Renata Avila Pinto

Renata Avila is a lawyer, author and digital rights and technology expert. She is currently the CEO of the Open Knowledge Foundation, a global non-profit organisation that promotes the idea of open knowledge and works to advance the sharing and use of knowledge in ways that are transparent, inclusive, and beneficial to society,  including open data, open access to research, open education, and open government. The organization was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Cambridge, UK. Before that role, she co-led besides the Web inventor Sir Tim Berners Lee, a global campaign to uphold human rights in the digital era in up to 70 jurisdictions. She also worked as a legal advisor on high-profile digital freedom of expression cases, representing, among others, Julian Assange and Wikileaks.  Previously, she work in strategic litigation and extradition, representing Nobel Peace Prize Rigoberta Menchu Tum and other indigenous victims of genocide in Guatemala. 

She brings more than fifteen years of experience in sustainable development,  digital transformation and policymaking. She was a 2020 Stanford Race and Technology Fellow at the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity in partnership with the Stanford Institute of Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. She holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Intellectual Property from the University of Turin, a Diploma of International Law from the Hague Academy of International Law and a J.D. from Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala. 

She is a co-founder of the <A+> Alliance for Inclusive Algorithms, a collective effort that aims to advance the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a way that is beneficial and inclusive to all people. The organization works to promote the development of AI technologies that are transparent, fair, and accountable and that consider the needs and perspectives of diverse groups of people. She also co-founded Progressive International, a network of progressive individuals and organizations that aims to promote social and economic justice, democracy, and sustainability around the world and Polylat,  a decentralised, Global South-focused group of policy specialists. 

She has researched and authored reports for leading academic institutions such as the Berkman Center at Harvard University, the Citizenlab at the University of Toronto and international organisations such as the Interamerican Development Bank, the World Bank, UNESCO, Oxfam International, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Public Citizen and Consumers International. 

She is an Advisory Board member for Creative Commons, a board member for Open Future, a trustee for the Whistleblower Network Deutschland, a board member for Transparency Toolkit, an Advisory Member for the Cities Coalition for Digital Rights, a Steering Committee Member for the Lacuna Fund and The New Hanse Initiative for data sharing. She also serves as a Board Member of the Common Action Forum and a Global Trustee of the Think Tank Digital Future Society.