Founder & Director

Vigjilenca is an awarded legal scholar widely recognized for her expertise on whistleblowing. Vigjilenca’s legal advice on whistleblowing is sought both in European policy-making and private industry. She co-drafted the model European law on whistleblower protection for the European Parliament and was a Rapporteur for the Council of Europe. She has given numerous talks and training for companies, organizations, and public institutions, including NATO, the Academy of European Law, Navex, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Vigjilenca also collaborates with a wide range of civil society actors, including co-establishing the first ever Podcast fully dedicated on whistleblowing with the Whistleblower International Network. She was named an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Government Accountability Project in Washington D.C., the world's oldest organization on whistleblowing. The Royals Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences named Dr Abazi the recipient of its Early Career Award in 2020 acknowledging her innovative scientific contribution and policy impact in whistleblowing.

Education Coordinator at EWI

Lauren is a Lecturer in Law at Maynooth University since 2020, where she lectures on whistleblowing law at undergraduate level, as well as a Professional Certificate. She was awarded her PhD on the Irish Protected Disclosures Act 2014 in June 2019. She has published articles and book chapters on protected disclosures and co-authored the Annotated Statute on the Protected Disclosures Act 2014. She has also produced two country reports on protected disclosures and spoken on this topic at various conferences, CPD events, round-table panel discussions, and legislative briefings at both national and international level. Lauren was awarded the governmental project for the drafting of the protected disclosures procedures guidance for public bodies on behalf of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. Lauren is the founder of the Irish Whistleblowing Law Society and an associate with Transparency International Ireland’s Integrity at Work programme, which provides training to organisations on whistleblowing/protected disclosures. Lauren’s monograph ‘Whistleblowing and the Protected Disclosures Act in Ireland: Law, Rights and Policy’ is due to be published in 2022 by Clarus Press.

Research Coordinator

Dimitrios is an Assistant Professor of Law at Coventry University. He has studied English Language and Literature and then Law. He holds a Master of Arts in International Studies and an LLM in European Economic and Financial Criminal Law. He completed his PhD at the University of Luxembourg on the legal protection of whistle-blowers in the EU banking and financial sector. He worked at the Court of Justice of the European Union prior to joining Coventry University.

Policy Coordinator

Bruno is a Policy Advisor on digital regulation at the UK Government. Previously, he worked at a number of leading NGOs on free speech in Europe and Latin America. He is experienced in policy research and campaigning on issues of freedom of expression and human rights, has extensive research experience with both qualitative and quantitative methods. As the recipient of the Chevening Award, he conducted his Master Studies at LSE on social and public policy. In his master thesis, he examined the role of trust in whistleblowing through empirical research.