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Nominating Committee | Members 2008

This page contains some background biographical information about each Nominating Committee member.

Members of the Committee

Karen Banks

Karen Banks is a networking pioneer who has worked with ICTs and their application as a tool for social change since 1990.

Between 1990 and 1997 she maintained an international gateway called 'GnFido' at GreenNet, a small non-profit ISP in London, and founding member of the Association For Progressive Communications (APC). The gateway used simple 'store-and-forward' technology (fidonet and uucp) providing in many cases, the only means of cheap, efficient electronic communications to thousands of individuals, NGOs, Acadamics, Researchers and quasi-governmental departments in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe.

In 1993, along with women colleagues from APC, she formed the APC Women's Networking Support Programme (APCWNSP) which led an all women team of 40 to the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, where they provided email and web access to over 10,000 delegates. She went on to coordinate the APC WNSP from 1996 to 2004.

She coordinated APC's participation in the WSIS process and continues to coordinate APC's participation in post WSIS activities such as the Internet Governance Forum.

She leads APC's work in the CRIS (Communication Rights in the Information Society) campaign and has recently taken up position as Network Development Manager for APC after coordinating APC's Women's Networking Support Programme for 8 years and coordinating APC's internet rights work globally, and in Europe from 1998-2001.

She remains a Director of GreenNet and is currently a trustee of Privacy International, an international privacy rights and civil liberties watchdog based in the UK, member of the civil society working group on the Commonwealth Action Programme for the Digital Divide.

She was a member of the WSIS Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) and was awarded the Anita Borg Social Impact Award with the APCWNSP in 2004.

Grant Forsyth

Grant Forsyth currently works for British Telecom Global Services, as Head of Global Interconnection, based in London with a focus on Europe. Prior to moving to London in 2006 Grant was Manager of Industry & Regulatory Affairs for TelstraClear in New Zealand for seven years and prior to that he held the role of CEO of TUANZ (the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand) following a career in IT in NZ, UK and USA.

Mr. Forsyth was a BC representative on the GNSO Council 2000-2006 and an Internet New Zealand Council rep 2002 – 2006 (INZ is the delegated manager of the .nz domain).

Mr. Forsyth holds an MBA from the University of Auckland and MSCE from the University of Washington.

Philip Davidson

Phil Davidson has worked for many years on International Standardisation for Telecommunications Systems. He was head of International Standardisation when he retired from British Telecom in 2002 having worked closely with Network Operators and Manufacturers around the world.

He served as a member of the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) Board, where he played a leading role in the establishment of the Global Partnership Project for Third Generation Mobile (3GPP) standards, and was also a member of the Project Co-ordination Group. He has participated in several of the Key Strategy Groups of ETSI. He also attended the Federation of the Electronics Industry Board (FEI).

At national level, he has represented the UK as the Co-ordinator and Head of delegation to the ITU-T SG13 and SG11, and represented BT at the ITU-T TSAG Committee, World Telecommunications Standards Assembly (WTSA) and Plenipotentiary Conference. He is currently the UK Deputy Head of Delegation to TSAG and UK delegate to the ITU WTSA and PP conferences.

Phil has been involved in Internet Governance issues since 1999 and served on the ICANN Board from1999 to 2002. Phil is currently serving as the Technical Liaison Group appointee to the 2008 Nom Com.

Prior to being involved in Standardisation activities, Phil Davidson had worked on Transmission Planning and Works, Data Strategy and International event organising.

Phil Davidson graduated from Salford University with a first class degree in Electrical Engineering Science in 1968. He is married with two children and spends recreation time watching soccer, gardening, walking and philately.

Ute Decker

Ute Decker is a German national based in London. Ute is a lawyer and works as Director for Interoperability and Standards (EMEA) for Microsoft. Before joining Microsoft in 2007, she was Deputy Director for Global Legal Policy for the international trade association representing the recording industry worldwide (IFPI). Ute has practiced law in England/Wales and Germany, and specialises in IP and international private law. Ute has participated in ICANN meetings and work as a member of the Intellectual Property Constituency since 2000 and was first elected by the IPC to serve on the GNSO Council in 2005.

