (CONNECTME@) Human Rights & Technology Community, dedicated to fighting against the use of harmful AI technologies. Monique's expertise is also drawn from her law studies at the University of Amsterdam, where she specialised in Information Law at the Institute for Information Law (IVIR). She has also worked as a legal and policy advisor on human rights at the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and was an expert member of the Council of Europe's Steering Committee for Human Rights. Monique is deeply committed to human rights and data-driven technology.