Burcu Kilic is a CIGI senior fellow, and a scholar, tech policy expert and digital rights advocate. She has worked with a diverse range of organizations across civil society, philanthropy and academia. Her research and writings cover digital rights, intellectual property, innovation and trade, and she has provided technical advice and assistance in countries in Asia, Latin America, Europe and Africa.
As the former head of policy of Frontier Technology — a Minderoo Foundation initiative — Burcu guided the organization’s approach to emerging technology, advocating for responsible, equitable and just solutions.
Before joining Minderoo, she directed the Digital Rights Program at Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer advocacy organization in Washington, DC, and also led their research on access to medicines. Her influence in tech policy, intellectual property and trade underscores her commitment to policy entrepreneurship and rights-based advocacy. She champions collaborative civil society engagement, policy entrepreneurship and innovative policy development on a global scale. In 2015, she was recognized as one of the 300 Women Leaders in Global Health for her work on health and trade policy. From 2021 to 2022, she was a practitioner fellow with the Digital Civil Society Lab at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.
She completed her Ph.D. at Queen Mary University of London and holds L.L.M. degrees in intellectual property law from Queen Mary University of London, and information technology law from Stockholm University. She obtained her law degree from Ankara University, Turkey.
