Personal Democracy Forum

Michael Silberman is the Global Director of the Digital Mobilisation Lab at Greenpeace. The “MobLab” exists to transform how campaigns are fought and won, pioneering a powerful new era of people-powered strategies that amplify campaign impact and create positive change. Silberman and his team work with Greenpeace and its allies in 55 countries to envision, test, and roll out creative new means of communicating, organizing, and fundraising online.

A senior digital campaigns strategist, Silberman is recognized as one of the U.S.’s 50 most influential leaders by The NonProfit Times and one of LinkedIn’s “Top Professionals 35 and Under” transforming the social impact sector. He got his start as the National Meetup Director for Governor Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential bid, where he developed one of the first successful online organizing programs in American politics and lead a team that regularly mobilized nearly 200,000 volunteers in over 1,200 cities worldwide. Silberman subsequently co-founded Echo & Co, a digital agency that empowers organizations to have a greater impact through the creative use of new technologies.

Born in 1977 in Bydgoszcz. Graduated from Faculty of Journalism and Political Science University of Warsaw. Since October 2011, Deputy Mayor of Warsaw, before Director of European Funds Department. As a Deputy Mayor he is responsible for development strategy of Warsaw. He also supervises European funds, economic development, housing and geodesy.

Michel Martin is the host of Tell Me More, the one-hour daily NPR news and talk show that made its national premiere on April 30, 2007, on public radio stations around the country.

While working on the development of Tell Me More, Martin also served as contributor and substitute host for NPR newsmagazines and talk shows, including Talk of the Nation and News & Notes.

Martin joined NPR from ABC News, where she worked since 1992. She served as correspondent for Nightline from 1996 to 2006, reporting on such subjects as the Congressional budget battles, the U.S. embassy bombings in Africa, racial profiling and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At ABC, she also contributed to numerous programs and specials, including the network’s award-winning coverage of September 11, a documentary on the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas controversy, a critically acclaimed AIDS special and reports for the ongoing series “America in Black and White.” Martin reported for the ABC newsmagazine Day One, winning an Emmy for her coverage of the international campaign to ban the use of landmines, and was a regular panelist on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. She also hosted the 13-episode series Life 360, an innovative program partnership between Oregon Public Broadcasting and Nightline incorporating documentary film, performance and personal narrative; it aired on public television stations across the country.

Before joining ABC, Martin covered state and local politics for the Washington Post and national politics and policy at the Wall Street Journal, where she was White House correspondent. She has also been a regular panelist on the PBS series Washington Week and a contributor to NOW with Bill Moyers.

Martin has been honored by numerous organizations, including the Candace Award for Communications from The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, the Joan Barone Award for Excellence in Washington-based National Affairs/Public Policy Broadcasting from the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association and a 2002 Silver Gavel Award, given by the American Bar Association. Along with her Emmy award, she received three additional Emmy nominations, including one with NPR’s Robert Krulwich, at the time an ABC contributor as well, for an ABC News program examining children’s racial attitudes.

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Martin graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College at Harvard University in 1980 and has done graduate work at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.

Mike Bracken is the Executive Director of Digital in the Cabinet Office, which sits at the centre of Government and aims to make Government work better. He joined in July 2011, and spent the first several months in Government creating the Government Digital Service (GDS). The GDS includes GOV.UK, the digital transformation programme, the Identity Assurance programme, and the Data and Performance platform for public services.  In addition, the GDS has developed the Government digital strategy, and works as part of the Efficiency and Reform Group to reform public services.

Prior to joining the Cabinet Office, he worked as the Director of Digital Development at Guardian News & Media.

Mike is the founder and CEO of Floor64, building up the core idea into reality and recruiting the management team. In addition to providing the strategic direction for the company, Mike oversees all editorial aspects of the Floor64’s public and customer sites. Mike’s insight into the realms of business and technology are the basis for his frequent posts to the award winning Techdirt blog. The widely followed, often quoted blog was launched in 1997 and remains one of the top destinations online for discussions on the future of media, business models and policy. Mike is a sought after conference keynote speaker, and regularly does executive briefings with C-level execs. He is also known for coining the term “The Streisand Effect,” to describe how attempting to stifle speech online can serve to draw even more attention.

Mike Mathieu is an entrepreneur focused on using the power of technology to advance the common good. He serves as an active founder, investor, or advisor to dozens of civic, political, and for-profit tech startups. He is Chairman of Front Seat, a founding board member of New Media Ventures (a national network of political-tech investors), a long-time partner in Social Venture Partners, and an investor in Impact Hub Seattle, Fledge, and SVP Fast Pitch. Mike is also co-founder and former chair of Walk Score and founder and former CEO of All Star Directories, an INC 500-listed online marketing company serving the higher education market, and spent a decade at Microsoft where he was general manager of MSN.com.

Mike Norman is the co-founder and president of the crowd investing platform Wefunder.com. Wefunder graduated from Y Combinator this year, and their 15,000 investors have funded Y Combinator and Tech Stars companies through the platform. Mike helped craft the crowdfunding portion of the JOBS Act and watched Obama sign it into law at the White House. Prior to Wefunder Mike founded SoChange, a web and mobile platform where consumers use their spending to convince companies to improve their social or environmental performance. He holds an MBA from MIT Sloan and once upon a time represented the USA as part of the national San Shou kickboxing team.

Mike Rispoli is the Communications Manager for Privacy International, a London-based charity committed to fighting for the right to privacy across the world. Mike serves as the spokesman for PI and develops strategy for public engagement.
He has appeared on television and radio programs for the BBC, Sky News, and ITV, and has been quoted in several media outlets including the Guardian, Time, Al Jazeera, the Financial Times, the Sunday Times, Bloomberg, Wired, and Mashable.
Before joining PI, Mike was the Campaign and Media Strategist for Access, an international NGO that defends and extends the digital rights of at-risk users around the world. In a past life, Mike was a researcher at Columbia University’s Institute for TeleInformation, as well as a political journalist in the US.