Speaker Bio
Tomicah Tillemann is the President of Project Liberty and Acting CEO of the Project Liberty Foundation, leading efforts to build a better internet. His work focuses on providing digital citizens with more agency over their data, a voice in how digital platforms operate, and greater access to the benefits of the innovation economy. Prior to joining Project Liberty, he was the Chief Policy Officer of Haun Ventures where he helped build policy architecture for the next generation of the web. Previously, Tillemann was a partner and Global Head of Policy at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Tillemann also served as Senior Advisor to two secretaries of state, directing a team of experts that built 20 major initiatives in 55 countries.
He joined the State Department in 2009 as Hillary Clinton's speechwriter and spent four years on the professional staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee supporting Joe Biden, Tony Blinken, Barack Obama, and John Kerry. Tillemann also served as the Executive Director of the Digital Impact and Governance Initiative at New America, overseeing programs on social finance, technology, and democratic governance. He led teams that developed open-source technology solutions for democratic institutions worldwide.
Tillemann is a co-holder of four patents. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Yale University and holds a Ph.D. with distinction from the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.