Matias Altamira Gigena

Matías Altamira got its Law Degree at the National University of Córdoba, Republic of Argentina, and its LL.M Degree at Temple University, Philadelphia, United States of America. Moreover, he attended the Small Business Management Certificate Program at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

While in the US he was a member of the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project and participated in the draft of a training manual on E-commerce Law for developing countries requested by UNCTAD. Back in Argentina, he was retained as the contracts representative by Lockheed Martin Argentina and as the proxy representative of Lockheed Martin Corporation in its Latin-American investment.

He is a columnist on Internet, E-commerce and International Law for Commerce & Justice newspaper, member of the Foreign Trade Advisory Board of the Factor magazine and contributor to several national and international electronic and printed publications. He has given several lectures on international forums regarding the legal aspects of Internet, he was the Chair of the Mercosur Internet Law Congress that took place in August 2006, in Cordoba, Argentina. He has been appointed as Iberoamerican Information Society Research Institute (IIISI) Representative www.ibero-americano.org before ICANN and LACRALO. Currently, he is a partner of Altamira Gigena – Law Firm www.altamiragigena.com.ar.

Hartmut Richard Glaser

Hartmut Richard Glaser is Assistant Professor at the Escola Politécnica (Engineering Faculty) of the University of São Paulo since 1968.

He is Executive Coordinator of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) since 1996 and Director of the Brazilian Internet Network Center (NIC.br) since 2005. He also serves as Director (Treasurer) of LACNIC and AC/ASO Member for the LACNIC Region.

Hartmut serves a voting member of the Nominating Committee, selected by the Council of the Address Supporting Organization.

Caroline Greer

Caroline Greer is Director of Policy and Industry Relations at mTLD Ltd [dotMobi]. Caroline has been with the dotMobi Registry since the establishment of its Headquarter Office in Dublin, Ireland in November 2005. Caroline is responsible for all policy related issues, dotMobi’s supporting organizations and the .mobi premium names portfolio.

Previously, Caroline spent three years working for ComReg, the Irish Telecommunications Regulator. She was involved in negotiations at European level on the EU Telecoms Regulatory Framework of 2003 and worked on its subsequent transposition into national law and implementation at the regulatory level. Caroline was seconded to the Irish Government during Ireland’s EU Presidency of 2004 to work on the EU Telecoms Council Working Group and Presidency events. On conclusion of the Presidency, Caroline remained there to manage several national broadband projects, including the roll out of broadband to all Irish schools.

Caroline holds a LLB (Hons) in Law and Spanish from Queens University, Belfast, an MBA from the University of Ulster and a Post Grad Dip. in EU Competition Law from Kings College, London.

Caroline is a voting member of the Nominating Committee, selected by the Registry Constituency.

Hagen Hultzsch – Chair

Hagen Hultzsch has more than 40 years of experience in technology management. Until he stepped down in 2001, Dr. Hultzsch was a member of the Management Board of Deutsche Telekom, where he was responsible for research and development, information technology, and quality. During Dr. Hultzsch's tenure, Deutsche Telekom evolved from a government-owned organization into a publicly-owned corporation with four separate business units. Prior to his work with Deutsche Telekom, Dr. Hultzsch held various executive positions at Volkswagen AG, Electronic Data Systems (EDS), and GSI, a German research organization. Until the end of 2001, Dr. Hultzsch served as Chair of the Supervisory Board of T-Venture Holding in Bonn, Germany, a corporate venture capital firm focused on high-technology investments in telecom software, wireless communications equipment, computer software, and Internet infrastructure.

Dr. Hultzsch was a founder of EARN, the European Academic and Research Network, for which he also served as a member of the Board of Directors. He also served as an Assistant Professor at Mainz University and completed a fellowship at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center. He currently serves as a board member for some 20 commercial and academic organizations in the United States and Europe.

Hagen Hultzsch was selected for the ICANN Board by the Nominating Committee. His term started after the 2004 annual meeting and ended after the conclusion of ICANN's annual meeting in 2006. The ICANN Board has appointed Hagen to be the Chair of the 2008 ICANN Nominating Committee.

Ole Jacobsen

Ole J. Jacobsen is the Editor and Publisher of The Internet Protocol Journal (IPJ), a quarterly technical publication for Internet and Intranet Professionals published by Cisco Systems since 1998.

