Fighting
Disinformation
& the Role of AI

Alexandre Bovet is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mathematical Modeling and Machine Learning and a member of the Digital Society Initiative at the University of Zurich. He is the head of the Quantitative Network Science group, which focuses on understanding complex systems and their modeling using complex networks. His group is interested in interdisciplinary approaches and the development of new mathematical and computational tools to answer social, biological, and economic questions. In particular, they work on developing new methods to describe and understand networks, as well as social media and its impact on society, including disinformation, social dynamics, media, and democracy.
Before that, Alexandre was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Mathematics of Social Systems and Applications to Public Policy at the Mathematical Institute at Oxford University. He also held the position of SNSF Advanced Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mathematical Engineering department (INMA, ICTEAM) of the Université Catholique de Louvain and at the Namur Center for Complex Systems. He was also an SNSF Early Postdoctoral Fellow at the Levich Institute of the City College of New York, as well as a Postdoctoral researcher at the Theoretical Biology lab at the ETHZ, Zurich, Switzerland. He received his PhD in physics from EPFL in Lausanne in 2015.

Caroline Vuillemin has been Director General of Fondation Hirondelle since 1 January 2017. Her career reflects a strong commitment to international development, particularly in Africa. She joined Fondation Hirondelle in December 2003. Initially in charge of the Radio Okapi project (the United Nations radio station in the DRC created in partnership with Fondation Hirondelle), she became Director of Operations in 2008. Before joining Fondation Hirondelle, she worked for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), where she participated in numerous election observation missions in the DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, South Africa, Nigeria, and Congo-Brazzaville. Caroline Vuillemin holds a degree from the Lyon Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Lyon), complemented by a diploma in International Relations from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. She is a member of the committees of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), Fedevaco (Vaud Federation for Development Cooperation), and the H2H Network (Humanitarian to Humanitarian).

Christian Peukert is a Professor of Digitization, Innovation and Intellectual Property at HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne. My research examines how digital technologies reshape markets, firms, regulation, and society.
My work engages closely with legal and policy debates, including copyright and text-and-data mining, and digital market regulation in general.

R. Kat Morse is Acting Head of Solutions Hub at Globethics, where she helps leaders and organizations navigate complex ethical challenges and ethical risk management in an era of rapid technological and societal change. Her work focuses on ethical decision-making, responsible leadership, and the implications of emerging technologies, including AI, Web3, and quantum computing. In parallel, she is Managing Director of Evolvere Advisory, advising organizations on innovation, strategy, and emerging technologies. Previously, she led innovation initiatives at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and founded Wiine.Me, a technology startup focused on personalized wine discovery.She is an experienced facilitator and speaker in executive, academic, and international settings, speaking on ethics, leadership, innovation, and emerging technologies. Ms. Morse is a TEDx speaker and guest lecturer on Web3, AI, and Quantum Computing at Harvard Law School. She holds a J.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a B.S. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Neurobiology from the University of Rochester.

Naomi Haefner is Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Innovation. Her research examines how artificial intelligence is reshaping innovation strategy, organizational design, and leadership decision-making. 
Her work bridges rigorous academic insight with practical application. As a researcher, educator, and advisor, she designs and delivers executive education programs for board members, senior leaders, and public-sector innovators navigating complex technological change. Her approach integrates frameworks that equip leaders to respond to fast-moving developments with structure and impact. 
Haefner’s work has been published in leading journals such as Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice and Technological Forecasting and Social Change. Her paper, Artificial intelligence and innovation management: A review, framework, and research agenda, has been ranked among the top 1% most cited research articles in the social sciences according to the Web of Science.
In addition, she has co-authored pedagogical tools including a Harvard Business School case study on strategic resilience, supporting leaders in building adaptive and future-ready organizations. 
She is a regular speaker on topics including AI strategy, business model innovation, and the future of institutions.
Prior to joining IMD in 2026, Haefner was Assistant Professor of Technology Management at the University of St. Gallen.  She was affiliated with the Global Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (GCEI-HSG) and the Institute of Technology Management (ITEM-HSG), where she led the Emerging Technologies Lab. The lab examines and assesses emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence and machine learning, and their implications for on innovation, strategic decision-making, new venture creation, business models, and business opportunities.

