Dr. Tuula Helander has have many years of experience in various fields and positions in the vast area of health care - from the academic research, hospital diagnostics and patient care, and management to steering and legislation. At the moment, Helander is the Director of the Biotechnology and Medicines Unit at the Dept. of Safety, Security and Health, at the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The unit handles issues pertaining to: pharmaceutical services, data protection, acquisition of vaccines, biotechnology and gene technology, medical research, medical devices etc. She is the EU Member State representative and co-chair with the EU Commission for the Declaration “Towards access to at least 1 million sequenced genomes in the EU”, and MS representative at the Sub-group on Cancer (Mission on Cancer; Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan). Previously she was Senior Adviser in Permanent Secretary’s Cabinet at the Ministry, responsibilities mostly related to Health Sector Growth Strategy and Personalized Medicine. She made her PhD thesis at the Dept. of Pathology at the University of Helsinki, and the main results were published in Nature (Helander et al. 1996) and was awarded by National Medix Prize. She has been Director of Southern Cancer Center at the Helsinki University Hospital, Development Manager at the Helsinki University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Geneticist at the Helsinki University Women's Hospital (at the Prenatal Diagnostic unit, and the Reproductive Medicine Unit). In addition, she was the  Secretary General of Finnish Cancer Institute for over 20 years.

Minister of Social Security Sanni Grahn-Laasonen is responsible for matters covered by the Department for Insurance and Social Security, the Department for Work and Gender Equality and the Department for Safety, Security and Health. Grahn-Laasonen is also responsible for social assistance matters within the Department for Clients and Services in Healthcare and Social Welfare. 

Sanni Grahn-Laasonen, born on 4 May 1983 in Forssa, has served as a Member of Parliament since 2011 and as a minister in three governments. She served as Minister of Education in 2017–2019, as Minister of Education and Culture in 2015–2017 and as Minister of the Environment in 2014–2015.

Grahn-Laasonen holds a Master’s degree in Social Sciences. During her political career, she has also served as deputy party leader of the National Coalition Party and held numerous positions of trust, such as the chair of the County Council of the Kanta-Häme Wellbeing Services County and the chair of the board of the New Children’s Hospital Foundation. Grahn-Laasonen is a member of Forssa City Council. 

Prior to her election to Parliament, Grahn-Laasonen worked as a journalist, Stockholm correspondent and news editor as well as Press Attaché to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. 

She lives with her husband and two children. In her free time, Grahn-Laasonen enjoys many kinds of cultural activities and outdoor pursuits, and she likes to read and visit second-hand shops.

During his 30 years' career in the Council of Europe, Denis Huber held numerous positions and responsibilities. Between 2006 and 2012, he was posted to Belgrade (as Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe) and then to Lisbon (as Director of the North-South Centre), before returning to Headquarters in Strasbourg. Since July 2018, he has been the Executive Secretary of the Council of Europe's International Cooperation Group on Drugs and Addiction (Pompidou Group). His responsibilities have been extended from January 2022, with the supervision of the Council of Europe's cooperation activities in the fields of police and detention. Since January 2025, he has been head of the Department on Health of the Council of Europe.

Denis Huber is the author of the book "A decade which made History" (Council of Europe Publishing, 1999) and the editor (and co-author) of the collective publication "Europe, a human enterprise"  (Council of Europe Publishing, 2019).

Dr. Tuomas Pöysti is the outgoing Chancellor of Justice of the Government of Finland. Before, he worked as Under-Secretary of State for Governance Policy and Digitalization, Under-Secretary of State for the Social and Health Services reform, as President of the Supreme Audit Institution, as Government Controller General and as chair and member of the Supervisory Committee of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). Dr. Pöysti has an active portfolio of research in the field of administrative law, digitalization and legal informatics covering issues such as AI, digital administration and digital service. ecosystems.

