The Trust are delighted to announce the appointment of two new trustees and a special advisor to the board.
We would like to offer our gratitude and deepest appreciation to Sir John Taylor who is stepping down as Chairman and who becomes a senior fellow and special advisor to the board.
Professor Jim Hendler has kindly accepted the role of new chairman.
George Metakides received as a Fulbright scholar a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1968 and Doctor of Philosophy degree in Mathematical Logic from Cornell University in 1971. He pursued an academic career in the U.S.A. at MIT, Cornell University and Rochester University until 1978, when he returned to Greece after being elected as a Full Professor to the Chair of Logic at the University of Patras.
Since 1984 he has held senior positions with responsibility for R&D policy, funding and international co-operation in European institutions, including president of the Research Group of the European Council and member of the ESPRIT (European Strategic Program of Research in Information Technology) Management Committee and of the NATO Science Committee at different times between 1984 and 1987. He established and headed the department for Basic Research and International Scientific Relations in Information Technologies at the European Commission from 1988 to 1993. He was the director of the ESPRIT Program in the European Commission’s Industry Directorate General from 1993 until its completion in 1998.
He is an active contributor to the promotion of co-operation between the European Union and other regions. He has instigated and /or contributed to the establishment of major research agreements between the EU and the USA (including the launch of the World Wide Web Consortium, W3C in1993).
He is President of the Digital enlightenment Forum (www.digitalenlightenment.org/). In addition to DEF’s Trust in the Digital world issues, his current interests and activities include Web Science (he helped establish the U.of Thessaloniki Web Science M.Sc. program in 2010) , European R&D policy and programs and international cooperation.
He is currently Professor at the University of Patras , President of the Scientific Board of the Computer Technologies Institute , Senior Advisor to the Foundation of the Hellenic World and Advisor to several international organizations.
John Taysom started the Reuters Venture Capital Fund in Palo Alto in 1995 making 82 investments in internet and Web infrastructure and services. He acquired the Fund in an MBO in 2002 leading many of the investments to achieve an IPO.
He is now London-based with a seed portfolio of 30 US and UK start-ups; several of which have been acquired by such groups as Experian, Linkedin, Tesco, and BMC. Between 2011-2012 John took a Fellowship at Harvard to work on privacy issues and holds EU and US patents on a method of improving privacy online.
He chairs Performance Horizon, a fast growing UK startup; is a Governor at Hurstpierpoint College; and runs a small farm in Devon.
John joins WST as a trustee and full board member. He will advise on issues of privacy and is helping devise a curriculum in Digital Civics.
Over the past six years Anni has taught senior public sector managers through ANZSOG (the Australian and New Zealand School of Government) to integrate Web Science concepts into public administration and management. In 2013 Anni led an ANZSOG Research Project investigating the concept of “Government as a Social Machine” which linked with the SOCIAM research project, and she is currently leading a second ANSOG Research Project bringing the Web Science Institute together with the University of South Australia to create a Web Observatory for Government. In 2011 Anni helped to form “Web Science Australia, a non-profit organisation which combines research and practice in order to more effectively understand, manage, govern and develop the evolving Web.
Anni joins WST as a board member and special advisor to the board and will advise and facilitate around issues around concerning Digital Literacy.