PLATFORM CO-OP - Key Persons

Aman Bardia

Job Titles:

Assistant Director, Platform Cooperativism Consortium

Bio Aman Bardia is a Ph.D. student in Economics Department at the New School for Social Research (NSSR). Before joining the PCC, he has been a member of the Organizing and Strike Committee with the academic workers union (SENS) at The New School. He has worked on campaigns with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. Bardia, a native of Ahmedabad, Gujarat (India) is also the co-founder and editor of Revival, a magazine on left politics homed at NSSR. His research is focused on the uneven and combined development of capitalism in South Asia, and also organizes with SALAM.

Amelia Evans - Founder

Job Titles:

Founder
Research Fellow at the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy

Amelia Evans is an international human rights lawyer and an expert on business and human rights. In 2012, she co-founded MSI Integrity, a non-profit organization that examines the impact and value of voluntary initiatives that address business and human rights. Amelia has investigated and reported on business and human rights-related issues in a number of countries, most particularly in the Central African and Asia-Pacific regions. Previously, she was the Global Human Rights Fellow at Harvard Law School and was a clinical supervisor at Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic. She also clerked at the New Zealand Court of Appeal, and worked at the Crown Law Office in New Zealand and the Victoria Government Solicitor's Office in Australia. Amelia obtained her LL.M. from Harvard Law School, and LL.B. (Hons.) and B.C.A. (Economics and Finance) from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Amelia also works on nonfiction/ documentary film projects. She is a fellow of the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy at The New School.

Andrea Peña Calvin

Job Titles:

Student in Computer Science at the Universidad Complutense De Madrid / Madrid, Spain
Student in Computer Science, Universidad Complutense De Madrid

Bio Andrea Peña Calvin is currently a Ph.D. student in computer science at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Her research spans computer science, data science, and social research, focusing on characterizing and measuring the activities and impact of blockchain-enabled online communities, particularly Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). Andrea investigates how DAOs operate and their strategic practices, with a keen interest in their innovative governance processes and the social, economic, and power dynamics within the DAO ecosystem. As an ICDE Fellow, she explores the cooperative values embedded within DAOs, analyzing their parallels and divergences from traditional cooperative structures. Andrea's work contributes valuable insights to the discourse on cooperative principles and their application in innovative organizational models like DAOs. pronouns: she/her/hers

Anh-Thu Nguyen

Job Titles:

Director of Strategic Partnerships, Democracy at Work Institute / New York City, USA

Bio Anh-Thu leads and supports market development initiatives, innovations, and strategic partnerships for worker cooperative creation, scale and growth. She supports DAWI's NYC work through the NYC Council-funded Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative, providing consulting, education and technical assistance to emerging worker cooperatives and developers. She was named a 2022-23 Coro New York Immigrant Civic Leadership Fellow. Her work has encompassed international human rights, social enterprise, and sustainable fashion. She began her career with the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT), and has launched and consulted on several conscious beauty and fashion brands, including being on the founding team of MAKE Beauty. She studied Classics and Government at Georgetown University and received her JD from the University of Texas School of Law.

Anita Gurumurthy

Job Titles:

Executive Director, IT for Change
Executive Director, IT for Change / Bengaluru, India
Founding Member and Executive Director of ‘IT for Change

Bio Anita Gurumurthy is a founding member and executive director of ‘IT for Change', where she leads research on the platform economy, data and AI governance, democracy in the digital age, and feminist frameworks on digital justice. Anita actively engages in national and international advocacy on digital rights and contributes regularly to academic and media spaces. She serves as advisor and expert on various bodies including the United Nations Secretary-General's 10-Member Group in support of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism, the Paris Peace Forum's working group on algorithmic governance, Save the Children's ICT4D Brain Trust, and Minderoo Tech & Policy Lab‘s Board.

