Elena A. Panfilova

Activist and researcher Elena A. Panfilova is an expert in anticorruption and transparency who brings to NRGI expertise working in crisis situations and post-conflict environments, as well as experience advising international organizations alongside national, regional and local governments on development and implementation of anti-corruption policies. Since 2014 Panfilova has been chair of Transparency International – Russia, as well as partner at the Bureau of Ethical Dilemmas, which she co-founded with Anton Pominov in 2021.  

Panfilova was CEO of Transparency International – Russia from 2000 to 2014. From 2014 to 2018 Panfilova served as president of the Laboratory for Anti-Corruption Policy, which she created in 2008 to promote transparency and civil society. A former member of both Russia’s Presidential Council on Human Rights and of the country’s Commission on Open Government, Panfilova was on the board of Transparency International from 2011 to 2017 and served as vice-chair from 2014 to 2017. Additionally, she has taught classes in anticorruption policy at the National Research University’s Higher School of Economics since 2007.  

Born in Russia, Panfilova earned master’s degrees from both the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the diplomatic academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. From 1994 to 1999 Panfilova worked as a researcher and project at the Institute for Transition Economy (Gaidar Institute). In 1999 she was a project manager and visiting expert at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That same year, Panfilova founded Transparency International – Russia, the national chapter of Transparency International, the global organization countering corruption.