Speaker Bio
Senior EU Envoy for Digital and Head of the new EU Office in San Francisco, Gerard de Graaf has worked for more than 30 years in the European Commission across a wide range of policy areas. Until his recent appointment, he was director in DG CNECT, responsible for the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts (DSA/DMA), two landmark pieces of legislation which have been recently adopted in the European Union to keep the Internet safe, protect fundamental rights and enhance competition in digital markets.
Previously, Gerard de Graaf was responsible, inter alia, for the EU’s telecommunications and audiovisual policy (including copyright), cyber security, ICT standardisation, Startup Europe, ICT and green, and international relations. He has been co-chairing two of the Trade and Technology (TTC) Council Working Groups, on greentech, and on data governance and technology platforms.
Before joining DG CNECT, he worked in the Secretariat-General of the European Commission, in DG Research and Innovation and in DG Internal Market. From 1997 to 2001, he was trade counsellor at the Commission’s Delegation to the United States in Washington DC. He joined the European Commission in 1991, having worked for the Benelux Economic Union and the Schengen secretariat on free movement within the EU.
Gerard de Graaf is from the Netherlands. He studied Economic Geography and Regional Planning (cum laude) at the Free University in Amsterdam and European Economics and Law (magna cum laude) at the Catholic University Leuven (Belgium). Married with two children, he is an avid sports fan and distance runner.