Nominating Committee | Members 2013

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

Members of the Committee

The members of the 2013 Nominating Committee are: Yrjö Länsipuro (Chair), Cheryl Langdon-Orr (Chair Elect), Adam Peake (Associate Chair), Ron Andruff, Howard Benn, Veronica Cretu, Rafik Dammak, Mohamed El Bashir, J Scott Evans, Hartmut Glaser, Anthony Harris, Ole Jacobsen, Warren Kumari, Bill Manning, Glenn McKnight, Vanda Scartezini, Waudo Siganga, Ken Stubbs, Stéphane Van Gelder, Siranush Vardanyan and Jian Zhang.

 

Ron Andruff – Commercial and Business Users Constituency (Large)

In 1994, on behalf of the Foreign Policy Association (FPA), Ron Andruff undertook an eight-month assessment of emerging electronic media and new technologies that resulted in an acclaimed white paper he authored, widely distributed by the FPA, that provided a comprehensive analysis of the Internet and its impending, widespread impact. In 2004, as founder and president of Tralliance Corporation, Mr. Andruff spearheaded the last large scale test of new top-level domains with the .TRAVEL initiative; from its initial concept through to launch of the first "community-based" top-level domain. Tens of thousands of .TRAVEL domain names were registered under his leadership, an initiative that gained support from more than 140 travel trade associations in 9 industry sectors, across more than 70 countries.

With over 30 years of international marketing experience coupled with over 12 years of intimate knowledge of the intricate workings of ICANN, Mr. Andruff has brought the voice of business to ICANN and the Business Constituency on topics that affect industry on the Internet. He has served on numerous ICANN Working Groups and Teams as part of the Vertical Integration Working Group (VI WG), the Operations Steering Committee (OSC) dealing with restructuring of the GNSO, and on the GNSO Council Operating Procedures Work Team (GCOT), one of its sub-committees. Apart from his Business Constituency committee work, Ron currently serves as a member of the GNSO Standing Committee on Improvement Implementation (SCI).

Ron Andruff is president & CEO, dotSport LLC, which is bringing to life www.lifedotsport.com, a sport-centric social media platform.

Howard Benn – Technical Liaison Group (ETSI) Representative

Howard joined Motorola in 1995 helping develop the cellular technologies found in many of today's phones including GSM, UMTS, CDMA and LTE. He is currently Sr. Director of Cellular Standards of Motorola Mobility based in the UK.

Howard brings over 20 years of technology and standards development expertise, with a large network of contacts in the telecoms and internet world. He started his career in the fixed telecommunication sector (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strowger_switch), before moving into radio based communications. As the world of telecoms have moved to be IP centric world he has gained expertise in IP based communication protocols, and the challenges of integrating modern ICT into the new converged fixed/mobile world.

He holds an honours degree in Electrical Engineering from Bradford University in the UK, where he also did research for his PhD.

Standards positions held:

• Standards attendance of ETSI SMG 2 from 1993 – 1998
• Chairman 3GPP RAN 4 1998 – 2007
• Currently delegate to 3GPP CT, and SA plenary (2007 – date)
• Member of the ETSI board (2008 – date)

Veronica Cretu – ALAC Representative; Europe Region

Veronica is President of the "CMB" Training Center, national NGO which focuses on promoting innovations in communication, management and business. Veronica has been leading this organization since 2002, and in this capacity has been responsible for the overall management of the organization, fundraising, strategy elaboration, communication with stakeholders, human resource management, etc. As part of "CMB" Training Center Veronica managed national scale educational projects and initiatives.

Recent national related experiences related to the ICTs and Internet: Veronica is currently a member of the National Council for Participation, a consultative, civil society body to Government of the Republic of Moldova. As part of this structure, she coordinates a Working Group on Open Government/E-Government, and thus, promoting ICTs as key enabler for development and change amongst Government and civil society. Veronica facilitated the consultation process on Moldova Open Government Action Plan 2012-2013 with civil society, and she is interested to establish a solid monitoring and evaluation mechanism for the adopted Action Plan.

Back in February 2012, she joined the World Bank team on the implementation of Open Government initiatives, particularly focusing on mobilization and involvement of civil society and other key stakeholders in the consultations on OGP Action Plan, as well as on creating an Open Government/Open Data Community of Practice in Moldova (www.codd.md).

In addition to this, Veronica acted a member of the working group on Digital Moldova 2020 National Strategy, set up through an order of the Minister of ICT of Moldova during May – July 2012. Additionally, during 2010- and up to today, she has been supporting the Ministry of ICT of Moldova with facilitation of Internet Governance related events and workshops.

