Erika Mann is the Head of the Brussels office for Facebook, previously a Member of the European Parliament with the Social Democratic Party of Germany for 15 years, she has in the past two years served as the Executive Vice President of the Computer and Communications Industry and a board member of ICANN. Educated as a qualified teacher Erika Mann went on to research at Hanover University and then became a consultant in IT. Until 1996 she was a regional councilor for Germany’s Northheim region. Within her time at the European Parliament she was PSE Group Coordinator and a Member of the Steering Committee WTO Parliamentary Assembly and sat on the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade. In her career she has been a Board Member of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, she has been on the Board as Vice-Chairwoman of the Frauen geben Technik neue Impulse (women promoting technology) Association, a Board Member of the International Foundation for Research and Exchange (IBB) the Patron of the Erika Mann Primary School in Berlin, the Chairwoman of the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN) a Member of the Board of Directors, Salzburg Seminar, a Member of the Board of Directors for Internews Europe, Chairwoman of the European Internet Foundation (EIF) an Executive committee Member of the Kangaroo Group a member of the International Informatization Academy of the United Nations and since October 2011 she is a lobbyist for Facebook in Brussels.