Dr Niemi was appointed Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health of Finland 2022. 
He has made a long and remarkable career at the Finnish government in several leading positions at the Ministeries of Social Affairs and Health and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. He has also worked as a national expert at the European Commission.
Dr Niemi graduated from the College of Veterinary Medicine (Helsinki Univ.) and holds the Degree of Specialised Veterinarian in Food and Environmental Hygiene.

Ass. Prof. JUDr. Tomáš Doležal, Ph.D., LL.M., is a leading legal scholar in medical and civil law. He is Head of the Department of Civil Law and Head of the Research Unit for Medical Law and Bioethics at the Institute of State and Law, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and lecturer at the Institute of Medical Law and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine. He is a Bureau member of the Council of Europe Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health (CDBIO) and Head of the Czech Unit of UNESCO International Network in Bioethics. He collaborates with the Association of General Practitioners, especially during public consultations on medical legislation.

He is the author of many publications, including the monographs The Doctor-Patient Relationship in Private Law, Protection of patients' rights, and Causation the Civil Law.

Marco Marsella is Director for “Digital, EU4Health and Health systems modernisation” at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE). 

Previously, Mr Marsella was Head of Unit for "eHealth, Well-Being, Ageing" and Deputy Director for "Digital Society, Trust & Cybersecurity" at the European Commission's Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT). 

Notable initiatives that he had a leading role in include the EU COVID Certificate, contact tracing apps, and research and innovation endeavours related to digital innovations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, he supervised the 1 Million Genomes Initiative and the European Cancer Images Initiative.

Prior to his current position, Mr Marsella has held various other roles within the European Commission, including Head of Unit for "Learning, Multilingualism, Accessibility" responsible for the Web Accessibility Directive, for digital language technologies, and Safer Internet for Children.
 

Katarina, a graduate in public policy, economics, and management of governmental and international organisations, began her career at Unisanté, the University Center for General Medicine and Public Health, before joining Siemens Healthineers as a Strategy and Policy Analyst. Since 2023, she has been working at the OECD as a Health Research Officer. In this role, she contributes to the advancement of the OECD’s Recommendation on Health Data Governance (2016) and supports the development of digital health policies aimed at fostering a fully integrated digital health ecosystem through enhanced data management.

She also leads work on digital health indicators and explores the impact of artificial intelligence on the health workforce.

Aleksi Yrttiaho began as the Deputy Director General of Digitalisation and Information Management at the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in early 2024. He has extensive experience from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), where he held leadership and expert positions, particularly in the area of national governance of health and social care information management and statistical and registry operations.

David Novillo Ortiz works as unit head and regional adviser at the World Health Organization, coordinating the digital health flagship initiative and the data, metrics and analytics portfolio. Prior to joining WHO/Europe, he served as coordinator of the eHealth programme at the Pan American Health Organization from 2010-2018. Furthermore, David served from 2006 to 2010 as a Technical Officer for the Ministry of Health of Spain, where he was appointed Executive Advisor to the Minister.

David obtained his Masters and Ph.D. in Information Sciences from the University Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M). He also received a Masters in Public Health from the University of Bordeaux and the Public University of Navarre. He serves pro bono as an Adjunct Professor on biomedical informatics at the University of Utah.

Pauliina (Lina) Nykänen-Rettaroli is the Senior Technical Lead and Unit Head on Human Rights at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. She leads WHO’s work on health-related human rights which includes supporting countries to integrate human rights into health systems, programmes and policies, to increase social participation in health decision-making and to use international human rights mechanisms to advance health related rights. 

Ivana Bartoletti is the Global Data Privacy and AI Governance Officer at Wipro, the leading international information technology, consulting, and business process services company. She is an internationally recognised thought leader in the fields of privacy, data protection and responsible technology.

In February 2023, Ivana was appointed as the inaugural visiting cybersecurity and privacy executive fellow at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business, where she collaborates closely with Pamplin faculty and Ph.D. students on privacy, data protection and new technologies.

