A big team

Our effort would not be possible without the work of many volunteers involved. Our network consists of many people who volunteer for fundamental and freedom rights in the digital age. They must be mentioned before we introduce the core team.

Interested in joining our team? Find our current job offers >>here!

Thomas Lohninger (@socialhack)

Thomas Lohninger

✉ thomas.lohninger <AT> epicenter.works

Fingerprint: 1B79 2E14 2E31 0E7E 2742 3990 BE16 D613 7FC1 9312

was a programmer and anthropologist in his former life. Digital rights had been his hobby until it became a job when he intensively accompanied the EU Net Neutrality Regulation as Policy Advisor for European Digital Rights (EDRi). Thomas was one of the driving forces behind the www.savetheinternet.eu campaign and has a strong work focus on net neutrality, data protection, and mass surveillance. Since 2010 he has played an active part at epicenter.works and since 2014 he is the executive director of the association. He also writes on Netzpolitik.org, is a regular guest in the Podcast Logbuch:Netzpolitik and a non-residential Fellow of the Center for Internet and Society at the Stanford Law School. Since 2019 he is in the board of EDRi and since 2020 Vice President of the EU umbrella of digital rights NGOs.

 

Tanja Mally (@TanjaMally)

Tanja Mally

✉ tanja.mally <AT> epicenter.works

Fingerprint: 9FEE 7E03 0712 AF51 39D8 93AB 296C 0017 6840 96CE

spent most of her professional life in the media industry. Since 2014, she has supported charitable institutions with her experience in networking and partner management. As an attentive citizen with a pronounced sense of justice, her fundamental rights are particularly important to her. Tanja is the managing director of epicenter.works and, together with Daniel, managing director of epicenter.academy GmbH. She is also responsible for fundraising as well as the support of the steadily growing number of cooperation partners. Solid funding and strong allies are the foundation of the successful work of our organization.

Felix Riedl-Riedenstein

✉ felix.riedl-riedenstein <AT> epicenter.works

Fingerprint: A6DE B77A E992 31C1 AD8C DC90 0BE9 A592 AC07 64EF

Studied Management and Law in Innsbruck and International Business in San Sebastián. He was able to gather work experience in different departments such as Controlling and Human Resources. In recent years he has worked in Marketing and Sales Operations. During his time in England and Spain his interest in fundamental rights and civil liberties grew ever stronger. That is why Felix is very happy to be part of the team as Assistant to the Managing Director and work towards improving digital rights.

 

Tanja Fachathaler

Tanja Fachathaler

✉ tanja.fachathaler <AT> epicenter.works

Fingerprint: 1391 070A 0734 1B01 F116 2416 9E51 8576 A350 7829

studied law, Latin American studies and human rights and democratization in Vienna, Venice and Seville. She has several years of experience in different positions in the legal sector, both in Austria - for example in administrative justice or in a law firm - and in Brussels for human rights organizations and a consulting firm working for the EU institutions. Tanja is multilingual and is also involved as an election observer and in human rights education. Since August 2021, she has been bringing her experience to epicenter.works as a Policy Advisor.

Sebastian Kneidinger

✉ sebastian.kneidinger <AT> epicenter.works

Fingerprint: E853 0047 8DB8 8583 E507 73FA 55B1 860A 6094 88E2

was already interested in data protection and digital policy during his law studies in Vienna and Madrid. He was also involved in these topics during his time in student politics, where he was a member of the Senate of the University of Vienna. After working in the field of data protection at an Austrian financial institution and in risk management at an international management consultancy, Sebastian is now contributing to epicenter.works as a policy advisor.

 

Daniel Lohninger (@aesthesism)

✉ daniel.lohninger <AT> epicenter.works

Fingerprint: 3C45 08EE 8CF6 9B46 1074 0800 697D 96E2 9F42 6946

has a multimedia education and has studied information and communication pedagogy. Daniel first joined epicenter.works as a graphic designer and has been coordinating our activities in Styria since 2017. He is particularly involved in surveillance and data protection. In addition, he acts as a contact person for data protection in the education sector. Since 2017, he has been holding workshops and training courses on data protection for schools, universities, companies, associations and interest groups. Since 2021, together with Tanja, Daniel has been managing director of epicenter.academy GmbH.

 

Dominik Polakovics (@razormind42)

✉ dominik.polakovics <AT> epicenter.works

Fingerprint: 195A FF41 481E BFD4 6EE6 A143 7EB6 219B CE69 28EC

started programming at a very early age. Instead of torturing himself with his skills at the technical high school, he preferred to become a web developer right away. When that also became boring, he dedicated himself directly to redesigning the IT structure in the same company. Equipped with enough experience, he founded his own company, in which he has since planned and implemented many complete IT systems. He was also part of the winning team at the first Cyber Security Challenge Austria. At epicenter.works Dominik is our "nerd on duty" and takes care of order and security in the IT systems. He analyzes strengths and weaknesses in terms of data security and data protection with and for us.

 

Hannes Stummer

✉ hannes.stummer <AT> epicenter.works

Fingerprint: 795C FCBC D0CC 3362 D7D0 A087 6A5E 42DC 0578 3019

studied philosophy and linguistics in Vienna and Perth and has a background in audio engineering. He embraces digitalization where it enriches our lives. A fair and free development of digital technologies is especially important to him. Everyone’s fundamental and freedom rights need to be respected so new technologies can enhance our society as opposed to restricting it. Since mid 2022 Hannes is communications manager at epicenter.works focusing on these important issues.

 

Elisabeth Kury

✉ elisabeth.kury <AT> epicenter.works

Fingerprint: 35F4 B808 8859 3396 F0A6 42BD 70CD 5B82 D6F0 FC5A

studied business law at WU Vienna. She deepened her enthusiasm for socio-political issues with a specialization in public & non-profit management. In her positions in content development and digital marketing, she gained valuable skills in the field of communication. Her strong sense of justice brought her to epicenter.works where she now uses her experience to draw attention to important topics in her role as Communications Manager.