Anne-Pauline De Cler

Job Titles:

ICDE Fellow

Anne-Pauline De Cler is an interdisciplinary scholar with an academic background in economics. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in economic sociology at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris, France. Her research centers on the institutions of the sharing economy and their alternatives in the food sector. Anne-Pauline is particularly interested in how these institutions can scale beyond the local level. As an ICDE fellow, Anne-Pauline will be investigating the Open Food Network, a non-profit that distributes a platform or "digital food commons" across approximately twenty local ‘antennas' that are federated at the transnational level. Her research will focus on comparing cooperatives that are developing in France, the USA, and Catalonia, and examining the forms of labor and regulation that constitute them. Her goal is to understand what makes them more or less viable and capable of transforming the institutional landscape as a whole. Through her research, Anne-Pauline aims to shed light on the ways in which cooperatives can contribute to building more sustainable and just economies. Pronouns: she/her/hers

Antonio Fici

Job Titles:

Associate Professor of Private Law at the University of Roma Tor Vergata / Rome, Italy
Associate Professor of Private Law, University of Roma Tor Vergata

Bio Antonio Fici is an Associate Professor of Private Law at the University of Roma Tor Vergata, Italy. With expertise in cooperative law, nonprofit and third sector law, as well as unconventional forms of enterprises like social enterprises and social economy organizations, Antonio is recognized as a lawyer, scholar, and international consultant in these fields. With over twenty years of experience, his expertise lies in organizational law, particularly in the areas of cooperative societies, consortia, non-profit entities, the third sector, social enterprises, and social cooperatives. He has authored numerous publications, including internationally recognized works, and has curated research reports commissioned by institutions like the European Commission and Parliament. Professor Fici has been a keynote speaker at various conferences in Italy and abroad and has successfully led international research groups. He also served as a consultant to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, contributing to the drafting of reform decrees for the third sector. Currently, he holds the position of Scientific Director at Terzjus, an observatory focused on third sector law, philanthropy, and social enterprise.

Balasubramanian Iyer

Job Titles:

Regional Director for International Cooperative Alliance

Balasubramanian Iyer is the Regional Director for International Cooperative Alliance Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP). ICA advances the co-operative social enterprise model and provides a global voice and forum for co-operatives. Balu brings strong management and operational credentials in strategic planning, budgeting, performance assessment, and compliance. His project experience across Asia extends in the areas of co-operatives, business associations, women's empowerment, technology adoption and economic development. Balu has worked with The Asia Foundation, International Development Exchange, ActionAid India, and Aga Khan Rural Support Programme. Balu has served as Adjunct Faculty at Southern New Hampshire University. He has a Master's Degree in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley; Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from Institute of Rural Management, Anand, India; and a Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering from National Institute of Technology in Durgapur, India. Balu serves as Administrator for the Domus Trust and is on the Steering Committee, World Co-operative Monitor. He has served on the Goldman School of Public Policy Alumni Board and was part of the team that co-founded the Global Women's Leadership Network.

Balu G. Iyer

Job Titles:

Regional Director Asia
Regional Director Asia and Pacific International / Co - Operative Alliance

Balu G. Iyer Regional Director Asia and Pacific International Co-operative Alliance

Cecilia Muñoz Cancela

Job Titles:

Professor, Researcher
Professor, Researcher, Cooperativist, and Ph.D. Student in Social and Human Sciences at the National University of Quilmes, Argentina / Buenos Aires, Argentina

Bio Cecilia Muñoz Cancela is a professor, researcher, and cooperativist. She holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Buenos Aires and completed a postgraduate specialization in NGO Promotion and Management at the Complutense University of Madrid in Spain. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Social and Human Sciences at the National University of Quilmes, Argentina. Cecilia's doctoral thesis focuses on platforms cooperativism within the realm of social and solidarity economy, employing a socio-technical approach. As a co-founder of Código Libre, a technology co-op, she actively contributes to projects with social impact. Cecilia's professional endeavors and research are driven by a profound interest in fostering social and political transformation within late capitalism, with a particular emphasis on cooperative platforms as a means to address these challenges. Additionally, she serves as vice-president of FACTTIC. pronouns: she/her/hers

Damion Jonathan Bunders

Job Titles:

Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor Governance of Urban Digitalization at Universiteit Utrecht
Bunders Assistant Professor Governance of Urban Digitalization

Damion Jonathan Bunders serves as an Assistant Professor in the Governance of Urban Digitalization at Universiteit Utrecht. He brings to this role a rich background in sociology and human geography, along with experience in departments of social and economic history and business administration, showcasing his dedication to interdisciplinary approaches. His doctoral research within the Sustainable Cooperation program delved into the organizational challenges faced by gig workers in platform cooperatives. Currently, Bunders is doing research on bottom-up strategies to improve working conditions of another type of digital worker: content creators on social media.