Ivana is co-editor of "The AI Book," a handbook for investors, entrepreneurs, and fintech visionaries, and is author of "An Artificial Revolution, on Power, Politics and AI." Bartoletti is founder of the influential Women Leading in AI network that brings together female thinkers, scientists, academics, businesswomen, and politicians to influence the future of artificial intelligence on a global scale.

From 2020 to 2022, Bartoletti was visiting policy fellow at the University of Oxford, where she focused on furthering global sharing of information through the context of privacy, security, data protection, and human rights.

Sarah is Professor of Medical and Family Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. She is Dean of Molecular, Genetic and Population Health Sciences, Edinburgh Medical School, and the University lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

Sarah’s research focusses on the social and ethical contexts of medical technologies, data science, engagement, health, and disease. She is co-director of the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society, supported by Wellcome, which conducts interdisciplinary research across the humanities and social sciences relevant to biomedicine, public health, and health care.

Sarah has a long-standing interest in public engagement with research and its role in governance. Over recent years this has involved using dialogue and deliberation to engage publics in discussing the social and ethical issues in data-intensive health research. She was a co-lead on the UKRI-funded UK Pandemic Ethics Accelerator ‘Public values, transparency, and governance’ workstream.

Sarah will succeed Dave Archard who has Chaired the NCOB since 2017. Sarah is formally appointed to the five-year role as Chair by the NCOB’s funders: the Nuffield Foundation, the Medical Research Council which is part of UKRI, and Wellcome. The selection panel was Chaired by Sir Keith Burnett, Chair of the Nuffield Foundation.

Aleksi Pajunen is an M.D. and a lecturer in Medical Ethics at the University of Helsinki Medical School. 

His curriculum focuses on everyday patient care challenges and the complexities that may hinder the provision of optimal care. His pragmatic approach involves examining how values influence decision-making and the critical evaluation of both our scientific understanding and thought processes.

He is currently pursuing a PhD with an emphasis on euthanasia, investigating the diverse arguments that support different viewpoints on the topic. In addition to his academic pursuits, Aleksi practices medicine to maintain a connection with the grassroots level of healthcare. He is also a well-regarded speaker, recognized for his ability to effectively popularize topics within his fields of expertise.

Milana Trucl works as a Senior Policy Officer at the European Patients’ Forum, where she develops and guides the policy and advocacy work in the area of digital health and chairs EPF’s Digital Health Working Group. Her goal is to ensure that the patient perspective is integrated into EU policies, initiatives and projects on digital health and artificial intelligence in healthcare, and to shed light on the importance of patient engagement, health literacy and equitable access to digital services and solutions. Additionally, Milana coordinates EPF’s Data Saves Lives initiative, which aims to raise wider patient and public awareness about the importance of health data, and develops educational materials for patients and citizens. 

Zinnya del Villar is Director of Data, Technology and Innovation at Data-Pop Alliance, where she leads research on the ethical and inclusive use of AI and non-traditional data for human development. Her work bridges data science, AI governance, and social justice, with a focus on gender and decolonial perspectives. She has collaborated with UN agencies and development institutions across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East, and was recognized among the “Brilliant Women in AI Ethics.”
 

Dr. Kristine Sørensen is a highly-cited, award-winning, global thought leader in the field of health literacy. As an executive advisor she empowers leaders to improve health literacy by design. She works with governments, industry, academia and civic society to develop health literacy for all. Kristine Sørensen is the Founder of the Global Health Literacy Academy, chair of Health Literacy Europe and the first president of International Health Literacy Association. 

With a background in law (Master of Law, YSU) and an eMBA in Healthcare management (YSMU), Izabel Abgaryan has over two decades of legal expertise, including 12 years in leadership roles at Armenia’s Ministry of Health. as a Head of the Law Department and at Yerevan State Medical University as adviser to the Rector. She serves as a legal expert for number of national and international projects and had her visible contribution in Armenian healthcare legislation and policies on medical ethics, public health, universal health insurance, medicines, mental health and organ transplantation.

