Ronaldo Lemos: Honorary steward September 2019

by SF Team, 4 October 2019

The Shuttleworth Foundation would like to express our sincerest thanks and gratitude to the Brazilian academic Ronaldo Lemos, our Honorary Steward for this September’s fellowship round.

Ronaldo is a Professor at the Rio de Janeiro State University, a lawyer and commentator in several fields we know well: intellectual property, technology and culture.

He is renowned for being a co-creator of the Marco Civil da Internet: the 2014 Brazilian law establishing comprehensive Internet rights defending freedom of speech, privacy and net neutrality. And his work on creating Brazil’s National Internet of Things and free software campaigns is invaluable evidence of the positive role governments can play with access to technology and a free and open web.

We have known Ronaldo for some time and take much inspiration from his body of work. It has been a joy to invite him into our process and tap into his perspective on an impressive shortlist of applicants; each reviewed with a thorough level of care and attention.

He has been fantastically vigilant and dedicated to his task, asking an array of questions that challenged our own thinking, and - despite agonising long and hard over the final choice - has selected two exceptional fellows, Chris Hartgerink and Sean Jacobs. We believe both will go on to achieve extraordinary things.

Thank you, Ronaldo!