Back in July 2012, she completed work on a study together with an international World Bank team, on "ICT innovation for competitiveness in Moldova", in which she was responsible for identification of key sectors, stakeholders, data collection and interpretation.

International Experience in ICT and Internet:

• Diplo Foundation and Post-graduate studies in Diplomacy: Veronica's interest and involvement with the Internet and ICT sector in general goes back to the year 2004, when she completed her post-graduate studies in Diplomacy with DiploFoundation, and Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies of Malta. In 2005, she joined the Internet Governance Capacity Building Program of DiploFoundation as program Tutor and Research supervisor, and continued this work till the end of 2007.
• At-Large Advisory Committee and ICANN: During 2007-2008, Veronica acted as At Large Advisory Committee Member for ICANN. In 2010, was part of a Board Candidate Evaluation Committee with ALAC, ICANN.
• IGF and MAG: Veronica is currently a Multi-stakeholder advisory board member to the Internet Governance Forum. She was actively involved in the Internet Governance Forum, took part in the first and second IGF, in the latest one being an ISOC Ambassador to the IGF (Rio).
• EuroDIG: Veronica acted as the main organizer of the remote participation of Moldova in EuroDIG 2010 and 2011. During 2012 edition of EuroDIG, she facilitated a Session on "Open access to public sector information, transparency and open source in public sector procurement, open government data" as well as of the flash-session on Moldova's Open Government initiatives.

Other relevant international experiences: During the years 2007-2010 Veronica worked as international expert/consultant in education, particularly in Critical Thinking Methodology, for the Education Support Initiative of the Open Society Institute, New York, USA in countries such Nepal, Liberia (West Africa) and Turkey.

Veronica's key areas of expertise include: ICT4D, Internet Governance, Communities of Practice, Open Government, Critical Thinking Methodology, Curriculum Development, Trainer of Trainers, Monitoring and Evaluation, Organizational Development.

Rafik Dammak – Non Commercial Users Constituency

"Rafik Dammak is young Tunisian working as computer engineer at Telecom and Internet Services operator NTT Communication (and still an independent and free thinker) and living in Tokyo. He hold a degree in Computer Engineering from Engineering school in Tunisia and Msc on applied computer science from Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies under Prof. Sakamura Ken supervision working on ubiquitous computing, at the University of Tokyo.

He is a Diplo Foundation alumni after completion of the Internet Governance Capacity Building program. He is a former Creative Commons Tunisian license project Public co-leader while he also followed an e-learning program WIPO. He is member of the steering committee for the Dynamic Coalition on Internet Rights and Principles, a coalition which issued a charter about Internet principles http://irpcharter.org/campaign/. He has been involved in ICANN community as NCUC (Non-commercial users constituency) individual user member , former elected GNSO Councilor for the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group and member of NCSG executive committee in addition to participation to several ICANN WGs like the new gTLD applicant support or JAS WG where he is the co-chair. He is involved on advocacy for Human Rights, privacy, freedom of expression.

He is also in the program committee for Asia Pacific regional IGF and Japan IGF and attended several global IGF and the first summer school on Internet Governance. He is working on improving awareness about Internet Governance in Tunisia and MENA in general. He has also interests in technical and governance aspects of Internet of Things."

Mohamed El Bashir – ALAC Representative; Africa Region

Mohamed El Bashir is the Manager of Internet, Numbering and Interconnection at ictQATAR, his work is related to Internet Infrastructure management, DNS, ccTLDs, and IDNs. As a native of Sudan, he founded its ISOC chapter in 2001; the chapter went on to become the manager of Sudan's .SD ccTLD in 2002. He acted as its President until 2008, recently he helped in the formation of Qatar ISOC chapter.

He was elected Vice-President of AfTLD in 2006, he served through 2008.

Mohamed managed the application and implementation of Qatar's IDN ccTLD. He has participated in the various ICANN's IDN Working Groups, the President's Advisory Committee on IDN (IDNPAC); and recently ICANN IDN Variants Project.

He is a former ALAC and ccNSO council member. He has been a part of the ALAC since 2006, and he served two terms on the ccNSO Council between 2004 - 2011. Mr. El Bashir has extensive experience with ccTLDs and IDNs management and policy development.

Mohamed El Bashir has holds a Bsc. and Msc. of computer Information Technology, besides finalizing an MBA degree.

