About – Etienne Koeppel

About me

Etienne Koeppel

I am a tech policy specialist and strategy consultant. With previous roles at ARTICLE 19 and Freedom House, my experience has bridged combating human rights harms in the digital realm and organisational development. I help mission-driven organisations, from grassroots digital rights groups to international NGOs, to sharpen their strategies, secure sustainable funding, and build up organisational capacity.

With over 8 years of experience in the field of digital rights, I hold an MSc in Conflict Studies from the London School of Economics and speak English, French, and Spanish fluently.

Tech policy & digital rights

I am preoccupied with questions of digital sovereignty and tech governance. Many of the technologies being deployed today directly undermine the public interest and serve to consolidate power in the hands of a few, unaccountable companies. As a result, rather than empowering communities and making us safer, our digital environments and tech tools put us at risk and reduce our autonomy and freedoms online. I research these harms and the political economy that sustains them, and advocate for better policies and governance of technology.

Strategy consulting

Non-profits face an increasingly challenging environment. Growing authoritarianism and censorship, dwindling access to funding, and shifting political priorities globally are putting the future of the digital rights field in peril. I support organisations to adapt and thrive in this landscape through adapted organisational strategies and improved tools and processes for project management and fundraising. For instance, I've helped many clients transition from ad-hoc fundraising to a more intentional and sustainable approach, with access to a reusable core toolkit of key documents and standardised templates to save time and enable quick responses to funding opportunities.

Experience

A career at the intersection of rights, technology, and organisational development

2025 - Present

Digital Rights Strategy Consultant

Self-employed

Advising digital rights non-profits and open-source tool builders on strategy, organisational sustainability, fundraising, and partnership-building.

2025 - present

Grantmaking Consultant

European Digital Rights (EDRi), Brussels, Belgium (Remote)

Expert member of EDRi’s Participatory Grantmaking Committee. Co-designed the fund's strategy and processes, evaluating applications for projects focused on organisational development, platform accountability, and urgent support.

2024 - 2025

Programme Officer - Datafication

ARTICLE 19, London, UK

Conducted research and policy analysis and advocacy on digital infrastructure governance governance, including compute, cloud, and
data dependencies and their implications for sovereignty, competition, and rights. Specific focus on AI and biometric digital identity systems.

2020 - 2024

Senior Programme Officer

ARTICLE 19, London, UK

Facilitated project and strategy design for global programmes, and led on institutional business development through partnership-building and proposal-writing. Co-managed a fund dedicated to combatting tech harms.

2018 - 2019

Senior Programme Associate

Freedom House, Washington D.C., USA

Managed a sub-grants mechanism for grassroots NGOs and gave emergency assistance to survivors of human rights abuses. Conducted policy analysis and advocacy.

2016

Junior Digital Policy Consultant

A2 Policy Advice, Brussels, Belgium

Conducted policy analysis and advocacy on EU digital regulation, engaging with dossiers led by DG CNECT and DG COMP.

Education

Academic background

2018 - 2019

MSc Conflict Studies

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, UK

• Obtained with Distinction
• Department of Government Prize for Best Dissertation

2014 - 2016

BA Political Science, Economics Minor

McGill University, Montreal, Canada

• Obtained with Distinction

skills

I'm good at

Programme management Policy analysis Advocacy Research Fundraising Strategy development Project design Grantmaking

Languages

I speak

English

Native

French

Native

Spanish

Fluent

German

Beginner

Arabic

Beginner

expertise

I work on

Tech policy Digital rights Biometric surveillance Digital identity AI governance Online safety