Bruno Waterfield is a political journalist with more than fifteen years‘ experience, twelve of which he has spent in Brussels. Since 2006 he has been Bursting the Brussels bubble for the Daily Telegraph (2006 – 2015) and most recently he became the EU correspondent for The Times. Bruno Waterfield was also a founding member of www.ePolitix.com’s editorial team. He was editor for a daily online EU news service, EUpolitix.com, and ran the fortnightly Parliament Magazine. In addition, he is a former Westminster-based lobby journalist and commentator. Bruno describes himself as a Clash city rocker.

Carlos Orozco is a Mechanical Engineer from Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia and a successful international executive, expert on the subjects of Innovation and Transformation Strategies for Value Growth. 

He worked for over 28 years with The Dow Chemical Company (Dow) in Latin America, USA and Europe, occupying global leadership positions. Carlos is known for his ability to create and manage organizations driven by a culture of innovation, and was decorated in 2008 with the „Genesis“ award, the highest global recognition of Dow leaders.

Charlotte Sieber-Gasser was a co-founder and chairwoman of the Swiss pro-European youth organisation ‚young european Swiss – yes‘ and a leader for the youth campaigns for the EU-Swiss Agreement on the free movement of persons and the Swiss cohesion payment to the new EU member states. She is currently head of the european policy commission of Operation Libero, the new liberal movement of Switzerland, for whom she advises on its campaigning on Swiss foreign policy. 

Sieber-Gasser studied law in Switzerland and Development Studies in the UK and holds a PhD in law. She is currently a Post-Doc fellow and lecturer at the university of Bern on European law, international public law and international trade regulation, and a visiting research fellow at the Graduate Institute in Geneva.

Craig Fairnington is an associate fellow of the Institute of Ideas. He graduated from the University of St Andrews in 2009 with a BSc in Physics before joining the IoI in 2010. Since then he has produced and chaired sessions at the Battle of Ideas on a range of issues, including Anthropocene: are humans wrecking the planet?, the “gay gene”, Scottish independence, water scarcity, and the future of the nation state. For Debating Matters, he has written topic guides on a similarly wide range of issues, and helped lead the STV Debating Matters Referendum Schools Debate which saw schools across Scotland debating issues around independence in the run-up to the referendum. 

Daniel Ben-Ami is an author and journalist. Two years ago, he launched the Radicalism of Fools website, on rethinking anti-Semitism, in the belief that the mainstream discussion is failing to grapple with this thorniest of subjects. He has contributed to numerous national, specialist and international publications, and his books include Ferraris For All (2010) and Cowardly Capitalism (2001).

David Bowden has a core organisational role in producing both the Battle of Ideas weekend and convenes the festival’s 2 month long series of national satellite events. Outside of the festival he produces, chairs and speaks at events for schools, universities, festivals and business on a broad range of topics.

He also contributes to national broadcast and print media on issues relating to politics, the regulation of lifestyle, the arts and popular culture.

David has extensive experience in public affairs and communications, having worked with organisations including Libertas, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and DACS. He has a MA in Creative Writing from the University of Exeter.

Dennis Hayes is Professor of Education at the University of Derby and Director of the influential campaign group Academics For Academic Freedom (AFAF), which he founded in 2006. He is an education columnist for The Conversation and was previously a columnist for the Times Educational Supplement and has been a member of the editorial board of the Times Higher Education magazine since its foundation. In 2009 he edited and contributed to a special edition of the British Journal of Educational Studies on Academic Freedom. He writes regularly in the national and international press on free speech and academic freedom. His latest book is The ‘Limits’ of Academic Freedom (2014).

Doris Angst, M.A., DAS in Law is an internationally renowned expert in Human Rights and the protection of minorities against discrimination, racism and xenophobia. Currently she is Executive Director of the Federal Commission Against Racism (FCR) in Berne. And she is the deputy Swiss Expert at the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in Strasbourg. She is also the Vice-President of the Advisory Board to the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Human Rights. In addition she has worked as expert on behalf of the OSCE and the UN. She has also worked with Palestinians in Israel, with representatives of three monotheist religions in Los Angeles, with asylum seekers in Switzerland, and on migration history, prejudice, and fundamental rights issues. Doris Angst graduated in history and geography from the University of Zurich.

Alfred de Zayas, US and Swiss citizen, residing in Geneva, Switzerland. Former UN Independent Expert on International Order (2012-18), former Secretary of the UN Human Rights Committee, former Chief of the Petitions Department at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Professor of International Law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy, 2005-to now (J.D. Harvard, Dr. phil. Göttingen). Former visiting professor at numerous Universities in US, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Tunesia. Former lecturer at the Institut de Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva. author of 12 books including „Building a Just World Order.“

Dr Andreas Müller Huth is deputy general secretary of the Department of Justice and Home Affairs for the Canton of Zurich, the authority that, among other things, codifies the rules governing the connection between church and state in the canton. Between 2014 and 2017, he oversaw the preparation of the publication of the Cantonal government’s ‘Orientation and 7 guiding principles on the relationship between the state and religious communities’. He is also the author of The Relationship of Legal Freedom and Moral Autonomy in Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals. He’s married and has three children.