David K. Park

Job Titles:

Co - Chair Council of Advisors, the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy and Dean of Strategic Initiatives, Columbia University / New York, United States
Dean of Strategic Initiatives, Faculty of the Arts and Sciences at Columbia University

Bio David K. Park is Dean of Strategic Initiatives and serves as a senior advisor to the Executive Vice President and Dean of Faculty of the Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. Dr. Park is a member of Columbia University's Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering New Media Center, Director of Special Projects at the Applied Statistics Center and Fellow at the Center for the Management of Systemic Risk at Columbia University. Dr. Park is also a founding member of Columbia University's Digital Storytelling Lab. Dr. Park has co-founded several New York-based technology companies. Dr. Park is currently exploring the historical arc of universities, limitations and possibilities of "big data", how failure and vulnerability are the foundations of innovation and creativity across organizations, as well as the electoral origins of congressional polarization. Dr. Park is also working on several manuscripts including, The Twentieth Century Sectional Reversal: How did the Republican States Switch to the Democrats and Vice Versa? and Is History Repeating Itself? Comparing 1875 to 1928 and 1971 to 2008. Dr. Park received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland and his Ph.D. in political science at Columbia where he focused on historical-comparative institutional analyses of societal change. He was an assistant professor of political science and applied statistics at Washington University, assistant professor at George Washington University, visiting professor at Columbia University and Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. He has written numerous articles and co-authored Red State Blue State Rich State Poor State: Why American Vote the Way They Do (Princeton University Press).

Denise Kasparian

Job Titles:

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Buenos Aires
Assistant Professor, University of Buenos Aires
Researcher at the National Scientific

Denise Kasparian works as a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council and teaches as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Trained as a sociologist, she obtained her Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the same university. Kasparian is the author of "Co-operative Struggles" (Brill, 2022), a celebrated publication that earned an honorable mention in the Joyce Rothschild Book Prize for 2024. Her professional and academic contributions, reflect a keen interest in the dynamics and challenges of cooperative movements, showcasing her commitment to understanding and documenting social phenomena. Pronouns: she/her/hers

Doug O'Brien

Job Titles:

President & CEO / National Cooperative Business Association
President & CEO of NCBA CLUSA
President & CEO, National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International

Doug O'Brien is the President & CEO of NCBA CLUSA, where he works with the cooperative community, both domestically and internationally, to deepen its impact on individuals and communities. NCBA is the primary voice for cooperatives in the United States for using the cooperative business model to empower people in their businesses and communities. Doug has been with NCBA since 2016, where he has served as the Executive Vice President of Programs before becoming president and CEO in January 2018.

Erik Forman

Job Titles:

Co - Founder of the Drivers Cooperative
Co - Founder, the Drivers Cooperative CUNY Graduate Center / New York City, United States
Student CUNY Graduate Center, Co - Founder, the Drivers Cooperative

Bio Erik Forman is co-founder of The Drivers Cooperative, the first driver-owned rideshare platform cooperative in the United States, as well as People's Choice Communications, the world's first worker-owned ISP, launched by striking cable technicians. Before turning toward cooperative development as a strategy for system change, Erik was active in the labor movement for over 15 years, leading groundbreaking unionization campaigns in the fast food industry and conducting organizing trainings and workshops across the world. Erik is pursuing a PhD in Cultural Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center. He currently teaches at the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies in New York City, and is a visiting fellow at the Mobility Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and a Research Affiliate at the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy at The New School.

Esteban Kelly

Job Titles:

Executive Director / US Federation of Worker Cooperatives
Executive Director for the US Federation of Worker Co - Ops

Bio Esteban is the Executive Director for the US Federation of Worker Co-ops and a founding worker-owner in AORTA, a co-op whose facilitation supports organizations fighting for social justice and a solidarity economy. Esteban previously worked at the New Economy Coalition and has worked in co-ops for over 20 years. He is a board member of the American co-op apex organization, the National Cooperative Business Association, known internationally as CLUSA. He is a mayoral appointee and co-chair of the Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Council and won a Social Innovation Award for Public Policy in 2018.

