Who's who

Steering Committee

The TACD Steering Committee are responsible for developing joint strategy and driving forward the network’s advocacy activities.

Vagn Jelsøe

Vagn Jelsøe is chief counsel in Forbrugerrådet Tænk (the Danish Consumer Council) and coordinates the international work of the organization. He is in particular concerned with the development of sustainable consumption as well as passenger rights and international trade.

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Susan Weinstock

Susan Weinstock, is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Consumer Federation of America. Previously, she was vice president of financial resilience programming at AARP, responsible for the overall strategic direction of AARP programs and education competencies to improve the financial security of persons age 50 and older.

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Isabelle Buscke

Isabelle Buscke is the Head of the EU liaison office in Brussels of the Federation of German Consumer Organisations Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband (vzbv) – and coordinates the organisation’s EU advocacy. She has been leading the office since its establishment in 2012.

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Tomaso Falchetta

Tomaso Falchetta, Global Policy Lead, Privacy International. Tomaso joined Privacy International in 2014. As Global Policy Lead, he develops the organisation’s international advocacy with the UN, the EU, and other relevant intergovernmental bodies.

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Monique Goyens

European Co-Chair

As Director General of BEUC, Monique represents 46 independent national consumer associations in 32 European countries, acting as a strong consumer voice in Brussels, ensuring that consumer interests are given weight in the development of policies and raising the visibility and effectiveness of the consumer movement through lobbying EU institutions and media contacts.

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Ed Mierzwinski

U.S. Co-Chair

Ed Mierzwinski has worked in the Washington, DC-based federal lobbying office of the Federation of State Public Interest Research Groups (U.S. PIRG) since 1989. He often lectures or testifies before Congress, state legislatures and agencies on a wide range of consumer issues, from credit card rates and privacy to product safety, airline passenger rights and federalism (anti-preemption).

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Robert Weissman

Robert Weissman is President of Public Citizen. He is an expert on economic, health care, trade and globalisation, intellectual property and regulatory policy, and issues related to financial accountability and corporate responsibility.

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Ira Rheingold

Ira Rheingold is Executive Director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA), an organization dedicated to protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive business practices.

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Digital Policy Committee

The Digital policy committee covers all issues related to protecting and building digital rights and safeguards for EU and U.S. citizens and consumers. The committee focuses on harmonisation and protection, and ensuring that the policies and legislation on digital rights (e.g. the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, the EU-US Privacy Shield, e-Privacy Directive revision) are effectively implemented by the industry and understood by policymakers and the media. All policy positions and letters from the Digital Policy Committee can be found here.

Calli Schroeder

U.S. Co-Chair

Calli Schroeder is the Global Privacy Counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), focusing on international privacy developments, data protection issues, coalition-building, and human rights. Calli also co-leads CSISAC, representing civil society at the OECD, and has previously worked for the IAPP and the Federal Trade Commission.

Finn Myrstad

EU Co-Chair

Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad is the Director of Digital Policy at the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC), focusing on national and international issues related to privacy, cyber security, net neutrality, copyright, telecommunication and more. He leads the development of more ethical digital policies.

Using targeted research and global coalition-building, he and his team at NCC convince governments and companies to improve their policies. Alongside advocacy, Finn shapes opinion through addresses to audiences such as the European Parliament, G20, Harvard, Princeton University, SXSW and TED.

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Trade Policy Committee

TACD’s work on trade focuses on raising awareness to EU and U.S. policymakers on the impact of trade agreements on consumers. Through its work on trade, TACD aims to strengthen the dialogue between consumer representatives and policymakers and provide recommendations on regulatory, economic and trade issues. All policy positions and letters from the Trade Policy Committee can be found here.

Léa Auffret

EU Co-Chair

Léa Auffret is Team Leader of the International Affairs team at the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC). Léa has worked a lot to represent the consumer interest during the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), on behalf of BEUC and TACD.

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Melanie Foley

U.S. Co-Chair

Melanie Foley is the Deputy Director for the Global Trade Watch (GTW) division of Public Citizen. Since 2014, Melanie has helped GTW build domestic and international movements to dismantle corporate control of trade agreements to advance a global economic agenda that supports living wages, a healthy environment, and affordable access to medicines. She works with allies in unions, civil society, and others around the world to influence trade negotiations so the ensuing agreements support our progressive policy goals — and leads campaigns against them when they do not.

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TACD Staff

Oriana Henry

Coordinator

Oriana Henry is the Coordinator for the TACD. She coordinates the TACD network, as well as supporting BEUC in its communications missions. In her role as Coordinator at TACD, Oriana supports the daily life of the Steering Committee and Policy Committees through administrative support; coordination of policy and advocacy strategies; implementation of communications activities; as well as managing funding grants.

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Anna Fielder

Senior Policy Advisor

Anna has been a consumer and privacy advocate for many years, after having trained as a classics scholar and spending a stint as a travel reporter and editor, working for Which?, the UK consumer organisation.

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