Izabel Abgaryan now is a Chair of the Medical Ethics Committee of Armenia, which holds significant responsibilities in overseeing and advancing ethical standards in healthcare, promoting ethics among medical professionals and raising public awareness about patient rights and ethical healthcare practices.

Ass. Prof. JUDr. Tomáš Doležal, Ph.D., LL.M., is a leading legal scholar in medical and civil law. He is Head of the Department of Civil Law and Head of the Research Unit for Medical Law and Bioethics at the Institute of State and Law, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and lecturer at the Institute of Medical Law and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine. He is a Bureau member of the Council of Europe Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health (CDBIO) and Head of the Czech Unit of UNESCO International Network in Bioethics. He collaborates with the Association of General Practitioners, especially during public consultations on medical legislation.

He is the author of many publications, including the monographs The Doctor-Patient Relationship in Private Law, Protection of patients' rights, and Causation the Civil Law.

A healthcare docent and specialist Enni Sanmark leads a research group at the University of Helsinki that studies major transformative factors in healthcare, the latest being artificial intelligence. Currently, she heads the GenAID consortium, a joint project between the University of Helsinki and eight companies, which explores the potential applications of artificial intelligence in healthcare. Additionally, she supervises several doctoral dissertations and theses on artificial intelligence.

Erza is a researcher and consultant in the health and social domain. She studied digital health systems in the UK and is currently doing her PhD studies in Germany with a focus on digital and robotic interventions in health. She is engaged in several international projects in health research and development with different organizations, including DTH- Lab. Her research interests revolve around the health and social science fields, digital technologies that improve health/social well-being, social prescribing and user-centred design. She is also the lead organizer of Pristina Innovate Healthcare, the first hackathon focusing on Digital Health and AI in the Western Balkans.

Ildikó Vajda holds a PhD in neurophysiology and has worked for more than eight years in the field of fundamental scientific research. She then transitioned to applied research, where she modeled biological knowledge to be reasoned with by AI agents. Since 2011, she has been collaborating with patient organizations, healthcare professionals, and IT experts to make healthcare more patient-centric, especially in the digital era. 

Since 2020, she has been working at the umbrella organization of patient organizations, the Dutch Patients’ Federation. There, she focuses on topics related to AI, secondary use of data, and ethics—all in relation to digital health from both national and European health policy perspectives. Her expertise lies at the intersection of digital health innovations, co-creation methods, AI ethics, and health policy. 

Ildikó has contributed to the development of the Dutch Integral Care Agreement and participates in various steering committees and advisory boards on privacy, ethics, and AI. She is the chair of the Societal Advisory Board of the Health Data Access Body currently being established in the Netherlands.

Saila Rinne is the Head of Unit “eHealth, Well-Being and Ageing” at the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) of the European Commission. Her unit deals with EU policies and investments that foster innovative digital technologies and capacities in healthcare and wellbeing. These include genomics and medical imaging data infrastructures, virtual human twins and Artificial Intelligence solutions for prevention, diagnostics and care. Ms Rinne has had a long career of over 25 years at the Commission. She has previously worked on data policy and innovation projects in DG CONNECT and as a translator and terminologist in DG Translation.

Işıl Selen DENEMEÇ is an attorney and lecturer in intellectual property and technology law. She graduated from Bilkent University Faculty of Law, and holds two master’s degrees from UC Berkeley and Trinity College Dublin. She is the Head of the Legal Department at the Digital Transformation Office of the Presidency of Türkiye and takes part as Head of Delegation and Bureau Member in Council of Europe Committee on AI (CAI), which drafted the first global legally binding instrument on artificial intelligence.

Maria do Céu Patrão Neves is Professor of Ethics, President of the National Ethics Council for Life Sciences, Vice-President of the European Group of Ethics in Science and New Technologies, Member of the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST), of UNESCO, of the Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health (CDBIO), of the Council of Europe, and of the Academy of Sciences. She is also an Ethics Expert and Project Evaluator for the European Commission, and has published 38 books (authored and edited), authored more than two hundred articles in national and foreign journals and in collective works. She was an advisor to the President of the Republic and a Member of the European Parliament.

