LOUISE MARIE HUREL

FOUNDER

Louise Marie Hurel is the founder of the Latin American Cybersecurity Research Network. She is currently a PhD researcher in Data, Networks and Society at the London School of Economics’ Department of Media and Communications. Her research focuses on risk, cybersecurity governance, and incident response. Louise is also a Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). For more than half a decade, Louise Marie led Igarapé Institute’s Digital Security Programme, coordinating multiple efforts to connect national, regional and international cyber policy discussions. As Programme Lead, she conducted international cyber advocacy in multilateral (UN, OAS) and multi-stakeholder bodies, hosted and moderated forums for cross-sector trust-building at the national level in politically sensitive environments and managed a portfolio of projects that covered themes ranging from incidents against electoral processes, implementation of surveillance technologies for public security, IoT, cyber capacity building, cybercrime and data protection. She is a member of the Advisory Board at the Global Forum of Cyber Expertise (GFCE), Carnegie Endowment’s Partnership for Countering Influence Operations’ (PCIO) and the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR). . Her recent publications include a paper on “Beyond Great Powers: Challenges for understanding Cyber Operations in Latin America” and another on “Cyber-Norms Entrepreneurship? Understanding Microsoft’s advocacy on cybersecurity” in the Rowman & Littlefield’s “Governing Cyberspace: Behaviour, Power and Diplomacy. All opinions and initiatives are her own and are not associated with her institutional affiliations.

ADVISORY GROUP

  • CAROLINA AGUERRE

    ADVISORY GROUP MEMBER

    Associate Professor at Universidad Católica del Uruguay. Co-Director for the Centre for Technology and Society at Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina) and Senior Associate Fellow at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research (GCR21) at the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany). She is a researcher working at the intersection of technology governance, particularly the Internet and AI, and global, regional, and national policies. I have experience in serving in different advisory roles in global policy making settings, such as GPAI, UNESCO, IGF MAG.

  • VIRGÍLIO ALMEIDA

    ADVISORY GROUP MEMBER

    Virgilio Almeida is a professor emeritus of Computer Science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). He is also Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. Virgilio received his PhD degree in Computer Science at Vanderbilt University, a Master's degree in computer science at PUC-Rio and a bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from UFMG. He held visiting positions in several universities and research labs, such as Harvard University (School of Engineering and Applied Sciences), New York University, Boston University, Santa Fe Institute and HP Research Labs. He was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Poly at the New York University. Virgilio was the National Secretary for Information Technology Policies of the Brazilian government from 2011 to 2015. He was the chair of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) from 2011-2016. He was also the chair of NETmundial, the Global Multi-stakeholder Conference on the Future of Internet Governance, that was held in Sao Paulo in 2014. Virgilio was one of the commissioners of the Global Commission for the Stability of Cyberspace (cyberstability.org/). Virgilio is member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC) and the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).

  • RODOLFO AVELINO

    ADVISORY GROUP MEMBER

    Consultant and specialist in cybersecurity and Cyber Threat Intelligence. Professor in cybersecurity at Insper in undergraduate and executive education courses. Doctor and Researcher at the Laboratory of Free Technologies (LabLivre) at Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). He is one of the organizers of the book "The Control Society: Manipulation and Modulation in Digital Networks". He is on the board of the Latin American Network for Studies on Surveillance, Technology and Society (LAVITS).

  • PATRICIA VARGAS LEÓN

    ADVISORY GROUP MEMBER

    Patricia A. Vargas-Leon is a fellow in the Information Society Project at Yale Law School and a former Post-Doc in the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Patricia conducts research from a triple perspective: law, policy, and technology, and uses diverse methodologies within the fields of Internet governance, cybersecurity, and the law of the sea. Her research focuses on forms of government control over the Internet infrastructure and Internet protocol, network neutrality, the DNS, IXPs, international law, and the study of parallel policies between the law of the sea, the Internet, and cyberspace. Her doctoral dissertation explores governments' attempts to "shut down" the entire Internet in democratic and non-democratic regimes. Patricia is a former consultant within the United Nations' Division of Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea and has practiced law for nearly ten years. She holds a Ph.D. in Information Sciences and Technology from Syracuse University and a law degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Perú.

  • RANDY PESTANA

    ADVISORY GROUP MEMBER

    Randy Pestana serves as Associate Director for Cybersecurity Policy at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and the Director of Education and Training at Cybersecurity@FIU. In these roles, he is responsible for managing the institutes cyber-related partnerships to include U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, State, and Veterans Affairs, the Organization of American States (OAS), and numerous industry partners across the cybersecurity community. His technical specialization is in International Relations with focuses on U.S. foreign policy, security studies, and cybersecurity. Most of his work has been linked to cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development, as well as international security threats facing the United States and its partners and allies. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor for the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs and Honors College. Prior to joining FIU, Mr. Pestana attended the Platoon Leader’s Course in Quantico, Virginia for the United States Marine Corps where he received a favorable evaluation and top five ranking by his peers as a Candidate Platoon Sgt. and most recently served as a recruiting assistant where he helped train recruits prior to their departure to basic training. Mr. Pestana holds a M.A. in Latin American and Caribbean Studies with a Graduate Certificate in National Security Studies from FIU, and an Executive Certificate in Cybersecurity from Harvard University.