Geraldine de Bastion (de)

Geraldine de Bastion is a British/German political scientist with years of experience working with net activists, governments, startups, and non-governmental organizations around the world. Her research and work focuses on digitalization, innovation and human rights.

Geraldine co-founded Konnektiv in 2013 with René Schodder and Melanie Stilz and together with René Schodder leads the company as CEO. 

In addition, Geraldine is a popular moderator and public speaker at events around digital transformation, sustainability, and innovation. She hosts events such as re:publica, Start Up Energy Transition (SET) Tech Festival, and NZZ X.Days. Furthermore, Geraldine has given keynote talks for TedX events, Federal Ministry events like the Civic Innovation Platform Award, and startup events including the Nürnberg Digital Festival.

Her work over the last 18 years has focused on digital transformation and international cooperation, innovation, and human rights. Geraldine has a background in political sciences and is bilingual (en/de) with an intercultural background. She has experience working with activists, governments, startups, and NGOs across the world.

Geraldine is also the founder of the Global Innovation Gathering (GIG), a network of grassroots innovators, social entrepreneurs, founders, and managers of makerspaces, hackerspaces, and innovation hubs. In 2018, she authored and moderated the ARTE documentary “Digital Africa” which captures many of the innovator’s activities in the GIG network.

Since 2012, she has been part of the curatorial team for the re:publica, Europe’s largest conference on the topic of the internet and society, and regularly organizes and curates events in the field of politics and digitization. In 2018, she organized the first re:publica in Accra, Ghana with over 2000 participants and over 260 speakers from across Africa.

Geraldine has been a member of the BMBF Zukunftskreis since 2019. Furthermore, she has been named by the City of Berlin as a member of the City Lab Advisory Board and a member of the Smart City Strategy Advisory Board. Geraldine is part of the Development Service and Humanitarian Aid Committee (AEDHH) for Brot für die Welt.