Ole has been active in the computer networking field since 1976 when he went to work for the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, an early ARPANET site. Ole was with Interop Company (now part of CMP Media) since shortly after its formation in 1987 until 1998. He was the Editor and Publisher of ConneXions--The Interoperability Report, a monthly technical journal in the field of computer-communications, published by Interop Company.

Jacobsen holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computing Science from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

He serves on the board of the Asia Pacific Internet Association (APIA) (http://www.apia.org), which hosts the annual APRICOT conference (http://www.apricot.net).

Ole organizes pipe organ demonstrations and concerts (http://www.organdemo.info) at technical meetings such as the IETF, RIPE, CEEnet, APNIC, --- and hopefully some day at an ICANN meeting.

He is a member of:

Ole can be reached at ole@cisco.com and is the IETF appointee to the 2008 Nom Com.

Wolfgang Kleinwaechter – Associate Chair

Wolfgang Kleinwaechter is a Professor for International Communication Policy and Regulation at the Department for Media and Information Sciences of the University of Aarhus / Denmark.

He has studied Communication, International Law and International Relations at the University of Leipzig (B.A. 1971, M.A. 1974, Ph.D. 1981). His Academic Teaching Experiences includes Institute for International Studies, University of Leipzig (until 1991), Department for Communication, University of Tampere (1991/1992 and again since 2005), School of International Services, American University, Washington, D.C, (1992/1994) and Department for Media and Communication Studies, University of Oerebro (2002/2003). Since 1998 he teaches a full Course on "Internet Policy and Regulation" at the University of Aarhus.

From 1994 to 1998 he was the Chairman of the Management Board of the "Inter-Regional Information Society Initiative" (IRISI) of the European Commission in Brussels and coordinated the regional "Saxonian Information Initiative" (SII) of the government of the Free State of Saxony in Germany.

He is involved in Internet Governance issues since 1997 and has participated in various capacities in all ICANN meetings since its first meeting in Singapore (1999). He was a member of ICANN Membership Information Task Force and was elected as member of the Steering Committee of At Large (2001/2002). In the WSIS process he was a member of the Civil Society Bureau and co-chaired the Internet Governance Caucus in 2002 and 2003. In 2004 he was appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as a member of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG).

He is a member of the International Council of the "International Association for Media and Communication Research" (IAMCR) and served as the president of the IAMCR Law Section between 1988 and 1998. He was a member of the Parliamentarian Media Council and the Media Law Commission of the German Democratic Republic (1989/1990) and Corresponding Member of the German UNESCO Commission (1991/1999). He is the Co-Founder and Member of the Board of the Media City Leipzig e.V., Leipzig, Germany (since 1990) and of the ICANN Studienkreis (since 2000).

He was Member of the Programme Committee for INET 2002, Internet Society, Washington D.C. and a Key-Note Speaker, Panelist, Moderator and Rapporteur of numerous international conferences on the Information Society, Information Law and Internet Governance, inter alia UN, ITU, EU, Council of Europe, OECD, UNESCO, UNICTTF, Global Business Dialogue on eCommerce. PTC and others.

His research work includes more than 100 international publications, including 5 books, on issues of Broadcasting Legislation, Global Information Society, Internet Governance and WSIS. Recent articles has been published in "Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review", "Development", "Telecommunication Policy", "info" and "Gazette". His two latest books has been "The World Summit on the Information Society: From the Past into the Future", UNICTTF, New York 2005 (with Daniel Stauffacher) and "Power and Money in Cyberspace: How WSIS Frames the Future of the Information Age" (Heise Publisher 2004 / in German). He served also a member of several advisory boards of scientific journals, including "Transantional Data and Communication Report" (until 1996), Computer Law and Security Report (until 1999), The Journal of Media Law and Practice (until 2001) and "Gazette" (since 1992).

Wolfgang serves as a non-voting member of the Nominating Committee as Associate Chair.