J. Scott Evans – Intellectual Properties Constituency

J. Scott received his undergraduate degree from Baylor University and his Juris Doctor cum laude in 1992 from the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at The University of Louisville. J. Scott first served as Corporate Counsel for Fruit of the Loom where he was responsible for managing the international intellectual property portfolios for Fruit of the Loom and its associate companies The B.V.D. Licensing Corporation, Gitano, Pro Player and Salem Sportswear, Inc. In November 1996, J. Scott joined Adams Evans P.A. where he continued to concentrate his practice in the areas of trademark, copyright, unfair competition and Internet law. In November 2007, J. Scott joined the legal team at Yahoo! Inc., where he serves as a Senior Legal Director –Head of Global Brand, Domains & Copyright.

J. Scott served on the five member drafting committee that assisted the staff at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN) with the drafting of the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and the Rules of Procedure for the UDRP. He also served as member of the Implementation Recommendation Team charged with proposing possible solutions for brand protection in new gTLDs. J. Scott is an active member of the International Trademark Association, where he serves as Secretary, is a member of the Board of Directors and he serves on the Executive Committee. J. Scott also currently serves on as a member of the U. S. Legislation Sub-Committee at INTA. Additionally, J. Scott is the immediate Past-President of the Intellectual Property Constituency ("IPC") the body that participates on behalf of trademark and copyright owners in the ICANN policy process. J. Scott has twice been voted as one of the 50 Most Influential People in IP by Managing Intellectual Property magazine. J. Scott frequently lectures on trademark and Internet policy issues as well as domain name dispute resolution.

Hartmut Glaser – Address Supporting Organization Advisory Committee

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

He is Chief Executive Secretary (CES) of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) since 1996. He also serves as Director (Treasurer) of LACNIC, as ASO AC Member for the LACNIC Region and as Board Member of LACTLD.

Hartmut has served the Nominating Committee, selected by the Address Council of the Address Supporting Organization, at 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009 as voting member, and as Associate Chair (non- voting member) at 2010.

Anthony Harris – ISP Constituency Representative

 

Ole Jacobsen – IAB for IETF

Ole J. Jacobsen is the Editor and Publisher of The Internet Protocol Journal (IPJ), (http://cisco.com/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 UBM TechWeb) 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 is a member of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC),(http://iaoc.ietf.org) and the RFC Editor Oversight Committee (RSOC) (http://www.iab.org/activities/programs/rfc-editor-program/)

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

He is a member of:

• The Association for Computing Machinery (http://www.acm.org)
• The American Guild of Organists (http://www.agohq.org)
• The Organ Historical Society (http://www.organsociety.org)
• The House Rabbit Society (http://www.rabbit.org)

Ole can be reached at ole@cisco.com and is the IAB/IETF appointee to the 2012 NomCom.

Warren Kumari – SSAC Representative

Warren Kumari is a Senior Network Engineer/Senior Network Security Engineer with Google, and has been with the company since 2005. As a senior engineer, Warren is responsible for all aspects of keeping the Google production network both secure and operational as well as mentoring other members of his team. He also participates in Google's industry standards groups.

Warren has over 15 years of experience in the Internet industry, ranging from tiny start-up ISPs to large enterprises. Prior to Google, he was a Senior Network Engineer at AOL and before that he was Lead Network Engineer at Register.com (when the Shared Registry System first started).

With security concerns becoming more and more prevalent, Warren has chosen to be an active participant of the IETF, the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee, and NANOG. These groups afford him the opportunity to contribute to the community in a vital way by supporting and advancing Internet standards and protocols.

Cheryl Langdon-Orr – Chair Elect

About me:- Thirty(ish) years ago I left my Post-Grad research and career as a tutor in Physiology (continuing as Teaching Associate at the Asia Pacific Research Institute of Macquarie University during the early 2000 years) to operate our family owned micro enterprise, Hovtek Pty. Limited, see http://www.hovtek.com.au; and still do so today.

I am a telecommuter, and licensee of domain names in .au as well as in the global DNS, but most importantly, I am an avid end-user of the Internet for work and recreation. Twelve years ago we started a spin off project called BuildersNet, which was developed from some of the TQM (ISO-9002 etc.,) activities of Hovtek. Eight years ago this became a stand-alone Pty Limited Australian Company, and relies totally on the Internet to facilitate its operation http://www.buildersnet.com.au/. Our clients in Australia are Micro Businesses and SMEs - and internationally mainly SMEs and Government or Aid Funded bodies; We service and communicate with them almost exclusively online and the majority of our importation of raw materials and products as well as export documentation bookings etc. is now handled that way.

