Mevan Babakar

Mevan’s story, beginning with her family fleeing Saddam Hussein’s genocide of the Kurds in Baghdad, became globally resonant when, on sabbatical, she retraced her steps as a child refugee. This deeply personal journey culminated in international headlines: locating and publicly thanking the aid worker who had gifted her a bicycle 24 years earlier. This experience inspired her debut children’s book, The Bicycle, published by HarperCollins. At Google, Mevan applied her expertise to combating misinformation and enhancing information quality, notably collaborating with DeepMind to launch BackStory, a key tool for exploring online information context.

Before Google, Mevan was Deputy CEO of Full Fact, the UK’s leading fact-checking charity. There, she pioneered the use of AI in verification, founding the automated fact-checking team whose work won the Google AI Impact Challenge and is now utilized by fact-checkers worldwide. Her leadership in civic and democratic empowerment led to her selection as an Obama Leader for Europe in 2023. She has continuously championed voter access and refugee support, serving as a trustee for UK for UNHCR and chairing Democracy Club, which empowers voters with essential data, alongside launching the UK’s first-ever National Voter Registration Day.