Khaled Koubaa

Khaled Koubaa is an ICT independent consultant working for the nonprofit sector in Tunisia and Arab and African region : Arab Institute for Human Rights, Tunisian Nutrition Specialist Organization, ENDA Inter Arab, Tunisian Accountants Society and FAMEX (export facilitation program). He provides training and one-on-one coaching for organizations and corporate executives on how to choose and implement new information systems and strategies. He was involved with many ICT pioneer projects in Tunisia.

Koubaa entered the Internet landscape in 1997. He has been involved with Internet Society since 2005, and he participates actively within the WSIS. He founded the Internet Society chapter in Tunisia and serves as president. He is assisting in the creation of the Arab Internet Societies. He is regularly at the ICANN meeting as the Tunisian At-Large Structure and many other events related to the Internet.

Koubaa earned his bachelor's degree in management from High School of Commerce, Tunisia. He obtained a master's degree in electronic commerce from the High School of Electronic Commerce, and he completed an Internet Governance Capacity Building Program with Diplo Foundation.

Bill Manning

Bill Manning was a contributing scientist on Neustar's UltraDNS, and served on the research staff at USC's Information Sciences Institute under Jon Postel. His primary technical interests have been in network operations and naming systems.

At Texas Instruments, Bill was responsible for the deployment of IP networking first in the Semiconductor division and then throughout the corporation. He then joined Rice University to become the lead engineer for the NSFnet's SESQUINET regional network. Based on his responsibility and performance in handling the migration of SESQUINET and MIDnet from the NSFnet to commercial networks, he was asked to assume a role in the NSFs Routing Arbitor project at ISI.

He is active in the IETF, and has been active in the DNS and Routing working groups as an active participant, working group chair and code developer. Bill was responsible for specifying the method for adding NSAP support to the DNS, and then developed and implemented a plan to expand the Internet root server system to add four new nodes ... J, K, L, and M.

He is a Trustee of ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) and is the managing partner in EP.NET, a private consultancy. He is a member of the Root Server System Advisory Committee and has responsibility for one of the root nameservers.

Desiree Miloshevic

Desiree Zeljka Miloshevic is International Affairs and Policy Adviser at Afilias, a global leader in domain name registry services. Desiree serves as Special Advisor to the Chair of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Advisory Group (2006-) and is a Board Trustee of Internet Society (2004-2010). She has been participating in the work of several ICANN constituencies since 1999.

Her decade-plus of close and productive interactions with regulators, intergovernmental leaders, academics, artists, and community activists throughout the world provide her with a unique set of resources with which to engage the often complex, cross-sectoral challenges of Internet technical coordination and governance.

Ms. Miloshevic's work in the internet field began in 1993 as one of the hostmasters for Demon Internet, the United Kingdom's first Internet service provider to offer access to individual internet users in addition to corporations. She participated in the informal, peer-coordinated policy making process for the .UK domain until supervision of the UK ccTLD was assumed by Nominet in 1996. In subsequent years she has worked as an expert technical and policy consultant for new top-level domains and has participated in the work of many Internet councils, workshops and constituencies in the areas of DNS policy and Internet governance.

She studied English Literature at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade. She has lived in London since 1991. She is fluent in Serbian, Croatian, French and English.

Ram Mohan

Ross Rader

Jose Luiz Ribeiro-Filho

Jose Luiz Ribeiro-Filho has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from London University and a M.Sc. from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. As a senior researcher at Computing Center at UFRJ he worked in several research projects in the Computer Architecture and Networking areas.

Between 1996 and 2000 José Luiz was in charge of the Brazilian Research and Education Network, sponsored by the Ministries of Education and Science and Technology. He was also member of the Board of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.Br) and chair of the Internet Engineering Working Group under the CGI.Br back in 1995 to 1997.

Jose Luiz has participated in the early stages of ICANN creation during the public consulting sessions in Buenos Aires, representing the Brazilian government, coordinated a session for the creation of the DNSO in Monterey (Mexico), and has attended several ICANN meetings (up to the year 2000).

In Latin America, he was also involved in the creation of the LACNIC back in 1999 – 2000 and in the organization of several international meetings in region for the Internet community as well as ISOC training seminars.

Currently working as a consultant for RNP, he is in charge of a nationwide project (Redecomep) which is deploying optic fiber networks on 27 Brazilian metropolitan regions for the use of the local Universities and Research Centers. He also supervises other network infrastructure projects in areas such as Telemedicine, Digital Cities, etc. for RNP.

