Founding Board Members
 | Chairman: Nils Hanson, journalist and editor. Hanson was for 15 years editor of the weekly investigative journalism program “Uppdrag Granskning” (Mission Investigate) on Swedish national public service television. |
 | Treasurer: Daniel Simons, lawyer specializing in communications and freedom of expression-related issues. Simons is Dutch, but mainly based in Copenhagen, Denmark. |
 | Secretary of the board: Elisabetta Tola, an Italian science, tech and data journalist, has worked on several crossborder investigative projects. She is also a media trainer on digital journalism and verification. |
Journalistic staff and management
 | Director: Brigitte Alfter, journalist and author, leading the organisation on its way to being a journalistic forum for collaboration in Europe. See CV |
 | Managing director: Sanne Schim van der Loeff is leading the financial and organisational development of the Foundation. She is focusing on making sure the organisation is future-proof and a leading network for collaborative cross-border investigative journalism. |
 | Project manager: Ruben Brugnera is a Brussels-based investigative journalist and lecturer at the Thomas More school of journalism. For Dataharvest in Mechelen, he coordinates the volunteers and takes care of conference logistics. |
 | Project director: Jose Miguel Calatayud, journalist. From March 2019 to June 2022, Jose led the Arena Housing Project and contributed to other tasks at Arena and Dataharvest, the European Investigative Journalism Conference. He is currently taking a sabbatical period. |
 | IT and tech manager: Benedikt Hebeisen is a freelance IT consultant and journalist based in Berlin. He manages all digital things for the Dataharvest and Arena. |
 | Project coordinator: Maike Olij is an Amsterdam based journalism researcher, consultant and innovator. She coordinates the Reference network, the self-organizing body of independent news organisations in Europe. |
 | Data skills coordinator: Adriana Homolová is a Slovak-born Netherlands-based freelance data journalist and Python trainer,. For Arena she is coordinating the hands-on data skills track for the Dataharvest conference. |
 | Project coordinator: Sarah Pilzis a journalist working in cross-border teams and coordinating the Arena Food & Water Network. |
 | Project coordinator: Jelena Prtoricis a freelance investigative journalist reporting (mostly) on the environment, gender/human rights and migration. She coordinates the Arena Climate Network, and the research on water within the Arena Food and Water network. See CV |
 | Project director: Trine Smistrup, journalist and trainer, now working with communications and conference coordination for Arena and Dataharvest, the European Investigative Journalism Conference. See CV |