About the Sovereign Tech Agency
Get to know the people at the Sovereign Tech Agency. The team has over 30 years of combined experience in open source funding and brings diverse backgrounds from startups, NGOs, research organizations, and corporations.
Adriana Groh she/her
CEO
As co-initiator and managing director, Adriana leads strategy and organizational development at the Sovereign Tech Agency and is responsible for networking with stakeholders from politics and society.
Luisa von Beust she/her
CEO
As CEO and managing director, Luisa is responsible for finance, operations, legal, and HR, and makes sure that we allocate our resources effectively to maximize our impact.
Fiona Krakenbürger she/her
CTO
Tara Tarakiyee
Technologist
Powen Shiah he/him
Communications Manager
Abigail Garner
Program Manager
Abigail reviews and selects open source technologies for investments and guides them through the contracting process.
Paul Sharratt he/him
Research and Policy Manager
Mirko Swillus he/him
Program Manager
Lara Bokor they/them
Office Manager
Lara is responsible for office management, meeting organization, and purchasing at the Sovereign Tech Agency.
Jacqueline Bender she/her
Program Administrator
Jacky provides support with administrative processes and coordinates contracts and payments.
Lorenzo Sciandra he/him
Technologist
Benjamin Asante he/him
Program Manager
Benjamin assesses open source software technologies for potential investments and manages contracts along with the portfolio project relations.
Marlene Lindemann she/her
Legal Counsel
Marlene supports the Sovereign Tech Agency with the legal review and design of contracts and advises on general legal issues.
Experts
The Sovereign Tech Agency works with external experts in different capacities to appraise technologies and provide additional technical expertise and varying perspectives on the FOSS ecosystem.
Ben Cotton
External reviewer for Contribute Back Challenges
Ben Cotton has been active in Fedora and other open source communities for over a decade. His career has taken him through the public and private sector in roles that include desktop support, high-performance computing administration, marketing, and program management. Ben is the author of Program Management for Open Source Projects, a contributor to the book Human at a Distance, and has published articles in The Next Platform, Opensource.com, Scientific Computing, and more.
Isabel Drost-Fromm
External expert for Sovereign Tech Fund investments
Isabel Drost-Fromm is chair of the board of directors of the InnerSource Commons Foundation as well as (former board) member of the Apache Software Foundation. Interested in all things search and text mining with a thorough background in open source collaboration, she works at Europace AG as Open Source Strategist. True to the nature of people living in Berlin, she loves giving friends a reason for a brief visit - as a result she co-founded and is still one of the creative heads behind the conferences Berlin Buzzwords and FOSS Backstage.
Dr. Dawn Foster
External expert for Sovereign Tech Fund investments and reviewer for Contribute Back Challenges
Dr. Dawn Foster works as the Director of Data Science for CHAOSS where she is also a board member / maintainer. She is co-chair of CNCF TAG Contributor Strategy and an OpenUK board member. She has 20+ years of experience at companies like VMware and Intel with expertise in community, strategy, governance, metrics, and more. She has spoken at over 100 industry events and has a BS in computer science, an MBA, and a PhD. In her spare time she enjoys reading science fiction, running, and traveling.
Dr. Jochen Klar
External expert for Sovereign Tech Fund investments
Dr. Jochen Klar is a software developer and scientist specializing in the management and publication of research data. Originally an astronomer, he now supports projects and institutions in various fields on technological and organizational aspects of data management and open science. He is the lead developer of RDMO, a tool for creating data management plans, and of the ISIMIP repository at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research Science. He is a member of the editorial board of forschungsdaten.org and co-organizer of Open Knowledge Lab Berlin.
Katharina Meyer
External expert for Sovereign Tech Fund investments
Katharina Meyer is a researcher and analyst exploring the interplay between immaterial goods like the digital commons and the supply chains, social groups, external forces (like regulation), practices, or technologies that shape, break, or reinforce them. Trained as a historian of science and technology, she primarily investigates code, standards, policies, and norms. She currently serves as inaugural Director of the Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund that supports research on open digital infrastructure. Prior, she was Head of Research at the Sovereign Tech Fund. She advises the NGI Commons project and has reviewed for entities including Invest in Open Infrastructure and the German Ministry of Research and Education.
Kurt Seifried
External expert for Sovereign Tech Fund investments
Kurt Seifried has been deeply involved in Linux, Open Source, and Information Security for over 25 years. He currently contracts for the Cloud Security Alliance, serving as their Chief Innovation Officer with a heavy focus on AI usage and security. He also hosts the weekly Open Source Security Podcast with Josh Bressers, now in its 8th year.