The organisation was founded by its current CEO, Imran Ahmed, who is also a trustee of Victim Support and sits on the steering committee for the Commission for Countering Extremism's Pilot Task Force. He is critical of social media companies using algorithms to promote dangerous extremist content to millions of users. Before founding the CCDH in 2018, Imran served as a Political Advisor to Shadow Foreign Secretary, Hilary Benn MP in the UK Parliament and as Political Advisor to Alan Johnson MP, leader of the Labour Remain campaign, in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Ahmed previously co-authored the book "The New Serfdom: The Triumph of Conservative Ideas and How to Defeat Them" with Labour MP Angela Eagle. Imran was raised in Manchester, England and holds an MA in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge.