Babak Akhgar is Professor of Informatics and Director of CENTRIC (Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organized Crime Research) at Sheffield Hallam University, UK and Fellow of the British Computer Society. He has more than 120 refereed publications in international journals and conferences on strategic information systems with specific focus on knowledge management (KM) and intelligence management. He is member of editorial boards of several international journals and has acted as Chair and Program Committee Member for numerous international conferences. He has extensive and hands-on experience in the development, management and execution of KM-projects and large international security initiatives (e.g., the application of social media in crisis management, intelligence-based combating of terrorism and organized crime, gun crime, cyber-crime and cyber terrorism and cross-cultural ideology polarization). In addition to this, he acts as technical lead in EU security projects (e.g., the EU H2020-project TENSOR on dark web). He has co-edited several books on Intelligence Management. His recent books are titled “Knowledge Driven Frameworks for Combating Terrorism and Organised Crime”, “Emerging Trends in ICT Security” ,“Application of Big Data for National Security” and OSINT for Law Enforcement Agencies. Prof Akhgar is board member of the European Organisation for Security (EOS) and member of the academic advisory board of SAS UK.
Petra Saskia Bayerl is Professor of Digital Communication and Security at CENTRIC (Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organized Crime Research) at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. She is a regular speaker at police and security conferences and workshops and member of advisory boards of EU projects as well as program Committee Member for international conferences. Her research lays at the intersection of human-computer interaction, organizational communication and organizational change with a special focus on the impact of technological innovations and public safety. Her research has been published in journals such as MIS Quarterly, Communications of the ACM, New Media and Society and Journal of Organizational Behaviour as well as international conferences in psychology, management, computational linguistics and computer sciences and books. She has co-edited several books, most recently “Application of Big Data for National Security” (Elsevier), “Open Source Intelligence Investigation: From Strategy to Implementation” (Springer), “Community Policing - A European Perspective” (Springer) and “Digitale Polizeiarbeit” (Springer VS).
Georgios Leventakis (PhD – MBA – MSc) is a qualified Security Expert. He holds a PhD in the area of Risk Assessment Modeling in Critical Infrastructure (CI) Protection, an MBA, and an MSc in Risk Management. He has 24 years of professional experience in the public sector, of which 18 years are in security management. He has participated in several National, European, and International projects and initiatives, regarding physical security of critical infrastructures, border management (land and sea border surveillance), and civil protection/homeland security technology and operations. He has also participated in tender procedures for complex security systems, including command and control and decision support systems. His research interests include social media platforms in community policing, risk assessment modelling in CI protection, smart borders applications and tools, and integrated border management solutions. Since 2006, he was the scientific coordinator of the Center for Security Studies – the Scientific, Advisory and Research Center of the Hellenic Ministry of Interior (KEMEA) – and participated in various European programs funded by the European Commission. He has participated as senior researcher in more than 45 EU research projects, has authored several academic papers published in relevant journals, and has presented them at academic conferences. Dr. Leventakis has worked and collaborated with many public safety and security agencies in Greece and abroad; from the execution phase of the Risk Management Program for the SYDNEY 2000 Olympic Games, the Security Program of the ATHENS 2004 Olympic Games, till more recently on the design and development of National Scale Table Top and Operational Readiness Exercises. He has been involved in the development of Threat Assessment and Vulnerability Assessment Studies, Operational Security Plans and Emergency Response Plans and Procedures, for the Protection of Vital Infrastructures and Governmental Buildings in Greece and EU. Currently he has been assigned as Head of Division at the Civil Emergency Planning and Civil Protection division, within the Hellenic Parliament.