I believe the Internet should be seen as a public asset and needs to be developed and maintained as a cost-effective and accessible resource for communication, education, community, social and business opportunities by the Australian and wider global community; my work within ICANN with its remit as the coordinator of the unique identifiers (addressing) across i.e. in the Naming, Numbering and Nomenclature within the Internet Ecosystem with its commitment to a multi-stakeholder, bottom-up consensus driven policy development model is an essential part of this aim.

My focus and ongoing interests are not specifically technical but rather more consumer and end user focused. Until May 2009 when the Council was dissolved I represent ISOC-AU in the Australian Communication Alliance Consumer Advisory Council) see http://www.acif.com.au/ with a keen interest in Policy Development, Access, Outreach and Regulatory issues.

I was an Individual Member (prior to the formation of our Chapter) of ISOC and am a Director of ISOC-AU (see https://www.isoc-au.org.au/) since being elected in 2001 serving as Hon Treasurer from 2003-09, and currently serve as the Hon. Company Secretary on the executive… For more about my role and about the other Directors of ISOC-AU see http://isoc-au.org.au/Organisation/Dirs.html

I am a Member of auDA, having been re-elected as a Board Member for my fourth term of office in the Demand Class (User Interests) stakeholder category in October 2012 I am standing for a 5th 2 year term. See http://www.auda.org.au/board/members/; having previously I have worked on several auDA Policy Advisory Panels between 2000 and 2004, and as the Chair of the Domain Name Industry Code of Practice Committee.

In 2008 and 2009 in addition to my work within APRALO and ALAC and specifically within the arena of communications consumer advocacy in Australia I was instrumental in the formation of a new National peak body to act as a co-ordinated voice of communications consumers Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN)

See http://www.accan.org.au/; http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2008/030; http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2008/061

I am also a member of Women On Boards (http://www.womenonboards.org.au/; and as an individual and corporate representative in ACCAN http://www.accan.org.au/; and an active member of the NSW Chapter of Females in Information Technology and Telecommunications (FITT) http://www.fitt.org.au/.

For more details including constantly updated Statements of Interest (SOI's) for both the GNSO and ALAC/At-Large please see any or all of the following web sources:

https://community.icann.org/display/~cheryl.langdon-orr/Home

http://about.me/cheryl.LangdonOrr

http://www.womenonboards.org.au/my/profile/view?pid=1861

http://au.linkedin.com/pub/cheryl-langdon-orr/0/a93/956

Yrjö Länsipuro – Chair

Yrjö Länsipuro is an independent writer, lecturer and consultant on Information Society and Internet issues, and Vice President of the ISOC Finland, with a career in television journalism, international broadcasting cooperation, public diplomacy and internet governance.

Länsipuro graduated from the University of Tampere, Finland, majoring in political science. Starting from the 60's, he worked first as print and then as television journalist for over thirty years, including assigments as bureau chief in New York, Moscow and Hongkong.

Engaged early on in international cooperation among news broadcasters, he participated in the planning and implementation of regional television news exchanges among the Arab countries and the Asia-Pacific as a part-time consultant for the German Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES).

Joining the Foreign Service in 1992, he served as the Press Counselor of the Finnish Embassy in Washington, D.C and as Director General of the Department of Press and Culture of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Helsinki. Since 2005, he led Finland's participation in the WSIS process including national coordination of the implementation and follow up of the the WSIS outcomes at various fora such as ITU, Commisson on Science and Technology for Development and Internet Government Forum. He also represented the Finnish government on the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of ICANN and served on the ICANN President's Strategy Committee.

After leaving the government service in 2009, Länsipuro continues his Internet Governance work as an independent professional, serving on the boards of ISOC Finland and the European Regional At-large Organization (RALO) of ICANN, as well as a member of core organizing groups of EuroDIG and Finnish Internet Forum.

Bill Manning – RSSAC Representative

 

Glenn McKnight – ALAC Representative; North America Region

Glenn has been involved in IT and education projects for twenty years starting with appropriate technology development and implementation, skills training and certification with the private sector, public institutions and non-profit organizations. He has been co-responsible for developing advanced Linux certifications, Ubuntu, Security exams, co-author of various articles on Open Source, Open Hardware and Free and Free and Open Source Business training manuals and more

In 2005, Glenn was part of large delegation of community organizations at WSIS in Geneva. As a Director of the Foundation for Building Sustainable communities the WSIS Award of Excellence was achieved for the WOWEM Project.

