Who we are

Karina enables impactful investigations as DARC's Director of Research, driven by a passion for tracking elusive individuals and leveraging open-source data to uncover hidden connections. Before joining DARC, Karina spent eight years at OCCRP, where she co-led the research and data team, helping journalists track people, companies, and assets across the globe. Her research contributed to numerous award-winning investigations and major cross-border projects, including Dubai Unlocked, the Russian Asset Tracker, Paradise Papers, FinCEN Files and OpenLux. Prior to OCCRP, Karina worked at USA Today, covering health and key issues in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. She is a graduate of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

Jan's interest lies in the convergence of technology and investigative journalism, where he contributes to shaping the future of reporting as DARC's Director of Data and Journalism Projects. Before launching DARC, Jan served as the Chief Data Editor at OCCRP, where he co-led the research and data team. Jan's journalism career took off as reporter in the investigative department of Germany's public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk, contributing to groundbreaking exposés like the Luxembourg Leaks, Panama Papers, Russian Asset Tracker, and FinCEN Files. His outstanding work earned him the European Press Prize, the German Television Award (Deutscher Fernsehpreis), and he was recognized by Medium Magazine as one of the "Top 30 until 30" journalists.

Simon leads the investigative tooling development, including OpenAleph, as DARC's Director of Technology. In mid-2023, Simon founded DARC's predecessor, the independent tech organization investigativedata.io. Prior to that, he helped various newsrooms and research teams across Europe to find stories in leaked data and built data pipelines for investigative research. From 2015 to 2019 he worked as a data journalist and newsroom developer at the German non-profit investigative newsroom CORRECTIV. There he built document databases and security infrastructure for award-winning, cross-border and cross-newsroom investigations like The CumEx Files, Grand Theft Europe or Wem gehört Hamburg. Simon attended journalism school, still writes actual texts (rarely) and was recognized by Medium Magazine as one of the "Top 30 until 30" journalists.

Alex is an open-source developer working on investigative tooling, including OpenAleph. She is the CTO of the digital rights advocacy non-profit Asociația pentru Tehnologie și Internet and has served as the CTO of the civic rights non-profit Code for Romania in the past. Before joining DARC, she was part of the Aleph development team at OCCRP. She believes in putting technology in the service of society. She writes essays (and articles) as much as she writes code. In order to keep up with her colleagues' mentions of the number 30, she would like to note she's on the Romanian Forbes "30 under 30" list.

Grae is the Operations Manager at DARC, where they apply project management expertise to oversee complex research and operational initiatives. As one of the founders of Coordinators Without Borders, Grae is passionate about creating resources for PMs/coordinators and advocating for their critical role in successful investigations. Grae is also a creative producer based in Berlin, focusing on uplifting BIPOC voices in digital spaces. With a background in theatre, film, and television, Grae blends creative vision and operational expertise to manage intersectional projects in the arts, journalism, and research sectors.