The Brussels Privacy Hub (BPH) was founded in 2014 by Prof. Dr. Paul De Hert and Prof. Dr. Christopher Kuner, who have also acted as its co-directors. Since then, it has grown into a leading international center of critical discussion on privacy and data protection law and policy in the EU and around the world. It was established under the auspices of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) – a leading Belgian university based in central Brussels – to serve as a platform for privacy-related research.

In view of his appointment as a vice-dean to the Faculty of Law & Criminology and in order to prepare for the future, Paul De Hert will step back as a director from October 2021 on and will be replaced by Professor Dr. Gianclaudio Malgieri. De Hert will remain active as a core BPH member together with other eminent scholars from within VUB (see https://brusselsprivacyhub.eu/home-2/whoweare.html).

Prof. Dr. Gianclaudio Malgieri will then step in as the new co-director (together with Prof. Kuner). Malgieri is Associate Professor of Law & Technology at the EDHEC Augmented Law Institute in France and Affiliated Researcher and Guest Professor at VUB (where he obtained a PhD in law) and has been active in other EU universities as well (such as those in Göttingen, Strasbourg, and Pisa). Prof. Malgieri has been an active member of the BPH since 2016, coordinating training activities, organizing events and conducting research on privacy and data protection law. His works have appeared in leading international newspapers such as The New York Times, Le Monde, La Repubblica and others. He is also an external ethical expert of the European Commission and a member of the editorial boards of top law journals.

“We are extremely grateful to Paul for all he did to help lead the Hub since it was founded. His leadership has been crucial to achieving the success that we enjoy today”, said Prof. Kuner. Kuner also stated that “I am very happy to have Gianclaudio join us as co-director. As I prepare to retire, he will play a key role in helping us transition to a new generation of leadership for the Hub.”

Under its new leadership, the BPH will continue to focus on cutting-edge privacy and data protection topics such as data protection in law enforcement; international data transfers; AI regulation, data protection and research; and others. It will also keep organizing free seminars, event series, conferences and publishing working papers (see for a complete list of the BPH’s activities, see https://brusselsprivacyhub.eu/publications/).

The BPH’S activities are made possible mainly through the academic support of the VUB Faculty of Law and Criminology and financial support from research projects and private donations (for more information see here: https://brusselsprivacyhub.eu/home-2/governance.html).