His experience and expertise includes systems for student and staff training, staff hiring, performance appraisals, volunteer recruitment and social media creation and implementation through online video and photographic storytelling

Current business project includes INKMEDIA an android tablet and netbook focused on technology solutions for the low income population in the third world. Details at http://www.ink-media.com.

He is a volunteer member of IEEE PES Community Solutions Initiatives for humanitarian technology challenges with a focus on developing technologies for reliable electricity for the third world and in the spare time he helps develop and maintain an extensive organic heritage community garden initiative to provide food to local food banks

Glenn McKnight, BA, MA in Social Anthropology at York University in Toronto

Adam Peake – Associate Chair

 

Vanda Scartezini – ALAC Representative; Latin America/Caribbean Region

Electronic engineer with several specializations, more than 35 years in management positions in ICT public and private sector, with several years of Board experience in national and international relevant nonprofit organizations; have worked in important positions in public sector: twice as National Secretary for Industrial Technology and National Secretary for Information Technology Policy, and once as President of Brazilian Patent Office - developing specific policies and being responsible for the approval of two relevant bills – Patent Law and IT Law; has acted as advisor to the Economic Development Secretariat for the São Paulo State Government, developing projects for manufacturing clusters using technology, still running today; Acted also as UNDP Consultant for the State Reform Program under the Ministry of Administration and State Reform.

In the private sector has being participating in the last 30 years in join public & private projects related to ICT field, in legal activities in software and intellectual property disputes, acting as advisor in lawyer offices and environmental companies as well as directly working as consultant in ICT projects to International Agencies in areas as e-commerce policy, environmental policies, best practice and market; has work with States/ Federal Government, including write, advise and/or approval of bills related to Integrated Circuits, Electronic Crimes, Information Technology Law, Software & Copyright and Agricultural Varieties Laws. She has also acted as an expert for several missions at WIPO, IADB and UNCTAD.

Chair of the Board and CEO of ALTIS, a software and service outsourcing facility in Bahia (northeast reagion of the country) to promote higher level employment in that region; Partner at Polo Consultores Associados and IT Trend, both consulting companies, in the market since 1986, recently coordinate a e-waste project policies in the country, a partnership with Ministry of Science and Technology and World Bank-InfoDev, two relevant projects on e-commerce for Mercosul & European Union, has been advising international companies in the ICT local market and investments in Brazil, and co-coordinate a group of companies to promote Brazilian Agrisoftware export.

Has also helped ICT companies to set up their manufacturing plants in Brazil, helping SME local companies to absorb transferred technologies, creating and applying specific methodology for Micro and SME as well as organizing local productive arranges and innovation groups;

In the R&D area has been involved with the setup of several and relevant R&D centers in the country, being responsible for the implementation of the ICT infrastructure and general organization. Nowadays is Chair of the Board of FITEC (www.fitec.org.br) an ICT research & development center, and board member of two others. Vanda has also organized two business associations: ABIMI – microelectronics related industry and NEXTI – ICT Executive Women Association.

Has been volunteer working with ICANN Since 2000 – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers,(www.icann.org), a multi-stakeholder model nonprofit organization, having acted as country representative (2000-2004), member of the Board of Directors (Dec 2004 – Dec 2007) , part of the group responsible to create, organize and start up the Fellowship Program from 2006 – term ends in 2010, ALAC - Vice Chair (Dec 2007- Nov 2009) representing Latin American and Caribbean, Board Member representing ALAC/At Large community (Nov 2009-Dec 2010) and SSAC member - Security & Stability Advisory Committee 2010-2012. As SSAC member was elected to NOMCOMM for 2011 term. Has also been member of CGI.br (2000 – 2004), the responsible organization for the Brazilian country code - .br - , also organized as a multi-stakeholder nonprofit organization in December 2002. Is also member of the Nominating Committee to elect Board of Trustees´ members of ISOC – 2011, and now was elected NOMCOMM 2012 chair.

Vanda has represented Brazil in several forums as WIPO/ WTO/ MERCOSUR/ FTAA/ Iberoamerican and United Nations, presenting Brazil's policies, specific laws (Patent and IT) and regional agreements, as Declaration of Florianopolis.

Professor of Fundação Getulio Vargas- FGV Rio de Janeiro - Management Business Administration, first teaching MBA regular courses on Intellectual Property for Business and nowadays teaching in company MBA courses on Science, Technology & Innovation Management; is being involved as MBA professor on IT & Sustainability new program from University of São Paulo –USP, teaching IT Public Policies.