Greg Ruth

Greg Ruth holds a Ph. D. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His experience with the Arpanet dates back to 1973 when he was a research associate at MIT. In 1980 he left MIT to work as a senior scientist for Bolt, Beranek and Newman in that firm's involvement in transforming the Arpanet into the Internet we know today. In 1993 he moved from BBN to GTE Laboratories to continue Internet related research and development. But when GTE acquired BBN, Greg went back to GTE Internetworking, the ISP division of the former BBN, to participate in the development of advanced services. When GTE Internetworking became Genuity, he moved to the staff of the Office of the CTO. In 2002 he took a position at Verizon as a senior consultant in data communications, specializing in advanced Internet technologies. Greg has been active in the IETF as co-chair of the Real-time Traffic Flow Measurement working group and in other standards development activities. He has served in ICANN as a member of the ISPCP Constituency’s executive committee and as a member of the GNSO council since 2001.

Employer: Verizon Federal Network Systems, a division of Verizon . Verizon provides communication services throughout the USA with additional operations in North and South America and Europe.

George Sadowsky – Advisor to the Chair

George Sadowsky received an A.B. degree in Mathematics from Harvard College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Yale University.

After spending 1958-1962 as an applied mathematician, his career concentrated on applying computers to economic and social policy, leading academic computing and networking organizations, and making the Internet useful throughout the world. During 1966-1970 he founded and directed the Computer Center at the Brookings Institution in Washington; from 1970-73 he did economic research at the Urban Institute leading to his Ph.D, dissertation on the subject of micro-analytic simulation of the household sector.

During 1973-86 at the United Nations, he supported the transfer of information technology to developing countries. He has done work in about 50 developing countries and continues to do so. Among other things, he introduced the use of microcomputers for census data processing in Africa in 1979, and he worked in China during 1982-1986s supporting the computing activities of the 1982 Census of Population and Housing.

From 1986 to 2001, he directed academic computing and networking activities, first at Northwestern University and then at New York University. He has been a consultant to the U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, UNDP, the Swiss Government, and a number of foundations. He was a Board member of AppliedTheory Corporation and was a Trustee of the Corporation for Research and Educational Networking (CREN) and the New York State Educational and Research Network (NYSERNet). He was actively involved in World Bank activities during 1996-2002 as a member and Coordinator of the Technical Advisory Panel for the infoDev program, as well as in UNDP and USAID activities. In 1994, he and Larry Landweber formulated the USAID's Leland Initiative for Internet connectivity in 20 African countries. He has been a member of the Internet Society Board of Trustees (1996-1999 and 2000-2004) and has served ISOC as Vice President for Conferences (1996-1998) and Vice-President for Education (1998-2001). He headed a group of ISOC volunteers who defined and conducted the ISOC Developing Country Network Training Workshops from 1993 through 2001. He has written and lectured extensively on ICTs and development.

From 2001-2005, he was the Executive Director of the Global Internet Policy Initiative (GIPI), which directed Internet policy reform projects in 16 developing countries, and also served as the Senior Technical Adviser within USAID's dot-GOV program. He now works on projects in the area of ICT for development. (see http://www.georgesadowsky.com for more information).

Mr Sadowsky served as the non-voting Chair of the Nominating Committee in 2005 and was special adviser to the Chair in 2006 until the Chair’s resignation at which time Mr Sadowsky was appointed Chair. Mr. Sadowsky served as Chair of the 2007 Nominating Committee.

Waudo Siganga

Paul Stahura

Paul Stahura is the President and COO, and a member of the board of directors of Demand Media, Inc. (www.demandmedia.com). Demand Media is the parent company of eNom, Inc. After the Demand Media acquisition Paul remains the CEO of ENom , (www.enom.com) an ICANN accredited registrar and leading provider of domain name registration, hosting and other online services. eNom is a member of the Registrars Constituency, and Paul is a member of the ICANN Whois Task Force.

Paul comes from an engineering and business background, with Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering from Purdue University, and has over twenty years experience in the software development industry, with the most recent ten of those years spent in the Internet and DNS space.

