Our People and Orgs

The Coalition for a Baruch Plan for AI was convened in July 20204 by the Trustless Computing Association and launched in December 2024 by six founding NGO partners.

Today, the Coalition comprises over 10 NGOs and 40 exceptional multidisciplinary advisors, team, board and secretariat members (UN, NSA, UBS, WEF, Yale and Princeton), listed below. It is led by Rufo Guerreschi.

It is backed by leading NGOs and experts who supported our Open Calls or contributed to strategic reports:

Board of Directors

Rufo Guerreschi. Founder and President of the Coalition. Activist, researcher, and entrepreneur advancing safety and democracy in AI and communications.

  • Founder of the Trustless Computing Association and its spin-off, TRUSTLESS.AI. Rufo has been the visionary behind the Free and Safe in Cyberspace conference series since 2015, which advocates for a groundbreaking IT security paradigm—the Trustless Computing Paradigms—to harmonize personal freedoms with public safety. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of Participatory Technologies Srl, a company that provided open-source e-democracy solutions to transnational political organizations across three continents. As the Global Vice President at 4thPass, he pioneered the first Java mobile app store system, securing over 10 million euros in deals with major clients like Telefonica. As CEO, he increased the valuation of the Open Media Park, a planned second-largest media and cybersecurity technology park in Europe, from €3 million to €21 million.

Davide Cova. A political scientist and International peace expert at the United Nations turned Buddhist master and spiritual teacher.

  • Holding a degree in Political Philosophy, he specialized in Conflict Resolution and gained valuable experience as a political analyst at the United Nations in New York and Copenhagen. Davide then turned to Buddhism. He completed a rigorous seven-year full-time Master's Program in Buddhist Studies and spent three years as a Buddhist monk. He was a dedicated disciple of the Dalai Lama and the Venerable Lama Geshe Ciampa Gyatso for a decade. His spiritual exploration included pilgrimages to prominent Buddhist sites in India and significant Christian sites in the Middle East, followed by a 16-month solitary meditative retreat. He is the founder and director of the Dorjeling Center in Piediluco, Italy, and he is an experienced teacher of secular Buddhist meditation, psychology, and philosophy.

Roberto Savio. World-renowned geopolitics and media expert. Lifelong passionate activist for social justice and democratic global governance.

  • Organizer of several conferences in Rome on geopolitics and AI governance, including with Jeffrey Sachs and the Vatican's top official on AI. An esteemed Italo-Argentinian journalist, communication expert, and a respected political commentator.Co-founded Inter Press Service in 1964 and led its transformation into the premier news agency of the Global South over the following decades. Roberto served as the Deputy Director of the World Policy Forum Scientific Council, an initiative founded by Mikhail Gorbachev. Since its inception in 2001, he has been a founder and active member of the International Committee of the World Social Forum. Roberto oversees international relations at the European Center for Peace and Development and the United Nations University for Peace (ECPD). Previously, he was the Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for a New Humanity, further demonstrating his commitment to fostering global collaboration and peace.

Advisors

(Switzerland/US) Mark Barwinski. Defense-grade cyber security expert. Formerly Group Head of Cybersecurity Operations at UBS, Siemens and the US National Security Agency, in the Tao Unit.

(Israel) David Manheim. Founder, Head of Policy and Research of the Association for Long Term Existence and Resilience (ALTER). AI Safety and Safety Governance Scientist and Researcher.

(Germany) Lukas Pöhler. Member of the board of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Head of AI Solutions at Aleph Alpha. Previously at the UN and McKinsey.

(USA) Chase Cunningham. Co-founder of the Zero Trust IT security paradigm. Former Chief Cryptologist of the US National Security Agency.

(USA) Richard Falk. Emeritus professor at Princeton University. World-renowned expert in global democratic governance. Advisor of the Trustless Computing Association.

(Gambia) Amb. Muhammadou Kah. Chair of the UN Commission of Science and Technology for Development. Ambassador of The Gambia to the United Nations.

(Brazil) Edson Prestes. Member of the Global Commission on Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military Domain (GC REAIM). Head of the Robotics Research at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

(Kazakhstan) Yernur Kairly, AI Existential Risk Researcher and advocate. Research Associate at the Consortium for AI & Existential Risks (AiXist)

(USA) David Hart. AI Safety Expert. Cofounder of the Open Cog Foundation.

(USA) James Norris, Executive Director of the Center for Existential Safety.

(Singapore) Jimmy Y. Zhong, PhD, Cognitive Neuroscientist. Honorary Research Scientist at Georgia Institute of Technology. Master's in Philosophy from Oxford University.

(UK ) David Wood, Chair of the London Futurists. Advisor of the Trustless Computing Association

(Switzerland) Jan Camenisch. Chief Technology Officer at Dfinity. Awarded 140 patents in cybersecurity, Advisor of the Trustless Computing Association.

(USA) Khullani Abdullahi. Founder of Techné A, an AI safety compliance consultancy. Senior management official in cybersecurity and medical, pivoting to AI safety governance.