Virpi Koivu is a Senior Ministerial Adviser at the Ministry of Justice of Finland, Department for democracy and public law. She is an expert on human rights and data protection law and works with legislation on data protection and credit information as well as with international cooperation in the field of data protection law. She is a member of the Committee of Convention 108 (T-PD) since 2019 and a T-PD Bureau member since November 2023.

Krista Oinonen is the Director of the Unit for Human Rights Courts and Conventions at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Agent of the Government before the European Court of Human Rights. She is the Chairperson of the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) and its Bureau and has chaired drafting groups under the CDDH. She has served in the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations (UN) Office in Geneva in 2008-2011 and worked at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2004-2007. She has received her Master's degree in Law from the University of Lapland in 1998 and joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in 1999. 

Mindy Nunez Duffourc is an Assistant Professor of Law at Maastricht University. Her research examines governance of emerging technologies, with a focus on artificial intelligence for health. As an experienced legal practitioner, she also works to bridge the gap between legal practice and academia through cross-disciplinary research and industry collaborations with healthcare organizations, physicians, and computer scientists. Prior to joining Maastricht University, she received her juris doctor degree from the University of North Carolina (2008), her PhD from the University of Passau (2023), and was a member of the NYU law faculty (2021-2023).

Dr. Janne Aaltonen works as the CEO of Finnish Medical Association. He has MD and MBA degrees. After acquiring specialty in anesthesiology Janne worked with clinical information systems in both intensive care and operating room. Then he managed several R&D projects before his management and leadership roles in both public and private sector. See more https://aaltonen.vip.

Michael Krauthammer is a professor of medical informatics at the University Hospital Zurich and the University of Zurich. He received his M.D. at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. After clinical work in internal medicine and surgery, he obtained a Ph.D. in biomedical informatics at Columbia University in New York. Michael Krauthammer maintained a computational lab at Yale University School of Medicine between 2004 and 2018, before moving back to Zurich in 2018.

Assoc. Prof. Ondřej Volný, MD, PhD, FESO serves as the Deputy Head of the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital Ostrava and as Vice-Dean for Science and Research at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ostrava. He is also the Chairman of the Czech Society for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovative Technologies in Medicine of the Czech Medical Association of J.E. Purkynje. Dr. Volný has gained international experience in clinical research in the fields of neurology and neuroradiology and is a graduate of the prestigious stroke fellowship program (2018 to 2019) at the Calgary Stroke Program, University of Calgary.

Katarina, a graduate in public policy, economics, and management of governmental and international organisations, began her career at Unisanté, the University Center for General Medicine and Public Health, before joining Siemens Healthineers as a Strategy and Policy Analyst. Since 2023, she has been working at the OECD as a Health Research Officer. In this role, she contributes to the advancement of the OECD’s Recommendation on Health Data Governance (2016) and supports the development of digital health policies aimed at fostering a fully integrated digital health ecosystem through enhanced data management. She also leads work on digital health indicators and explores the impact of artificial intelligence on the health workforce.

Joni Komulainen has been a social affairs and healthcare and eHealth lawyer for almost 25 years working for the Department of Social and Healthcare in the city of Helsinki, the Finnish Institute for health and welfare (THL) and since 2018 as a senior ministerial adviser in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland. Mr. Komulainen has been involved in EU level eHealth legal law work and Finnish laws including The Act on the secondary use of social and health data, The new Act on the processing of social and healthcare data and the data protection part on the large scale social and healthcare reform.

Joni Komulainen has been the delegate in negotiated the European Health data space regulation in the Council working party, The Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence in the CAI committee and was the chair of the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health (CDBIO) drafting group that drafted the report on impact of AI on the patient-doctor relationship.

