Ginny Badanes is senior director of Democracy Forward, an initiative within Microsoft’s Technology and Corporate Responsibility organization that focuses on addressing ongoing challenges to the stability of democracies globally. The initiative 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 involves combating disinformation, expanding news distribution, increasing media literacy, and working with community-based programs and newsrooms to use technology to expand their reach.

Badanes has spent her career at the intersection of politics and technology. Before joining Microsoft in 2014, she was vice-president of political services at CMDI, where she advised presidential and senate campaigns in their efforts to leverage data and technology to improve their finance and treasury operations.

Ginny was named to Washingtonian’s 2021 and 2022 “Most Influential People” list for national security and defense. She is a graduate of Duke University.