Brussels Forum Session: On the Frontlines of Democracy: Bolstering Trust in Elections Across the Atlantic 

Adrian Fontes was elected Arizona's 21st secretary of state in 2022. He is a US Marine Corps veteran who served on active duty from 1992 to 1996 and was nominated for a meritorious commission.  

After graduating from law school, Fontes worked as a prosecutor with the Denver (Colorado) district attorney before moving to the Maricopa County (Arizona) attorney’s office. He later led the international prosecution unit in the Arizona attorney general’s office. He practiced law for 15 years before being elected Maricopa County recorder in 2016. In that position, he enhanced ballot tracking technology and increased process transparency, winning awards from election organizations across the United States.

Fontes testified before Congress about threats to election officials during the 2020 campaign. 

Brussels Forum Session: Fresh Off the Campaign Trail: Stories From the 2024 US Primary

Addisu Demissie is a founding principal of California-based political consulting firm 50+1 Strategies and a senior adviser to Future Forward USA, the primary external organization supporting US President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. He has more than two decades of experience in advocacy and campaign strategy, and has led campaigns in the United States at the national, state, and local levels for electoral, nonprofit, and corporate clients.

Demissie managed successful campaigns for US Senator Cory Booker in 2013 and California Governor Gavin Newsom in 2018. He most recently served as the campaign manager for Booker’s 2020 run for the Democratic presidential nomination and was one of the lead organizers of the critically acclaimed 2020 Democratic National Convention. The Washington Post named him in 2009 one of the “Ten Young Black Aides To Watch” in the Barack Obama administration, in which he played a key role in mobilizing and coordinating grassroots support for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, federal student loan reform, and the Affordable Care Act. As political director for Obama’s political organization, Organizing for America, he also worked to gather support for the Affordable Care Act.

Demissie is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, and a member of the California State Bar. He serves on several nonprofit boards including those of Run for Something, Higher Ground Labs, Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence, and Vote Save America. 

Brussels Forum Session: On the Frontlines of Democracy: Bolstering Trust in Elections Across the Atlantic

Sebastian Bay is a project manager and researcher specializing in election security, national security, hybrid threats, disinformation, and online harms. He is the author of a recent report on countering hybrid threats to elections published by the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats. His election expertise comes from his experience managing and leading election protection efforts for the 2018 and 2022 Swedish general elections, focusing on mitigating threats and ensuring electoral security. He has authored several reports on election security for FOI and the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence. He has also co-authored a chapter titled "A Swedish Perspective on Foreign Election Interference" in Defending Democracies: Combating Foreign Election Interference in a Digital Age (2021), published by Oxford University Press. Bay has worked with the Swedish Election Authority, FOI, NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence (NATO StratComm CoE), the Swedish Civil Contingency Agency, and the Swedish Armed Forces. He holds a bachelor's degree in intelligence analysis and a master's degree in political science from Lund University, Sweden. 

Brussels Forum Session: The Next Generation of Transatlantic Leaders

Samira Rafaela has been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the Dutch social-liberal D66 party since 2019. She is the first Dutch Afro-Caribbean MEP and was one of the youngest MEPs elected in 2019.  

Rafaela was selected in 2020 as one of Politico Europe’s 20 MEPs to watch for her contributions to making trade greener and fairer. That same year she won one of the Harper’s Bazaar International Women of the Year Awards. 

Brussels Forum Session: The Next Generation of Transatlantic Leaders

George Melashvili is a Georgian public figure, political science scholar, and civic activist. He is the founder and president of the Europe-Georgia Institute, which was a student organization that evolved under his leadership into a leading civil society organization in Georgia. The institute joined the European Liberal Forum, a political foundation affiliated with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, and founded the annual Black Sea Security conference focused on international security policy.

Melashvili also established the "Your Voice, Our Future" initiative, which promotes civic engagement, democratic values, and global security in Georgia. The initiative increased youth participation in the 2016 Georgian parliamentary elections.

Melashvili's academic interests are rooted in comparative politics and East Asian studies, with an emphasis on Korea. He was a fellow with GMF's Policy Designers Network and participates in the Warsaw Security Forum’s New Security Leaders program. He is a lecturer on international relations theory and East Asian studies at the Free University of Tbilisi and the University of Georgia. He is also the author of “Korea: Success Story – Lessons for Georgia”, the first book about Korea in the Georgian language.