Andreas is the Director of Operations of the Cyprus Federation of Patients’ Associations (CyFPA), an EPF member whose mission is to ensure that patients in Cyprus have access to holistic, patient-centered, equitable and social healthcare.

As an expert patient advocate and a patient himself, Andreas has been actively involved in the fight to control cancer through the promotion of prevention and early detection of cancer in the general public and the improvement of quality of life of all cancer patients and their relatives. He strongly advocates of the need for a Holistic Patient Care and for a Universal Healthcare Coverage.

Andreas has served as the President of EPF’s (European Patients Forum) Youth Group from 2017-2019 and currently he serves as an advisor/patient expert and as the main representative of the Cypriot Federation of Patients’ associations. He has been elected as a Board Member in EPF’s Board of Directors in the Annual General Meeting which was held in late April 2023.

Since January 2023, he is part of the Expert Scientific Peer committee for the European Network of Youth Cancer Survivors under the EU-CAYAS-NET - co-funded by the European Commission project.

On National level, Andreas has served as a Board Member of the Cyprus Federation of Patients’ Associations (CyFPA) since early 2017 and from 2020 he was the Treasurer of the Executive Board until January 2023. He was appointed by the Council of Ministers to serve as a Member at the Board of Directors of the Cyprus’ National eHealth Authority (NeHA), which is the national body of Digital Health in Cyprus and the county’s national health contact point, as the patients’ representative from (2019-2024). In November 2024 he has been re-elected as the Vice President of NeHA for the period of 2024-2029.”

From late 2020 he serves as a Board and founding member of EUPATI Cyprus, a non-profit foundation that provides education and training to increase the capacity and capability of patients and patient representatives to understand and meaningfully contribute to medicines research and development (R&D). He has also finished the EUPATI Patient Expert Training Programme 2022-2023 and has been graduated as a EUPATI Fellow (6th Cohort).
Previous experience includes working for the Cyprus Association of Cancer Patients and Friends (PASYKAF) from September 2015 until January 2023. PASYKAF is a cancer patient organization, which provides help, support and free professional health care services, including palliative care, bereavement and rehabilitation, to more than 7000 cancer patients and their relatives every year. In addition, he actively participated and coordinated two EU HORIZON 2020 projects as a member of PASYKAF.

His field of expertise is patient advocacy, Digital Health, Innovation solutions, ICT and administrative support. He holds a Bachelor and Master degree in Computer Science.

Visa Honkanen’s current affiliation is the Chief Client Officer at HUS. HUS provides specialty level healthcare for the Helsinki metropolitan area and Uusimaa county with a catchment area of 1,7 million people. As a member of the HUS management team, Honkanen is responsible on the collaboration between the specialty level health care and primary care.

Honkanen’s previous work focused on digitalization, ehealth, and artificial intelligence development for the clinical use. He leads the national ehealth initiative “Virtual hospital 2.0”. This is a joint venture of all the five University Hospitals in Finland to develop ehealth services, e-health research and advanced health care analytics. Honkanen was the head of CleverHealthNetwork. This is an ecosystem focusing on developing data-based healthcare products together with the private companies. Before joining HUS, he worked in the Pharma Industry on the international level, as the medical and regulatory director for 10 European countries and as the country CEO for Finland.

Honkanen’s background is in pediatrics and pediatric rheumatology. He did his pediatric rheumatology training at the Hospital for Sick Children, in Toronto, Canada.

Honkanen’s PhD is on the pediatric rheumatology, and his research interest has been in clinical studies and experimental statistics

Marco Marsella is Director for “Digital, EU4Health and Health systems modernisation” at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE). 

Previously, Mr Marsella was Head of Unit for "eHealth, Well-Being, Ageing" and Deputy Director for "Digital Society, Trust & Cybersecurity" at the European Commission's Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT). 

Notable initiatives that he had a leading role in include the EU COVID Certificate, contact tracing apps, and research and innovation endeavours related to digital innovations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, he supervised the 1 Million Genomes Initiative and the European Cancer Images Initiative.

