Elsa works as a Legal & Policy Officer within the European Innovation Council (EIC) Task Force, Governance & Coordination Unit, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. The EIC supports brilliant innovators, SMEs and startups to bring their ideas to market and enable their scale-up. Previously, she worked at the "Health" Directorate of the same Directorate-General, where she developed an affinity for the world of health research, digital and data technologies. Before joining the European Commission, Elsa worked for globally leading consulting firms such as Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, a Non-for profit entity and an Association Management company, in Luxembourg and Brussels. She is knowledgeable of issues, initiatives and policies (EU and International) in the sectors of energy, alternative fuels, climate change, emissions’ reduction, environment protection, transport, health research & care, digital technologies, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, DLTs/Blockchain and cybersecurity. A jurist by education and subsequent training, she wanted to learn more about geopolitics and international relations. She thus obtained a Master’s degree in Strategic Studies where, among other issues on war and peace, she was “introduced” to Carl von Clausewitz, his strategic theory and his brilliant book ‘On War’. The affinity for the health research & care world and her curiosity for the fascinating worlds of AI, ML and related technologies, led her decision to pursue a long-distance, part-time PhD in Artificial Intelligence and "ethics-by-design" in the health & care sector.
Elsa has joined fellow women lawyers as a Board member of the European Women Lawyers Association (EWLA). She participates in the IEEE working group on Empathic Technologies and in particular the sub-group on ethical explainability and she is a Mentor at the ‘Lighthouse3’ project, which is an AI Ethics Mentoring Program. She was a member of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) Health Data Interest Group.
When not dealing with the data world, Elsa appreciates the water (scuba diving) and fitness (functional training) worlds.
Elsa’s inspirational quote: We can do well by doing good!