Brussels Forum Session: Transatlantic Approaches to De-Risking

Alicia García Herrero is the chief economist for the Asia Pacific at French investment bank Natixis, an independent board member of AGEAS insurance group, a senior fellow at BRUEGEL, and a nonresident senior follow at the National University Singapore’s East Asian Institute. She is also an adjunct professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, an adviser to the Spanish government on economic affairs, a Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation board member, a Mercator Institute for China Studies advisory board member, an adviser to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s research arm (HKIMR), and a member of the Council of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.

García Herrero previously held the following positions: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria chief economist for emerging markets, a member of the Bank of International Settlements’ Asian research program, head of the Bank of Spain’s international economy division, member of the European Central Bank ‘s counsel to the executive board, head of emerging economies in Banco Santander’s research department, and an economist at the International Monetary Fund. She was also a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, at China-Europe International Business School, and at Carlos III University.

García Herrero holds a PhD in economics from The George Washington University and has published extensively. She appears regularly in international media outlets such as the BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, and CNN, and on social media. She was included in LinkedIn’s 2017 TOP Voices in Economy and Finance and was ranked sixth among Refinitiv’s top social media leaders in 2020.

Brussels Forum Session: NATO at 75: Past, Present, Future – Part II 

Mircea Geoană became NATO deputy secretary general in 2019. He is the first Romanian—and the first from any country that joined the alliance after the end of the Cold War—to hold that position. He previously served as a diplomat and a politician. In 2009, he was his party’s candidate to be president of Romania.  

Geoană studied at Bucharest’s Polytechnic University, the University of Bucharest’s Faculty of Law, and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Paris. He holds a PhD from the Economic Studies Academy of Bucharest. 

Brussels Forum Session: Allied Competitiveness: Can It Be Achieved? National vs. Allied Approaches to Competitiveness

Karan Bhatia leads global public policy at Google through a 450-person team based in more than 50 countries. He is principal adviser to Google’s CEO, board, and senior management on policy issues. He leads the company’s work with policymakers and key political stakeholders worldwide.

Before joining Google in 2018, Bhatia served as president of General Electric government affairs and policy. During his 10 years at that firm, he helped drive its expansion into government-facing global markets. He supported more than $40 billion in government-related industrial orders, secured international regulatory approvals for critical mergers and acquisitions, and led policy advocacy efforts on issues ranging from climate change to international trade.

Earlier in his career, Bhatia served in senior positions in the US government, including at the Commerce and Transportation departments, shaping international economic policy. In his last role as deputy US trade representative, he oversaw trade policy with Asia and Africa. Prior to his government service, he was a partner in the Washington, DC law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, where he was a member of the international and corporate groups.

Bhatia has written and spoken widely on international economic policy, taught at Georgetown University Law Center, and testified on many occasions before Congress. He sits on the boards of the Urban Institute, the US Global Leadership Coalition, and the Partnership for Public Service.

Bhatia holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a master’s degree from the London School of Economics, and a law degree from Columbia University. 

Brussels Forum Session: Security South: Transatlantic Strategy in a Time of Crisis

Ana Santos Pinto is assistant professor in the Department of Political Studies and assistant vice-dean of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at NOVA University of Lisbon (NOVA FCSH). She is also executive director of the Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI-NOVA), a member of the board of trustees of the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD), and a member of the advisory council of the Anna Lindh Foundation. The NATO secretary general nominated her in 2023 to chair a group of independent experts delivering a report on the alliance's approach to its southern neighborhood.

Santos Pinto was Portugal’s secretary of state for national defense from 2018 to 2019. Before that, she worked as an associate researcher at Portugal’s National Defense Institute; a research consultant for the UN’s Alliance of Civilizations Project; an adviser for the international relations minister of national defense of Portugal’s 17th constitutional government; and a research assistant at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies.  

Santos Pinto’s main areas of research are identities in international politics, EU foreign and security policy, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. She holds a PhD in international relations from NOVA FSCH, a master’s degree in history of international relations from the Higher Institute of Labor and Business Sciences (ISCTE-IUL), and a degree in political science and international relations from NOVA FSCH.