Tech Policy Expertise: Online safety

  • Grace Nelson

    Grace is an Analyst in the team at Assembly. Her portfolio includes emerging issues in digital policymaking, such as online safety, digital competition and AI, as well as work across a range of consumer protection issues in telecoms markets.

    Prior to joining Assembly, Grace served as an aide in the United States Senate, leading outreach and engagement on issues including federal infrastructure investments and rural broadband. She holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh and a MSc in Media and Communication Governance from the London School of Economics.

  • Catherine Colloms

    Catherine has over 25 years’ experience across the public and private sector, specialising in infrastructure, tech and telecoms. She has advised corporates on working in partnership with government to deliver major infrastructure and environmental, social and governance projects and brings stakeholders together to solve economic and social challenges and devise commercial and policy solutions to help address them.

    She spent 8 years on the executive of Openreach (BT) when it hyper scaled its full-fibre network, where she also headed their Gender network and led initiatives on diversity and culture as part of the company’s transformation. She is on the advisory board of Labour Digital and is a NED at Gigaclear, a rural altnet Telco and on DBT’s Industrial Development Advisory Council.

  • Helen Milner

    Helen has 40 years’ experience creating and leading internet-based organisations; driving innovation, delivery and systems change at scale. Working closely with people deep in communities, as well at the highest levels of government and industry. Helen is number 9 in Computer Weekly’s 2025 UKTech50 list, and their number 1 Female Founder. Outside of her work for Good Things Foundation, she is the Chair of environmental charity Subak, and a Non-Executive Director on the Board for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

  • Louisa Bartolo

  • Kirsten Nelson-de Búrca

    Kirsten Nelson-de Búrca is a product policy manager at Mozilla, where she leads work on ads, age verification, and AI product launches globally – shaping how emerging technologies intersect with public interest and trust. With a background spanning global tech companies, startups, and the non-profit sector, she brings a rare blend of policy insight, operational know-how, and product expertise.

    Before joining Mozilla, she drove global digital policy engagement for a European scale-up, HelloFresh, and at Meta she launched trust & safety product lines and political advertising transparency tools in over 100 markets. She has also advised governments, political organisations, and civil society organisations (UN entities and EU institutions) on leveraging new technologies responsibly, and navigated the fast-moving fintech startup world from a regulatory risk perspective.

    A passionate advocate for responsible innovation, Kirsten speaks about the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of technology, policy, and society – with a focus on AI governance, online integrity (especially when it comes to elections, politics and social issues), and platform accountability.

  • Zoe Jay Hawkins

    Zoe is Co-Founder & Deputy Executive Director of the Tech Policy Design Institute (TPDi): Australia’s new independent non-partisan think tank dedicated to technology policy.

    Featured in the Australian Financial Review’s 2025 Women to Watch list, Zoe has experience leading international tech policy initiatives from government, big tech, academic and think tank perspectives. Zoe worked for the Australian government across communications, innovation, and foreign policy portfolios, as a ministerial adviser and in the public service. As a member of Amazon’s International Public Policy Team, Zoe drove whole of amazon digital policy initiatives and represented the company in international organisations.

    An engaging communicator, Zoe speaks internationally on tech policy issues and her work has been featured by The New York Times, TIME Magazine, The Economist, Forbes, POLITICO, and Vogue. Zoe is a Research Associate at the University of Oxford and an expert researcher for OECD.AI, having started her career at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

    Zoe is passionate about helping bring the next generation of women up behind her by role modelling confident authentic leadership and actively mentoring young women across international relations and responsible tech policy in Australia and around the world.

  • Verity Freeman

    Verity Freeman is an Associate in Global Counsel’s tech, media and telecoms (TMT) team. She works with clients to help shape their policy and engagement strategy across a range of issues including AI, digital competition, digital economy, online safety and public sector digitisation.

    She previously worked for political intelligence company DeHavilland where she focused on culture, media and sport policy.

  • Varuna Mangtani

  • Umera Asmat Rana

    Involved in process of policy driven decisions and forming regulations at government level that shape telecom/Internet landscape in my country. I am also active on regional forums of Internet Governance including APrIGf, APSIG, ISOC islamabad Chapter and pkSIG.

    Involved in educating people on policies and reforms done to make Internet available for everyone as well as safe and protected use of Internet.

  • Tayyaba Iftikhar