Prof. Touradj Ebrahimi stands among the most influential figures in the field of multimedia signal processing, where his vision, scientific excellence, and leadership have redefined the way the world captures, processes, authenticates, and experiences multimedia information. A Professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Head of the Multimedia Signal Processing Group (MMSPG), he has pioneered breakthroughs that span image and video compression, media security, multimedia user experience, and AI-powered imaging technologies.
For over three decades, Prof. Ebrahimi’s research has shaped global standards and technological practices. As Convenor of the JPEG Committee (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 1) since 2014, he has led the creation of revolutionary standards, including JPEG XS for ultra-low latency and high-quality applications, JPEG XL a feature rich image compression standard for today and emerging imaging applications, JPEG AI harnessing artificial intelligence for next-generation image coding, JPEG Trust ensuring multimedia authenticity in the age of synthetic media, as well as the upcoming JPEG DNA for encoding digital data into synthetic DNA, and JPEG XE, the world’s first standard for coding of events for machine vision applications. His work has impacted industries as diverse as broadcasting, cinema, extended reality, social media, publishing, and archival.
Prof. Ebrahimi’s scientific influence is matched by his prolific scholarly output — over 350 peer-reviewed publications and numerous patents — and by his role in training the next generation of innovators, having supervised more than 50 doctoral theses. His contributions have been recognized with the SMPTE Progress Medal, the IEEE Standards Medallion, and an Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, among many other international honors.
Beyond academia, he is the founder and CEO of RayShaper SA, a Swiss company delivering AI-driven imaging solutions with global impact. He is a trusted advisor to governments, research agencies, and industry consortia, shaping policy and technological roadmaps for trustworthy AI, media authenticity, and sustainable innovation.

Katherine Tatarinov’s research focuses on social innovation, digital transformation, and managing the grand challenges. Her previous work empirically analyzed the understudied context of the United Nations organizations and their strategies to better solve the world’s biggest problems through innovation, technology, and collaborative ecosystems. Today’s research projects involve understanding the role of Artificial Intelligence and digital technology in various verticals including finance and education. Her academic research is regularly presented at leading conferences, published in top international academic journals, such as Journal of International Business Studies and Journal of Management Studies, as well as practitioner journals, such as AIB Insights and Stanford Social Innovation Review, and received several prestigious awards such as the Peter J. Buckley and Mark Casson AIB Dissertation Award (2022) and the GSEM Young Researcher of the Year Award (2021). In addition to academia, Katherine translates fundamental research to practice as Managing Director of the non-profit Geneva Innovation Movement. She is also a start-up founder, now working on her second startup, Tortin, which builds future ready learning systems for universities.

Prof. Dr. Liudmila Zavolokina is Assistant Professor of Digital Innovation and Information Systems at HEC of the University of Lausanne. Her research focuses on human-centred design and use of digital technologies in areas that create public value, including humanitarian applications, resilience to propaganda, and government technology.

Short bio: Patrick Haack is Full Professor of Strategy and Responsible Management at HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne, where he serves as Director of the Department of Strategy, Globalization and Society. He is also an International Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation and Director of the HEC Research Center for Grand Challenges, a cross-faculty hub advancing research and teaching on major societal and economic issues. His research focuses on the conceptual and empirical study of legitimacy, a foundational mechanism that shapes social and institutional change. Most recently, his work on countering fake news examines why traditional information-based responses often fail and proposes new strategies to help organizations maintain trust in an era of disinformation. He serves as an Associate Editor at the Journal of Management Studies and sits on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, and Organization Studies.