Catherine Stihler, OBE FRSE is the CEO of Creative Commons. She has been an international champion for openness as a legislator and practitioner for over 20 years. She was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for Scotland in 1999, a post which she held until 2019. While serving as an MEP, Catherine was also elected to serve as the 52nd Rector of the University of St Andrews between 2014 and 2017, and was the first elected Senior Lay Member, chairing the university governing body (University Court) from 2019 to 2022. In 2018 she was awarded an honorary doctorate in recognition of her service to the university and in 2019 the Queen recognised Catherine’s public service by awarding her an OBE. Catherine spent 18 months transforming the Open Knowledge Foundation, before joining Creative Commons as CEO in August 2020. In 2022, Catherine was elected to the national academy of Scotland, the Royal Society of Edinburgh.