In 1997, with one small computer on an ISDN line, Paul launched eNom, Inc. out of his garage in Redmond, Washington. Now, seven short years later, Paul and his team have taken eNom from start-up to the largest and most active domain distribution reseller network in the domain industry, with over 8.5 million domain names on the eNom platform. Recognized as the second largest domain name registrar in the world, eNom has also won various industry awards; for example, as the best registrar for resellers from Name Intelligence five years running.

Prior to eNom, Paul was a Principal in a company that performed consulting services for Fortune-500 clients with enterprise-wide development, database, and complex system architecture and PM needs. Paul and his partners sold the 60-employee company in 2000.

Paul, known for his creative technical ideas, business collaborations and friendly approachable nature, continues to set the technological and business directions for eNom while residing in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with his wife and three children.

Paul is a voting member of the Nominating Committee, selected by the Registrars Constituency.

Karaitiana Taiuru

Karaitiana Taiuru is an independent ICT consultant working in the Asia Pacific region, he is also the Chairman of the New Zealand Maori Internet Society.

Karaitiana has a strong background in ICT, business development and governance.

His exposure to Internet governance occurred in 1999, as an advocate for the ability for non English speaking cultures to use and be represented on the Internet in their own languages, at that time, with an emphasis on Maori.

Karaitiana can be contacted via http://www.taiuru.maori.nz.

Karaitiana is a voting member of the Nominating Committee, elected by ALAC as the APRALO representative.

Christopher Wing To

Christopher obtained a Bachelor of Honours Degree in Manufacturing Systems with Electronics from Glasgow Caledonian University and a Bachelors of Honours Degree in Law from City University of Hong Kong. He also holds a Masters Degree in Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution from City University of Hong Kong and a Masters Degree in Commercial Law from the University of Northumbria.

In May 2003, Christopher was elected by internet users to serve on the Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited and the Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company Limited as a Director and in September 2004 he was elected as Chairman of the Board.

In 2001-2002 he was awarded Director of the Year by the Hong Kong Institute of Directors for his strive towards excellence in Corporate Governance and is currently the President of the Institute of Compliance Officers and a Council member of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors. He has been nominated by his peers as one of the world’s leading practitioners in Commercial Arbitration – The International Who’s Who of Commercial Arbitrators of 2005 and 2006, and is on the panel of arbitrators of various leading arbitration centres around the world. He is currently the Chairman of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Committee and Secretary-General of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre and the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre.

He actively lectures at local and overseas universities in the areas of Corporate Governance, Business, Engineering and Law and holds Adjunct Professorships in Engineering and Law at City University of Hong Kong. Since 2005 he has been an advisor to Shantou University in the Mainland of China. He is a member of the Appeal Boards Panel for Education and is a member of the Qualifications Framework working sub-group on Aircraft Engineering works in Hong Kong. Christopher is also a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants Ethics and Complaints Oversight Committees. He has written articles and books in areas such as Corporate Governance, Negotiation, Mediation, Arbitration, Intellectual Property, Domain Names Disputes and Ecommerce.

Christopher was appointed as a Member of the Preparatory Committee and subsequently Director for the Research and Development Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management Enabling Technologies by the Commissioner of Innovation and Technology of the Hong Kong Government. He is a member of the Hong Kong Government Internet Infrastructure Liaison Group and is a member of the Appeal Board Panels in Amusement Rides (Safety) and Lifts and Escalators (Safety) appointed by the Hong Kong Government.

He is a Fellow of various learned societies including the Institution of Engineering and Technology (previous known as IEE), Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators, Singapore Institute of Arbitrators and the Hong Kong Institute of Directors. He is also a Member of the Hong Kong Computer Society, Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, Hong Kong Corporate Counsel, Society of Construction Law, Intelligent Transport Systems, Hong Kong Mediation Council and an Associate Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

He is a Chartered Electrical Engineer and is currently a Registered Professional Engineer in the Disciplines of Information, Electronics and Manufacturing.

Christopher actively participates in many civic associations including charities, non-profit entities and learned associations both inside and outside of Hong Kong.

Christopher is a voting member of the Nominating Committee, selected by the ccNSO.

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."