Ginny Badanes leads Democracy Forward program, an initiative within Microsoft’s Technology for Fundamental Rights organization focused on addressing ongoing challenges to the stability of democracies globally. The program includes efforts to protect elections, political parties, campaigns, and NGOs from cyber-enabled threats. The Democracy Forward team also leads Microsoft’s work to improve the information ecosystem, which includes combating influence operations, expanding news distribution, increasing media literacy, and working with community-based programs and newsrooms to use technology to expand their reach.

Ginny has spent her career at the intersection of politics and technology. Before joining Microsoft in 2014, she was Vice-President of Political at CMDI, where she advised presidential and senate campaigns on their efforts to leverage data and technology to improve their finance and treasury operations.