Prior to his current position, Mr Marsella has held various other roles within the European Commission, including Head of Unit for "Learning, Multilingualism, Accessibility" responsible for the Web Accessibility Directive, for digital language technologies, and Safer Internet for Children.

Tanja Muotka is a legal expert specialised in data protection within the healthcare sector. She currently works at the Finnish Data Protection Authority. Recently Tanja has increasingly focused on the intersection of artificial intelligence and data protection. She has also focused on the role of data protection authority in supervising AI systems.

Yehor Yahmurov is a legal expert specializing in personal data protection and artificial intelligence. He is the author of several academic papers, including «Topical Issues of Personal Data Protection of Victims of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence» and «Formation of Local Budgets in the Context of Decentralization of Financial Resources», among others.

Since 2021, Yehor has been working at the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights. In his professional activities, he has experience conducting monitoring visits within the framework of the National Preventive Mechanism, inspections of public authorities regarding the right of access to information, the right to petition, and physical accessibility of buildings. He also exercises oversight in the field of personal data protection, handles citizens’ complaints, conducts inspections, and promotes international cooperation in the aforementioned areas.

Currently, he serves as the Acting Head of the Sector for the Implementation of International Standards in the Field of Information Rights at the Department for Monitoring the Observance of Information Rights of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

Maria do Céu Patrão Neves is Professor of Ethics, President of the National Ethics Council for Life Sciences, Vice-President of the European Group of Ethics in Science and New Technologies, Member of the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST), of UNESCO, of the Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health (CDBIO), of the Council of Europe, and of the Academy of Sciences. She is also an Ethics Expert and Project Evaluator for the European Commission, and has published 38 books (authored and edited), authored more than two hundred articles in national and foreign journals and in collective works. She was an advisor to the President of the Republic and a Member of the European Parliament.

During his 30 years' career in the Council of Europe, Denis Huber held numerous positions and responsibilities. Between 2006 and 2012, he was posted to Belgrade (as Special Representative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe) and then to Lisbon (as Director of the North-South Centre), before returning to Headquarters in Strasbourg. Since July 2018, he has been the Executive Secretary of the Council of Europe's International Cooperation Group on Drugs and Addiction (Pompidou Group). His responsibilities have been extended from January 2022, with the supervision of the Council of Europe's cooperation activities in the fields of police and detention. Since January 2025, he has been head of the Department on Health of the Council of Europe.

Denis Huber is the author of the book "A decade which made History" (Council of Europe Publishing, 1999) and the editor (and co-author) of the collective publication "Europe, a human enterprise"  (Council of Europe Publishing, 2019).

Dr. Tuula Helander has have many years of experience in various fields and positions in the vast area of health care - from the academic research, hospital diagnostics and patient care, and management to steering and legislation. At the moment, Helander is the Director of the Biotechnology and Medicines Unit at the Dept. of Safety, Security and Health, at the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The unit handles issues pertaining to: pharmaceutical services, data protection, acquisition of vaccines, biotechnology and gene technology, medical research, medical devices etc. She is the EU Member State representative and co-chair with the EU Commission for the Declaration “Towards access to at least 1 million sequenced genomes in the EU”, and MS representative at the Sub-group on Cancer (Mission on Cancer; Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan). Previously she was Senior Adviser in Permanent Secretary’s Cabinet at the Ministry, responsibilities mostly related to Health Sector Growth Strategy and Personalized Medicine. She made her PhD thesis at the Dept. of Pathology at the University of Helsinki, and the main results were published in Nature (Helander et al. 1996) and was awarded by National Medix Prize. She has been Director of Southern Cancer Center at the Helsinki University Hospital, Development Manager at the Helsinki University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Geneticist at the Helsinki University Women's Hospital (at the Prenatal Diagnostic unit, and the Reproductive Medicine Unit). In addition, she was the Secretary General of Finnish Cancer Institute for over 20 years.