Beyond 5G: The Need for Trusted and Secure Digital Infrastructure

Christian-Marc Lifländer, head of the NATO Cyber Defence Section. Mr. Christian-Marc Lifländer serves as the senior cyber policy official of NATO’s International Staff. As head of the Cyber Defence Section, he is responsible for leading the development and implementation of cyber defence policy across NATO.

Heli Tiirmaa-Klaar is Director of the Digital Society Institute at ESMT Berlin. Heli was Ambassador at Large for Cyber Diplomacy and Director General of the Cyber Diplomacy Department at the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and worked in several roles involving cyber policies and diplomacy at NATO HQ International Staff, the European External Action Service and the Estonian Ministry of Defense.

Sudha David-Wilp is the regional director of the Berlin office and a senior fellow. She joined GMF’s Berlin office in September 2011, where she oversees GMF’s outreach to the Bundestag and engages with the media as an expert on relations between Germany and the United States. Before moving to Berlin, she was the director of international programs at the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress in Washington, DC for nearly eight years.

John Strand is the Founder and CEO of Strand Consulting. Its first focus was optimizing the sales process and reducing cost for companies in the IT, Telco and Media industry. John had already built successful consulting company providing sales and marketing services for the Telecom, It, Finance and Publishing sectors.

Hosuk Lee-Makiyama is the director of the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), who has covered technology trade and diplomacy for more than 20 years. He has advised several EU institutions, G7 governments and all the principal international organisations, where his contributions have included 5G security, investigations into state subsidies, Open RAN, and economic disputes. He has also served as a representative to the WTO and UN agencies, including ITU. He is also a senior fellow at the London School of Economics and the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

Antonia Hmaidi is an Analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS), working on China’s pursuit of tech self-reliance (especially in areas like semiconductors and operating systems), its internet infrastructure, and disinformation and hacking campaigns. She gained experience as a project manager at the Bertelsmann Stiftung, worked at the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), as a journalist in Asia and at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).

Dr. Felice Simonelli is the Head of EU Policy at Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), where he is responsible for monitoring and analysing EU policy and legislation, ensuring CDP participation in public consultations, targeted consultations and working groups contributing to the EU policymaking process, and arranging policy events. Previously he worked as a Senior Research Fellow, Head of Policy Evaluation at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), as an expert on EU regulation, competitiveness and analysis of EU public policies.

Policy advisor for international affairs at Deutscher Bundestag with a focus on Asia. Previously PhD Researcher at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. Holds degrees in History and Political Science as well as International Relations from Freie Universität Berlin and University of Oxford. Trained in both qualitative and quantitative political analysis with extensive work experience in Europe and Southeast Asia. Main research interests include norm diffusion, human rights, Southeast Asia, ASEAN and China.

Oscar Almén is a Senior Researcher at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI). His research focuses on East Asia and Chinese security policy, with 20 years of experience in doing field studies in China based on interviews with local officials and civil society actors.

Falk Steiner is a freelance correspondent in Berlin. As an editor, he helped build Europe.Table from mid-2021 to mid-2022. Since then, he has continued to work as an author for Table.Media, as well as for Deutschlandfunk, c't, heise online and others. He previously worked as a correspondent for Deutschlandfunk, as an editor and writer for Zeit, Spiegel, Tagesspiegel, taz and others. Previously, he also worked at the Federation of German Consumer Organisations, the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Brunswick Group.

Dr. Valentin Weber is a senior research fellow in DGAP’s Center for Geopolitics, Geoeconomics, and Technology. His research covers the emergence of cyber norms, the geopolitics of cyberspace, advanced surveillance technologies, and, more broadly, the intersection between cyber and national security. Weber is also a China Foresight Associate at LSE IDEAS, the foreign policy think tank of the London School of Economics and Political Science.