Mariana Dahan
Mariana Dahan (born March, 1980) is a technologist, human rights activist, and writer on the use of technology for human advancement. She is also the founder of the World Identity Network, a nonprofit promoting universal identity.

Early life and education 
Dahan is a French citizen but she grew up in Moldova on the border with Ukraine. She has cited her upbringing as the driving motivation for her work promoting universal identity. 

Dahan won Moldova’s national competitions for French and literature for three years in a row, which afforded her a scholarship to study in France. Dahan graduated from the Universite Paris-Dauphine with a master's degree in marketing and strategy and later earned two PhDs in management and economic sciences from Paris II University and the European Business School.

Career 
Following graduation, she pursued a career in the telecommunications industry, working and consulting for mobile operators in developed and developing countries.  

Dahan joined the World Bank in 2009. In 2014, Dahan launched the organization's Identification for Development (ID4D), an initiative which researches and promotes digital identification programs. She was later promoted to the Senior Vice Presidency Office in charge of the Sustainable Development Goals agenda and the United Nations relations and partnerships.

Dahan founded the non-governmental nonprofit organization World Identity Network (WIN) Foundation in 2017. The initiative was launched on Richard Branson’s Necker Island during the annual Blockchain Summit. Shortly after its launch, WIN partnered with the United Nations on the pilot program “Blockchain for Humanity” to use blockchain technology to help fight child trafficking. WIN has been endorsed by actress Amber Heard.

Dahan is a founding member of the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) and a former blockchain fellow at the Washington D.C.-based think-tank, New America.

Dahan is also a Global Ambassador for the UK-based nonprofit Hope and Homes for Children.

Publications

Quenching the Thirst for Innovation: Modeling the Diffusion of Mobile Technologies (2015, Scholars’ Press).