Is honorable member of several associations as ISP´s (ABRANET.org.br), Software (ABES.org.br) and e-commerce (Camara-e.net), honorable Citizen of Rio de Janeiro awarded by the Legislative Assembly, Technology Benefactress of Brazilian Army, and has been awarded in the ICT field several times., including as "Brazilian most influent women in ICT" 2007 award, from the most important business newspaper in the country at the time –Gazeta Mercantil.

Outside of the country is member of WTN (World Technology Network), DNS Women (Women Internet Movement) and NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors –USA).

Vanda has organized several IT events and seminars, author and co-author of books and papers and patent granted in 1983.

Waudo Siganga – Commercial and Business Users Constituency (Small)

Waudo Siganga is the Executive Chairman of the Computer Society of Kenya, an association bringing together ICT professionals and the industry in Kenya. Mr. Siganga has been active on Internet Governance issues since 2003 when he participated in the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and was thereafter appointed by the UN Secretary General to serve on the multi-stakeholder Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) between 2003 and 2005. The WGIG was instrumental in the formation of the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a framework that brings together stakeholders annually to discuss Internet Governance issues. Between 2009 and 2011 Mr. Siganga has served on the Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) that organizes the IGF and advises the UN Secretary General.

Mr. Siganga served as the Vice-Chairman of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) responsible for sub-Saharan Africa between 2005 and 2010. He has been active in ICANN for a number of years and served on the 2008 Nominating Committee.

Ken Stubbs – Registries Stakeholder Group

 

Stéphane Van Gelder – Registrars Stakeholder Group

Stéphane is cofounder and General Manager of Indom, part of the Group NBT family of companies operating in France as NetNames. He is also Group NBT's Registry Relations and Strategy Director. Stéphane is the editor of the domain name information daily www.domaines.info and runs a bilingual blog on the domain industry at www.stephanevangelder.fr (French version) or www.stephanevangelder.com (English version).

Stéphane has been an active member of the Internet governance community for a number of years. He was a board member for the French registry AFNIC from 2004 to 2010. He was elected treasurer of ICANN's Registrar Stakeholder Group in 2008, and that group's European representative on the GNSO Council that same year. ICANN is in charge of the coordination of the global Internet at a technical level and the GNSO is ICANN's policy making body for generic Top Level Domains such as .COM. Stéphane was elected Vice Chair of the GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organisation) Council in 2009 and Chair the following year. He was re-elected as GNSO Council Chair at the 2011 Dakar ICANN meeting.

In 2012, Stéphane was elected as the Registrar Stakeholder Group's representative to ICANN's Nominating Committee.

Stéphane earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Sussex University (UK). He was a print and TV journalist before starting Indom with his father and cousin in 1999. The family-run business was sold to Group NBT in December 2010.

Siranush Vardanyan – ALAC Representative; Asia/Australia/Pacific Region

Siranush Vardanyan currently holds the position of Program Development Manager at Habitat for Humanity Armenia. Prior to this job, she held different managerial positions in Project Harmony Armenian Branch, working in Armenia School Connectivity Program project, which aimed at integration of ICT into education sphere in Armenia. She graduated from the Yerevan State Institute of Foreign Languages with Diploma with Honors, holding MS in History and English. She has completed all required exams for her PhD (all but dissertation) titled "Innovative Programs in Secondary Schools of Armenia" at the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. She has several articles, published in local and international journals, related to her research work.

Siranush has more than 20 years' experience of working with international organizations in Armenia, as well as 8 years of teaching English language as a senior lecturer at Yerevan State Humanitarian College. She is a Salzburg Seminar Fellow and participated in Academic Core Session: "International Legal Perspectives on Human Rights", in Salzburg, Austria and also Central European University alumni with participation at the course: "Human Rights and Forced Displacement: An Interdisciplinary Approach", in Hungary, Budapest. Recently she completed her study at the Open University (UK, London) on Project Management.

Since 2007 Siranush has been actively involved in Internet Governance issues. She is a Diplo Foundation Alumni, being a part of on Capacity Building Program on Internet Governance in 2007, participated in the First European Summer School on Internet Governance. In 2008 Siranush was one the members of Internet Governance Caucus (IGC) Nomination Committee for Multistakeholder Advisory Committee (MAG). She is an ICANN Fellowship Program Alumni, as well as ISOC Ambassador for IGF 2010 and ISOC Returning Ambassador for IGF 2011.

During her professional career Siranush has developed an extensive managerial, communication, and project implementation skills.

Jian Zhang – ccNSO Representative