Our board
Our Board is responsible for the strategic direction and financial integrity of the organisation. The Board works on an voluntary basis. It controls and supports the management of the association.
Dr. Stefan Heumann
Member of the Board
Stefan was elected to the board of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany in 2020. Stefan is a political scientist and founding managing director of Agora Digitale Transformation (ADT). Previously, he held various positions, including the last few years as a member of the board, helping to shape the further development of the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung into a think tank at the intersection of society and technological change. His work at ADT focuses on the question of how we can use the opportunities of digitalization to strengthen democracy. He has advised politics and society on digital policy in various committees and functions. He is currently a member of the advisory board for the German Government’s Digital Strategy at the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport.
Elina Eickstädt
Member of the Board
Elina was elected to the board of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany in 2024. Elina is a computer scientist who researches and works in the field of IT security. Elina is one of the honorary spokespersons of the Chaos Computer Club and focuses in her role on digital policy legislation at EU level. Since 2022, she has been leading the fight against the planned chat control laws (CSA Regulations) and coordinates strategic arguments and technical expertise in cooperation with the European Digital Rights alliance (EDRi). She is a founding member of the Computer Science for Future initiative at HAW Hamburg, which focuses on new teaching approaches for sustainability topics in computer science. Since 2022, she has been entrusted with the strategic direction of the initiative as part of the Executive Board.
Felix Reda
Member of the Board
Felix was elected to the board of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany in 2020. Felix is an expert in copyright law and has been Director of Developer Policy at GitHub since March 2024. He previously headed the “control ©” project at the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte. From 2014 to 2019, Felix was a Member of the European Parliament within the Greens/EFA group. Felix is an Affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and a member of the Advisory Board of D64 - Center for Digital Progress.
Fiona Krakenbürger
Member of the Board
Fiona was elected to the board of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany in 2024. Fiona is a co-founder of the Sovereign Tech Fund, an organisation funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection to support open source infrastructure in the public interest. Fiona has worked in funding open source projects for around ten years and has helped set up and implement programmes in Germany and the US. Prior to the Sovereign Tech Fund, she supported internet freedom technologies worldwide as Senior Program Manager at the Open Technology Fund in Washington D.C. Before that, Fiona helped establish the Prototype Fund at OKF. In addition to her career in open source funding, Fiona has supported and founded various initiatives for more diversity in tech communities. She founded the Heart of Code, a feminist hackspace in Berlin, as well as the Chaospatinnen, a programme to attract newcomers to the Chaos Communication Congress. She is currently a committee member of the RIPE Community Projects Fund, a member of the Advisory Council of the Open Technology Fund and sits on the board of the OpenJS Foundation.
Gabriele C. Klug
Treasurer
Gabriele has been elected member of OKF’s board and its Treasurer since 2020. Gabriele is Co-Chairwoman of the Wirtschaftsvereinigung der Grünen e.V. - Dialogforum für Wirtschaft - whose aim is to strengthen the dialog between business and politics. Gabriele Klug is a lawyer and spend many years in politics and state administration and on local level. 2010-2018 she held the position as Vice Mayor and Treasurer of the city of Cologne and in charge of the municipal enterprise portfolio. During that time Klug designed an urban approach towards sustainability in municipal finance including the development of infrastructure in ecological transformation. She was member of the board of Transparency International Germany until 2019. Klug is specialized in sustainable public finance.
Kristina Klein
Chairwoman of the Board
Kristina Klein is an executive with experience in international development and non-profit management. She is co-founder of interalia, a fiscal host located in Germany dedicated to breaking down barriers for civil society to share and access resources. She served as Executive Director of the Center for the Cultivation of Technology (CCT), a fiscal host that supports open-source technologists. Prior to her work at CCT, Kristina served as the CEO of the Open Knowledge Foundation Deutschland. Her previous experience includes working at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, at UNHCR Myanmar, and at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Brussels. Based in Berlin, she also works as a volunteer crisis counselor.
Lea Gimpel
Member of the Board
Lea was elected to the board of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany in 2020. She works for the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) as Director for AI and Country Engagement. The DPGA was founded in 2020 on the initiative of the United Nations and supports investments in and the use of digital public goods such as open-source software, open AI models and open data with a focus on developing and emerging countries. Previously, Lea co-led a project of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, which supports developing countries in using artificial intelligence by developing open training datasets and open AI models and drafting ethical AI guidelines with partners. Lea teaches a practical course on digital development cooperation at the Hertie School in Berlin. She is currently a member of the advisory board of the Initiative on AI technologies for Civil Climate Action of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection and co-chair of a working group of the United Nations DPI Safeguards Initiative.