Peter Bogner (businessman)

Peter Bogner (born 1964 in West Germany ) 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.

Early life
Bogner emigrated from West Germany to the United States in the early 1980s. 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". 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. 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".

In 1986, he created a skiing instruction video titled "Peter Bogner's Skiing Techniques", together with Norwegian skier Reidar Wahl. 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. According to Wahl, who had invested $10,000 in the project, Bogner disappeared after the video was created, never returning any profits. The film received an award at the 14th annual Ray-Ban International Ski Film Festival in Vail, Colorado.

In the 1990s, Bogner worked as a senior studio executive at Time Warner where he co-founded the German television channel VIVA. 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.

Founding and leading GISAID
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 and collected signatures from key figures including prominent figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Nobel laureates to support the initiative. He initially financed the endeavor using his own funds.

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. A 2023 Science investigation alleged concerning findings about how Bogner runs the organization. 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. Further investigation by The Telegraph of claims made by Science called the reporting in the Science piece into question. 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. 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'".