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Peter Bogner (businessman)

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This article is about the German-American businessman. For the Austrian art historian, see Peter Bogner (art historian).
Peter Bogner
Portrait of Peter Bogner wearing a business suit in front of a red carpet background
Bogner in 2013
Born1964 (age 59–60)
West Germany
Known forFounder and President of GISAID

Peter Bogner (born 1964 in West Germany[1]) is a German-American former media executive who is the founder and current president of GISAID, a platform for rapid sharing of genomic sequences of emerging viruses, such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2.[2]

Early life

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Bogner emigrated from West Germany to the United States in the early 1980s.[1] According to a piece published by Science, in 1986 he was charged with two counts of securities fraud by the Los Angeles district attorney's office: "making false statements in the sales of securities and selling them without permission".[3] He was convicted in the court of first instance, ordered to pay $32,500 in restitution and put on probation for 5 years. On appeal, the conviction was affirmed in part, reversed in part. In 1991, having failed to pay the restitution, the probation was extended for 3 years.[3] Further investigation by The Telegraph, however, found that "the alleged 'securities fraud' referenced by Science, it is not what it seems", noting that Bogner "only played a bit part" and that the case "was downgraded from a felony to a 'misdemeanour' and dismissed on appeal".[4]

In 1986, he created a skiing instruction video titled "Peter Bogner's Skiing Techniques",[5][6] together with Norwegian skier Reidar Wahl.[3] Bogner had told Wahl that he was related to the Olympic ski champion Willy Bogner Sr.. Members of that family told Science in 2023 that could not rule out that he was related, but that they did not know Bogner.[3] According to Wahl, who had invested $10,000 in the project, Bogner disappeared after the video was created, never returning any profits.[3] The film received an award at the 14th annual Ray-Ban International Ski Film Festival in Vail, Colorado.[7]

In the 1990s, Bogner worked as a senior studio executive at Time Warner where he co-founded the German television channel VIVA.[8] In 1995 as executive producer and director of programming, he was at the front of creating a Latin American music channel for Time Warner called "Ya", aimed at an age demographic of 12- to 24-year-olds.[9]

Founding and leading GISAID

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Despite having no prior ties to the influenza research community, Bogner was the key person driving the creation of GISAID, a database created to encourage sharing of avian influenza genome data from countries reluctant to share sequence in open databases. In 2006, he co-wrote a statement[10] and collected signatures from key figures including prominent figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Nobel laureates to support the initiative.[1] He initially financed the endeavor using his own funds.[11]

In 2021, Bogner was accused by many scientists of being responsible for a "secretive, controlling organizational culture" at GISAID, according to a 2021 Science article.[12][13] A 2023 Science investigation alleged concerning findings about how Bogner runs the organization.[14][3] The investigation raised concerns about trustworthiness of Bogner (apparent alter ego), lack of transparency and accountability: intellectual property issues, data privacy, and funding and governance openness.[3] Further investigation by The Telegraph of claims made by Science called the reporting in the Science piece into question.[4] The Telegraph noted the incentives of various potential competitors in the field, for whom GISAID is an obstacle to consolidation of control over the field, and also noted that GISAID's position inevitably places it at the center of disputes between groups of scientists, which will tend to result in the losing side blaming GISAID for that outcome.[4] In June 2023, Vanity Fair reported that Bogner had said that "GISAID will soon launch an independent compliance board 'responsible for addressing a wide range of governance matters'".[15]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Enserink, Martin (2006-08-25). "Pushed by an Outsider, Scientists Call for Global Plan to Share Flu Data". Science. 313 (5790): 1026. doi:10.1126/science.313.5790.1026. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 16931723. S2CID 21305159.
  2. ^ Lenharo, Mariana (2023-05-04). "GISAID in crisis: can the controversial COVID genome database survive?". Nature. 617 (7961): 455–457. Bibcode:2023Natur.617..455L. doi:10.1038/d41586-023-01517-9. PMID 37142725. S2CID 258508263.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Enserink, Martin; Cohen, Jon (19 April 2023). "The 'invented persona' behind a key pandemic database". Science. doi:10.1126/science.adi3224. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Nuki, Paul (13 June 2023). "This man created our best chance of stopping the next pandemic but now he is under attack. Why?". The Telegraph.
  5. ^ Zamiska, Nicholas (2006-08-31). "A Nonscientist Pushes Sharing Bird-Flu Data". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 27 March 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
  6. ^ Charisius, Hanno (2023-05-11). "Gisaid: Streit um die wichtigste Datenbank der Corona-Forschung". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  7. ^ "Skiing is Believing" (PDF). Billboard. 1988-01-30. p. 51. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  8. ^ Hans-Jürgen Jakobs (10 January 2005). "Der V-Faktor". Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  9. ^ Stilson, Janet; Mahoney, William (1 November 1995). "Rock 'n' Rollouts". Multichannel News International. Capital Cities/ABC. p. 42. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  10. ^ Bogner, Peter; Capua, Ilaria; Lipman, David J.; Cox, Nancy J. (2006-08-30). "A global initiative on sharing avian flu data". Nature. 442 (7106): 981. Bibcode:2006Natur.442Q.981B. doi:10.1038/442981a. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 4419375.
  11. ^ Enserink, Martin (2007-02-16). "New Swiss Influenza Database to Test Promises of Access". Science. 315 (5814): 923. doi:10.1126/science.315.5814.923a. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17303723. S2CID 38004470.
  12. ^ Wadman, Meredith (2021-03-12). "Coronavirus sequence trove sparks frustration". Science. 371 (6534): 1086–1087. Bibcode:2021Sci...371.1086W. doi:10.1126/science.371.6534.1086. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 33707243. S2CID 232209221.
  13. ^ "A critical genetic database is under fire". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2023-04-09.
  14. ^ "Global virus database GISAID pledges clarity after journal flags access issues". South China Morning Post. 2023-05-10. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  15. ^ Eban, Katherine (June 1, 2023). "Inside the COVID Origins Raccoon Dog Cage Match". Vanity Fair.
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