Esther N. Gicheru

Job Titles:

Director, Institute of Co
Director, Institute of Co - Operative Development, Co - Operative University of Kenya

Director, Institute of Co-operative Development (ICD) at the Co-operative University of Kenya Facundo Picabea Senior Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and the Institute for the Study of Science and Technology at the National University of Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Eve O'Connor

Eve O'Connor is an interdisciplinary historian with research interests in cultural and economic histories of capitalism, gender & sexuality theory, and environmental studies. She is currently writing a dissertation on US cooperatives in the first half of the twentieth century.

Fabro Steibel

Job Titles:

Executive Director
Executive Director of the Institute for Technology & Society

Fabro Steibel is the Executive Director of the Institute for Technology & Society (ITS), Professor of New Technologies and Innovation at ESPM Rio (Brazil), Open Government Fellow at the Organization of American States, and Affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. He holds a post-doc in online consultations from UFF (Brazil) and a Ph.D. in Media from the University of Leeds (UK). He has more than ten years of experience in research projects related to technology and society, funded by organizations such as the European Commission, the European Parliament, Mercosur, and IDRC. His publications are mainly in the areas of human rights, open government, and technology.

Facundo Picabea

Job Titles:

Senior Researcher
Senior Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council ( CONICET ) Buenos Aires, Argentina

Bio Facundo Picabea, a Senior Researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and the Institute for the Study of Science and Technology at the National University of Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina, is recognized for his interdisciplinary approach in Social Sciences. Holding a PhD from the University of Buenos Aires, his expertise spans inclusion, 20th-century history, historical analysis, and Science, Technology & Society Studies (STS), with a focus on political economy and the history of technology and science. Picabea has contributed significantly to understanding technological impacts on society through 36 publications, gathering over 25,746 reads and 151 citations. His work on e-inclusion and just transitions in technology-intensive sectors underscores his commitment to integrating technology with societal needs for sustainable development.

Gabriela Rendón

Job Titles:

Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Community Development at the School

Gabriela Rendón is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning and Community Development at the School of Design Strategies, Parsons School of Design, The New School. From 2017 to 2019, she co-directed the MS in Design and Urban Ecologies and the MA in Theories of Urban Practice programs and co-chaired the Urban Council at the School of Design Strategies. Rendón has instructed courses across different programs and schools at The New School and coordinated a number of long-term academic projects with community partners and non-profit organizations since 2010. Most of these projects have committed to social and spatial justice and involved students from graduate and undergraduate programs. Before teaching at The New School, Rendón taught at the European Masters in Urbanism at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. Rendón holds a BS in Architecture from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico, an MS in Urbanism from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and a Ph.D. in Spatial Planning and Strategy from the same Dutch institution. Her research interests include neighborhood decline and restructuring, community planning and design, women-led urban and community practices, solidarity urban economies, housing cooperative models, as well as other collective and non-speculative housing models providing equitable development in profit-driven urban environments. She is the author and co-editor of a number of publications. Her latest research delves into Mexican immigrants' neighborhoods, homes, and livelihoods in the increasingly gentrified borough of Brooklyn. Rendón is also co-founder of Cohabitation Strategies, a nonprofit organization for socio-spatial research, design, and development based in Rotterdam and Brooklyn. Cohabitation Strategies' urban practice combines action-research, planning, design, cultural production, art, and activism. Over the last 10 years, this non-profit has been engaged in projects of diverse scales and complexities commissioned by art, cultural, and academic institutions, as well as municipalities and government agencies in diverse countries, including the Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany, Venezuela, Ecuador, Canada, and the United States. Rendón's work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, the Istanbul Design Biennial 2012, the Vienna Biennale 2015, the Portugal Triennial 2016, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

Gabriella Rendón

Job Titles:

Affiliated Advisor

George Oates

Job Titles:

Executive Director & Founder, Flickr Foundation
Software Designer

Software Designer; Executive Director & Founder, the Flickr Foundation; Founder & CEO, Museum in a Box; Former: Design Lead at Flickr and Internet Archive.

