Our experts

Cosimo Monda

Cosimo Monda is the Director of the Maastricht European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity (ECPC), which has been established in 2016 at the Law Faculty, Maastricht University.

At ECPC his work has a strong European and international outlook in the field of privacy and cybersecurity, steering an interdisciplinary group of researchers, academics and professionals active in areas of fundamental rights, data privacy, transparency and confidentiality, IT, data security, and more. Cosimo Monda has a longstanding experience in designing executive education, certification courses and online learning modules for professionals who are required to deal with new regulations and on-going developments in the privacy and cybersecurity market. Before joining Maastricht University, he was working at the European Institute of Public Administration, as Senior Lecturer and Head of Information, Publications, and Marketing services. He holds a Law Degree obtained at the University of Bologna.

His fields of expertise include Data Protection and Cyber security, EU Information Management; Transparency and access to documents; EU Agencies; EU decision-making procedures and Institutions and EU law. 

Cristina Teleki

Dr Cristina Teleki is an Assistant Professor at the European Centre for Privacy and Cybersecurity. Prior to joining the ECPC, she worked at the European Court of Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross. She earned her doctoral degree from the University of Bern in Switzerland. She writes and teaches competition law, data governance and strategic litigation.

Davide Baldini

Davide Baldini is a data protection and IT lawyer. He is a Partner at the leading international law firm ICT Legal Consulting, where he provides consultancy on personal data protection, TMT and IT contracts to multinational companies and innovative start-ups. He obtained the DPO certification (ECPC-B) issued by Maastricht University and is a certified auditor for the Cloud Security Alliance Code of Conduct and for the Europrivacy certification scheme. He held the position of research fellow at the University of Florence from May 2021 to October 2022, conducting research on profiling and automated decision-making. He is currently a PhD Candidate in European and Transnational Legal Studies at the same University, where he conducts research in the field of artificial intelligence, with a focus on algorithmic discrimination. He is the author of several essays and papers for legal blogs and law journals.

Laura Brodahl 

Laura Brodahl is a senior associate in the EU data regulatory practice of Wilson Sonsini, based in Brussels. Her practice focuses on digital regulatory issues under the GDPR, AI Act and EU Cybersecurity regulations such as the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and NIS2 Directive. Laura regularly offers strategic and practical guidance to organizations of all sizes, including in their interactions with regulatory authorities. Her all-round experience allows her to easily navigate the complexities of the EU's data regulatory landscape. She has considerable experience in advising on cutting-edge technologies in FinTech, social media, autonomous vehicles, and biometrics. The Legal 500 calls her out for “ her advice on matters relating to innovation technology”.

Thomas Fabry 

Thomas Fabry is assistant professor of privacy and cybersecurity at Maastricht University's European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity (ECPC). As a multidisciplinary scientist, he holds a master degree in Computing Science from KU Leuven (Belgium), a PhD in Engineering Sciences from Université Grenoble Alpes (France), a bachelor degree in Medicine, and a teaching degree in Mathematics also from KU Leuven. His current research interests are mainly situated in the field of (healthcare) security, privacy and data ethics. Previous research has included fields such as medical imaging and computer vision, biometrics for security and privacy and (computational) health physics.

Prior to joining Maastricht University, Thomas Fabry held research positions in Belgium and at CERN in Switzerland, as well as industry roles in the Netherlands and Switzerland that featured quality/regulatory management and cybersecurity governance.

As part of his professional activities outside academia, Thomas Fabry holds the role of Senior Privacy Officer/Senior Scientist at Philips.

Beyond his academic pursuits, Thomas Fabry is an accomplished musician.

Paolo Balboni

Paolo Balboni (PhD) is a Professor of Privacy, Cybersecurity, and IT Contract Law at the European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity (ECPC) within the Maastricht University Faculty of Law. His main research focuses are cybersecurity, data management/sharing and data protection as a corporate social responsibility, which together can be used to help organisations responsibly further their economic targets and at the same time positively contribute to the development of a fair data-centric society.

Qualified lawyer specialized in ICT, Privacy & Cybersecurity admitted to the Milan Bar and registered to the Amsterdam Bar. He is a Founding Partner of ICT Legal Consulting (ICTLC), an international law firm, and ICT Cyber Consulting, a company specialized in information/data security. Prof. Dr. Balboni is a Recommended Lawyer ranked by The Legal 500 EMEA 2023 in the areas of Data Privacy and Data Protection and Industry Focus: TMT. He is the Chairman of the European Patent Office (EPO) Data Protection Board, Member of the EUMETSAT Data Protection Supervisory Authority, Member of the Europrivacy Board of Experts, Member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on B2B data sharing and cloud computing contracts, and of the Cloud Security Alliance’s AI Safety Expert Group. Prof. Dr. Balboni furthermore advises governments on national matters concerning cybersecurity and privacy and in 2018, he drafted the national Surinamese Privacy and Data Protection Law.

Thomas Zerdick

Thomas Zerdick is the Head of the "Supervision and Enforcement" Unit in the office of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). 

Previously, Thomas was Head of the “Technology and Privacy" Unit at EDPS dealing with new technologies and their impact on personal data protection and privacy, as well as Member of Cabinet for the European Commission's First Vice-President Timmermans with responsibilities in particular for issues relating to the Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights, including personal data protection. At the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Thomas was Acting Head of the Product Safety Unit and Deputy Head of the Data Protection Unit.

Thomas was a key member of the team that prepared and negotiated the European Commission's data protection reform proposals, i.e. the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Police Data Protection Directive between 2009 and 2016. He also held positions at the DG for Internal Market and the DG for Enlargement, including as an EU legal expert to the United Nations Good Offices Mission in Cyprus.

Thomas studied Law at the University of Passau (Germany) and at the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium). He was a German Rechtsanwalt (attorney) specialising in European Union law, IT law and personal data protection law, and Director of the German Bar Association’s Brussels office.

He publishes commentaries, books and articles on European Union law, e.g. in Ehrmann/Selmayr, Kommentar zur DS-GVO, Beck-Verlag; Kuner/Bygrave/Docksey, The EU General Data Protection Regulation - A Commentary, Oxford University Press, and is former editor of the EDPS TechDispatch.

Maria Magierska

Maria is a Senior Lecturer at the European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity within the Maastricht University Faculty of Law. There, she teaches and co-coordinates courses in the Advanced Master in Privacy, Cybersecurity and Data Management. At the European University Institute in Florence, she is currently finishing her PhD in digital rights enforcement in the European Union, focusing on the GDPR procedural framework.

Before joining the ECPC, Maria worked at NOYB – European Center for Digital Rights in Vienna, the European Parliament and the Polish Commissioner for Human Rights. She holds an LLM from the EUI (2020), a Master’s degree in law (2018) and a Bachelor’s degree in Polish philology (2017) from the University of Warsaw.

 Maria is a founding member of the Management Committee of the Data Protection Scholars Network. She is an editor of the Digital Constitutionalist and an EUI Digital Public Sphere Working Group member.

Joyce Groneschild

Joyce Groneschild is the Deputy-Director of the European Centre on Privacy and Cybersecurity (ECPC) at the Faculty of Law. Joyce is a strategic marketing specialist with a strong focus on value co-creation. She has a longstanding experience in running executive education programmes for professionals, managing large projects and developing executive programmes to fit organisations’ needs globally.