(USA) Mehmet Sencan - Hardware security and Guaranteed Safe AI expert. Hardware Research Consultant at Atlas Consulting.

(Brazil) Flavio S. Correa da Silva. Director of the Research Center on Open Source Software and member of the Laboratory of Logics, Artificial Intelligence and Formal Methods at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.

(Switzerland) Jennifer Blanke — Leading economist in the technology domain. Former Chief Economist of the World Economic Forum.

(Australia) Kobi Leins - Fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research;

(Russia/UK) Boris Taratine — Former Chief Cyber Security Architect at Lloyds Banking Group and Principal Security Architect at VISA Europe.

Team

(Italy) Rufo Guerreschi, President and Executive Director
(partially compensated since Feb 2025)

(US) Felix De Simone, Co-Lead Content Director and US Outreach Director
(part-time volunteer)

(Italy) Erica Bassani, Lead Copywriter and AI Philosophy Expert. (part-time consultant and volunteer)

(Nigeria) Victoria Mbachu, Lead researcher and research assistant
(part-time consultant)

(Netherlands) Joep Meindertsma. Communications and Strategy
(part-time volunteer)

(China) Xiaohu Zhu, Far-East Outreach Director
(part-time volunteer)

Interim Secretariat

(Italy) Rufo Guerreschi, President of the Coalition for a Baruch Plan for AI and Founder and Executive Director of the Trustless Computing Association

(USA) Felix De Simone,  Organizing Director of PauseAI US and Spokesperson at PauseAI Global.

(Netherlands) Joep Meindertsma. CEO of Pause AI, an international non-profit promoting a Proposal for a powerful global democratic organization to regulate AI.

(China) Xiaohu Zhu, Founder at Center for Safe AGI, Shanghai; AI Existential Safety researcher at the Future of Life Institute; Foresight Fellow in Safe AGI at Foresight Institute

(Norway) Tolga Bilge. Founder of the AItreaty.org initiative to reduce the catastrophic risks of AI and ensure the benefits of AI for all. Policy Researcher at ControlAI.

(Italy) Davide Cova. International peace and relations expert and spiritual teacher.

(Italy) Roberto Savio. Director of External Relations at the European Center for Peace and Development and the University of Peace of the United Nations (ECPD).

Founding NGO Members

Trustless Computing Association (Convenor of the Coalition) is a Geneva-based international non-profit dedicated since 2015 to facilitating a democratic, timely and efficient treaty-making process to create proper global federal governance of AI and digital communication - primarily through its Harnessing AI Risk Initiative. Led by its founder and executive director, Rufo Guerreschi, it is the original Convenor of this Coalition. 

Transnational Working Group on AI of the World Federalist Movement (WFM), an organization established in 1947, and since then one of the foremost NGOs in global federal democratization. It was the Convenor of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court of 2500 NGOs that led to the signing by 125 states. They have produced outstanding reports, proposals and analysis on the global governance of AI. Robert Whitfield is the Chairman of its Working Group for AI.

AITreaty.org is an initiative to advance the development and ratification of an international AI treaty to reduce the catastrophic risks of AI and ensure the benefits of AI for all. Led by Tolga Bilge, AITreaty.org hosted an influential open letter for the same signed by hundreds of top AI experts. It is currently looking to establish itself as an NGO.

PauseAI is an international non-profit promoting a Proposal for a powerful global democratic organization to regulate AI. It has gained comprehensive mainstream media coverage, and is widely known in US/US AI safety circles. Led by Joep Meindertsma, it has catalyzed extensive youth active volunteer engagement around the world.

International Congress for the Governance of Artificial Intelligence (ICGAI) an international  initiative (now dormant, active 2018 and 2021) that brought together impressive and globally diverse advisors and speakers to advance a participatory global governance of AI. Founded and co-led by Wendell Wallach, from Yale and Carnegie Council, and board member at TCA. It is currently a dormant initiative, looking to establish itself as an NGO.

European Center for Peace and Development and University of Peace of the United Nations (ECPD). Established in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, it is a leading educational, research and advocacy institution for the promotion of global peace, reconciliation, socio-economic development and international cooperation. Led by its Executive Director Negoslav J. Ostojìc.

Other NGO Members

(Israel) Association for Long-Term Existence and Resilience. Works to investigate, demonstrate, and foster practical ways to improve and to safeguard the future in the short & long term of humanity.

(USA) Center for Existential Safety. The aim is to galvanize collective action to ensure humanity survives this decade. If we can achieve that, then we are likely to create an unimaginably promising future for all.

(USA) Pause AI USA. A grassroots organizing effort for an international treaty to pause advanced AI training until we know how to proceed safely.

(Netherlands) Existential Risk Observatory. Aims to reduce existential risk via global governance proposals and awareness campaigns.

Volunteers

(Italy) Elena Viezzoli. Telecommunication executive, Startup mentor and fundraising consultant.

(India) Rujuta Karekar. AI safety activist and digital content and communication consultant.