An independent essay series
Public Goods, Private Rails.

Public Goods, Private Rails

A note on privacy.

Updated 10 November 2026

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Biography

Dorothy Chou

Dorothy builds connections between scientific discovery and public life. At DeepMind, she built teams responsible for communications, public engagement and government relations as the company grew, including around AlphaFold, the AI system recognised with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and its early release to scientists working on neglected diseases.

She designed and launched Google.org’s AI for Science fund and now chairs UCLPartners, where NHS organisations, universities and industry work together to improve care. Earlier roles at Google, Uber and Dropbox included creating Google’s Transparency Report and leading a criminal justice reform campaign at Uber.

She has backed founders as an angel investor and as a Venture Partner with Norrsken VC and Ada Ventures, and also scouted for Atomico and Giant Ventures. She studied at Georgetown and Oxford. A question running through her work is how a discovery becomes something people can use—and have a voice in shaping.

Biography

Sandro Gianella

Sandro is interested in the conditions that allow a new technology to spread. His work at Google, Stripe and OpenAI has shown him how much depends on the policies, partnerships and institutions around it.

As Stripe’s first public policy hire globally, he built its EMEA function and helped open new markets. He joined OpenAI’s founding public policy team, helped negotiate AI safety commitments at Bletchley Park, and now works on growth across seven priority markets.

He backs founders as an angel investor and Venture Partner at Sunlit Ventures, and advises through Atomico’s Expert Network. He studied at the University of Toronto and the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, and is completing the ETH Zurich–St. Gallen Executive MBA. He keeps asking how the choices of companies, governments and investors shape what a technology ultimately makes possible.

Biography

Florian Maganza

Florian focuses on new ways to fund and scale work that delivers public benefit. As Google.org’s first hire outside the US, he established its presence and strategy in EMEA and led Google’s efforts to connect refugees with vital information.

After moving to the US, he led a grant portfolio supporting the use of technology to match low-income job seekers with work and help them develop new skills. He then built Google.org’s impact measurement and learning function, using insights from hundreds of nonprofit organisations to make better funding decisions. At Stripe, he built Frontier’s communications function, helping explain which carbon removal approaches its buyers backed and why.

He studied at Sussex University, the London School of Economics, and the College of Europe. A question he returns to is how you build a market for a product that’s needed but doesn’t have a natural customer.