Greg Lindsay

Job Titles:

Affiliated Advisor
Generalist, Urbanist, Futurist, and Speaker
Generalist, Urbanist, Futurist, Speaker, and Senior Fellow at MIT 's Future Urban Collectives Lab / Boston, USA

Bio Greg Lindsay is a renowned generalist, urbanist, futurist, and speaker. Currently serving as the 2022-2023 urban tech fellow at Cornell Tech's Jacobs Institute, he leads The Metaverse Metropolis project, exploring the impact of augmented reality on urban environments. Greg is a senior fellow at MIT's Future Urban Collectives Lab, a senior advisor to Climate Alpha, and a non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Strategy Initiative. Recognized as an expert on cities, technology, and mobility, Greg has been cited by leading media outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and CNN. As a partner at FutureMap, he has advised notable organizations including Intel, Samsung, and IKEA. With a wealth of experience, Greg has spoken at prestigious venues worldwide and his work has been featured in renowned publications, including The Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Beyond his professional achievements, Greg is also a two-time Jeopardy! champion, known for his remarkable victory against IBM's Watson.

Greta Byrum

Job Titles:

Affiliated Advisor
Co - Director of the Digital Equity Laboratory at the New School
Co - Director of the Digital Equity Laboratory at the New School / New York, United States

Bio Greta Byrum reimagines the way we design, build, control, and govern communications systems. As Co-Director of the Digital Equity Laboratory at the New School and Director of the Community Tech New York project, she builds digital justice through applied research, co-designed community technology projects, and policy strategy. Previously Byrum founded and led the Resilient Communities program at New America, where she developed and led Resilient Networks NYC, an initiative bringing training, tools, and equipment for storm-hardened mesh WiFi to five neighborhoods in NYC's flood plains. Current projects include community wireless network collaborations in rural Tennessee and the Hudson Valley as well as a curriculum and manual for 2020 digital decennial census preparedness. An urban planner, poet, and digital justice organizer, Byrum also serves on the board of the Metropolitan New York Library Council. Micah Sifry co-founder and executive director of Civic Hall, New York City's community center for civic tech

Hal W. Plotkin

Job Titles:

Policy Fellow at Creative Commons

Howard Brodsky

Job Titles:

Leader
Co - Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, CCA Global Partners
Founder and Chairman of the Cooperatives for a Better World

Bio Howard Brodsky is a world leader of co-operatives and a prolific American entrepreneur. He is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of CCA Global Partners, one of the largest Cooperatives in the United States with sales of over 10 billion. A pioneer of the cooperative business model, Brodsky dedicated his career to helping entrepreneurs build successful businesses by providing the scale and resources they needed to compete. CCA Global Partners has more than 2800 retail locations, services 20,000 childcare centers, 2,000 nonprofits, and services over 1,000,000 independent family businesses. Brodsky was awarded the 2019 Global Leadership Award by the World Affairs Council, inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame, Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame, World Floor Covering Industry Hall of Fame, and awarded New Hampshire Business Leader of the Year. Brodsky is the Founder and Chairman of the Cooperatives for a Better World, a worldwide non-profit, which aims to scale the global cooperative movement. Brodsky serves on the Board of Directors for SolutionHealth, Southern New Hampshire University, National Cooperative Business Association, and Chairman of the Better Business Bureau. Brodsky is a published author and can be seen as part of the highly-selective TEDx talk series.

Hoyeon Lee

Job Titles:

Research Assistant, Platform Cooperativism Consortium

Trebor Scholz Researcher, author, New School professor, and Founding Director of the PCC

Isaac K. Nyamongo Scholar

Job Titles:

Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academic, Cooperative Development
Scholar and Deputy Vice Chancellor, the Co - Operative University of Kenya

Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academic, Cooperative Development, Research, and Innovation at The Co-operative University of Kenya Isaac K. Nyamongo, PhD, is a Fulbright Scholar and a notable figure in cooperative development, recognized with the 2022 Pelto International Award and the OCDC International Cooperative Champion Award. As Deputy Vice Chancellor at The Co-operative University of Kenya, he oversees Academic, Cooperative Development, Research, and Innovation. A member of the Committee on Cooperative Research for the International Cooperative Alliance, Nyamongo brings nearly three decades of experience in teaching, research, and consultancy. His work, which has been widely published, focuses on supporting women-led and worker co-ops. He contributes regularly to discussions on cooperative development in the Nation, Kenya's leading daily newspaper. Nyamongo holds a Doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Florida and serves as President of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences.