Mutlstakeholder Advisory Group (MAG)The mandate of the Multistakholder Advisory Group for the Internet Governance Forum was renewed on 20 August 2007. It was extended on 30 April 2008. More details about the Advisory Group and the Open Consultations meetings are available here. List of Members Chairman:
Mrs. Christine Arida works since March 2006 at the Egyptian National Telecom Regulatory Authority (NTRA) as Director for Telecom Planning and Services. Prior to her work at the NTRA, she has worked, since September 2001, at the Telecom Strategic and Technical Planning Department of the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. During this period she has been involved in a number of successful initiatives that serve Egypt’s national plan of “Building its Information Society”. Among those are the Free Internet Initiative (January 2002), the PC for Every Home Initiative (December 2002), and the Broadband Initiative (May 2004). Mrs. Arida started her career at the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center as a network engineer in charge of DNS operation and Internet access, and was among the team who first introduced the Internet in Egypt. Mrs. Arida is also an active member of the global Internet community. She serves as the co-chair of the Arab working group on Arabic domain names and is the former chair of the Arabic Internet Names Consortium (AINC). She has been involved in setting up an Arabic domain names test bed in the context of the ADN pilot project. Mrs. Arida is also a member of the Egyptian working group on Internet governance and the Internet Society Chapter of Egypt. She has worked on establishing the “AfriNIC mirror center for technical operation” in Cairo as well as launching a Regional Resolution Server in Egypt in cooperation with VeriSign. Mrs. Arida holds a B.Sc. degree in Electronic and Communication Engineering from Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Egypt.
Gallagher, Michael D.
Bill Graham is responsible for Global Strategic Engagement in the Office of the President of the Internet Society (ISOC). In this role, he represents ISOC in international organizations such as ICANN, OECD, ITU and others, and for dealing with policy makers at the highest level. Prior to joining ISOC, Bill was Director, International Telecommunications Policy and Coordination in the Canadian federal government. He coordinated Canadian participation in multilateral and regional organizations (ITU, APEC, CITEL), participation in ICANN GAC, and for Canadian bilateral relations on telecommunications policy issues. Bill co-chaired Canada's participation in the UN World Summit on the Information Society. He holds a Masters of Public Administration and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Victoria, British Colombia.
Robin Gross is the founder and Executive Director of IP Justice, an international civil liberties organization that promotes balanced intellectual property law and protects freedom of expression. An attorney, Ms. Gross advises policy makers throughout the world on the impact of intellectual property rules before national legislatures and in international treaties and trade agreements. Ms. Gross lectures at international seminars, law schools and universities on cyberspace legal issues including digital copyright, fair use, and Peer-2-Peer (P2P) file-sharing. Ms. Gross serves as a member of the High Technology Legal Advisory Board for Santa Clara University School of Law, where she teaches International Copyright Law. She represents the Non-Commercial Users (NCUC) Constituency on the GNSO Policy Council at ICANN. Hansem, José Vitor [1]Brasilia - Deputy Head, Division of Science and Technology, Ministry of External Relations, Brazil
Ayesha Hassan manages the ICC's policy work on E-Business, IT and Telecoms. Ms. Hassan is an experienced lawyer, and has a background in dispute resolution, international policy, and ecommerce issues. She is the former head of the online dispute resolution services at SquareTrade. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, a law degree from the University of San Diego, and a Masters in international policy studies from Stanford University.
Peter Hellmonds is currently Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Nokia Siemens Networks. Mr. Hellmonds was Vice President of Public and International Affairs at the Communications group of Siemens AG in Germany. He is a member of the Public Affairs working group of BITKOM, the German ICT industry association, and Executive Advisor to the Chairman of the Board of the German ICT Initiative D21. He was involved in the WSIS process, especially with regard to Internet Governance, IGF, and the WSIS Follow-up and Implementation. Peter also supported the World Economic Forum Digital Divide Initiative, the Digital Opportunities Task Force of the G8 and the UN ICT Task Force. Recently, he was appointed to the Commission on E-Business, the ICC, and the Communications Working Group of the German UNESCO Commission. Peter Hellmonds holds a Master of Public Affairs from the Princeton University and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
Jeanette Hofmann has a PhD in political science. She is a senior researcher for Internet Governance at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), and occasionally teaches at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. She was the co-coordinator of the WSIS Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus from 2004 until 2006, and represented civil society in the German Government Delegation to the WSIS. Hofmann served as a voting member of the 2004 and 2005 ICANN Nominating Committee. In 2003, she was a member of the editorial group of the IETF's "problem statement" working group. Since 2002 she has been a member of the academic advisory board of the Federal Agency for Civic Education in Germany, and a member of the Committee for Communication and Information of the German Chapter of UNESCO.
Erick Iriarte Ahon began his involvement in the domain name space as a lawyer managing the .PE country code top-level domain (ccTLD). Currently, he is executive director of Alfa - Redi, a Latin American civil society organization focusing on information society (IS) issues. Iriarte Ahon is in charge of the LatinoamerICANN project, which is dedicated to information and analysis diffusion and proposals on issues such as domain names, IP numbers, and Internet governance in Latin America and the Caribbean. He has also been a member of the Non-Commercial User Constituency, and the ICANN At-Large Advisory Committee serving as vice-chair and representing Latin America and the Caribbean. Erick also coordinated a meeting on Internet governance in Latin America, as a commission of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force. He coordinates the eLAC 25, for Legal Framework of IS in LatinAmerica.
Mr. Kafi is a highly acknowledged ICT personality in Bangladesh as well as in the ASOCIO (Asian-Oceanian Computing Industry Organization). Kafi represented Bangladesh & ASOCIO in various international ICT events and occupied much respected positions in global ICT forums. At present he’s the Vice President of the ASOCIO for the year 2007-2008. Kafi initiated the process which led to the first ASOCIO Multilateral Trade Visit Program in 2001. Starting the journey from Dhaka, ASOCIO MTV has become one of the main activities of ASOCIO. Mainly because of Kafi’s leadership BCS became member of World Information Technology Services Alliance (WITSA). He was the key person of the formation of the Bangladesh Computer Association (BCS), the national ICT industry organization in 1987. Since its inception, Kafi held various positions including President in the Year 2000-2001. In recognition of his contribution, he has received various national and international awards. Due to his outstanding contribution to ASOCIO’s inception & growth of Asian ICT Industry he received ASOCIO “20th anniversary Contribution award 2004”. Kafi is the Managing Director of JAN ASSOCIATES Ltd, one of the leading ICT companies, offering various ICT Products & Services and he also represents Canon Inc. in Bangladesh. He did his Post Graduate in Planning at University of Dhaka in 1977.
Jānis Kārkliņš was President of the Preparatory Committee of the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS). He was also the first Vice Chairman of the Council of the International Organisation for Migration. Jānis Kārkliņš was the Vice Chairman of working group of Constitutional Reform of the WIPO. Jānis Kārkliņš served his country as Chief of Administration for the Department of Foreign Economics Relations and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He held the position of Counsellor in Latvia's embassies in France and Finland.
Masanobu Katoh has made an important contribution to the ICANN process, particularly in recent times in developing IDN policy. Katoh is the Chair of the Internet Law and Policy Forum (ILPF), and active in many other e-commerce business groups. While representing Asia on ICANN, he also serves on the US State Department Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy, where he is co-chair of the US Department of State Working Group on Intellectual Property, Standards and Interoperability.
Michael Katundu is currently the head of Information technology (IT), at the Communications Regulatory Authority of Kenya, Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK). Mr. Katundu is a holder of a Masters of Science degree (M.Sc.) in Information technology (IT) and a Bachelor's in Science degree (B.Sc.) in Information Technology (IT). Among other industry ICT achievements, Mr. Katundu, on behalf of the CCK, successfully coordinated the re-delegation process of the dot ke Country Code Top-Level Domain, which was finalized in late 2002. Mr. Katundu is a member of the board of directors for the Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC), the designated dot ke management entity in Kenya. In addition, Mr. Katundu is involved in the WSIS process, at the national, regional and the international level.
Valdas Kišonas is the Director of Information Technologies and Telecommunications Department in the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania since 2005. He has more than 12 years experience in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) environment and especially on telecommunication development issues. He is a holder of a Masters of Science degree (M.Sc.) in Telecommunications and a Bachelor's in Science degree (B.Sc.) in Telecommunications.
Kálmán Kovács has held numerous academic posts and is also Chair of Asia@ Hungary Information Society Forum, and the IT Council for Hungarians living abroad. He coordinated the work of the Hungarian Vice Presidency of the WSIS preparatory process and in 2005 co-chaired the plenary session of the WSIS in Tunisia. Mr. Kovács was instrumental in creating the Future of the Internet Forum in Hungary, taking into account the multistakeholder perspective on the international Internet Governance forum at the national level.
Ken Lohento has been engaged in ICT4D policy activities in Africa, on various capacities in local and international civil society or inter-governmental institutions. The organizations he has collaborated with include the two NGOs he founded (Oridev in Benin and Iafric), ISOC-Benin, APC, ACSIS, UNDP-Benin, UNESCO-Paris, and Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie. He is presently Acting Coordinator of the ICT Programme of the Panos Institute West Africa (PIWA, based in Senegal), where he coordinates, the project CIPACO, initially funded by DFID. Ken actively contributed to the various phases of the WSIS process, and is member of the African Civil society and the Civil Society Internet Governance Caucuses. Ken was born in Benin and holds a Master of Research degree in Information Sciences (Université Paris X- France). Niebel, Michael [2] Colin Oliver has responsibility for the Department's international involvement in the information and telecommunication sectors including bilateral and multilateral trade relationships, and participation in the International Telecommunication Union, APEC and Asia Pacific Telecommunity. He has contributed to a number of projects providing technical assistance to developing countries in the Asia Pacific. He also worked in other Administrations including Treasury, Defence and welfare housing, as well as secondments to private industry. His experience in communications policy development has included development of radio communication legislation, and providing policy advice on broadcasting regulations, radio and telecommunications standards, voice over IP services, and next generation networks. Colin has a Masters degree in American history and graduated from Monash University with first class honours.
Dr. George Papadatos, a graduate of Law, University of Athens, Greece, holds also a MS degree in Economics from the University of Utah and a PhD degree in Economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, USA. Dr. Papadatos was in charge of the inaugural meeting of Internet Governance Forum in Athens in 2006. He has participated in the preparation of two World Conferences and two Summits: World Population Conference and Conference on the Status of Women. He was also the spokesman for EU at the WSIS Geneva. In Tunisia, he was Vice President and Rapporteur of WSIS. He was also Chair of an Ad Hoc Committee of the Council of Europe, which produced a declaration on "Human Rights, the Rule of Law and the Information Society". He taught Economics for five years as an Assistant Professor at both the graduate and undergraduate levels at Radford University, Radford, Virginia USA. He was posted at the Greek Mission in New York for a number of years. He was also elected Chair of the Second Committee of the General Assembly and later Vice President of ECOSOC.
At GLOCOM, Adam works on projects related to telecommunications and broadband policy, network and information security policy and trends, and follow-up activities for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). He was co-coordinator of the WSIS Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus from December 2003 (Geneva Summit) to February 2006, and is currently the Associate Chair of ICANN's Nominating Committee (2006). Adam has been working on Internet policy related projects in the Asia Pacific region since the mid-1990s. Most recently he was a member of UNDP Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme's Open Regional Dialogue on Internet Governance (ORDIG), which helped increase stakeholder awareness of Internet Governance and contributed regional input and perspectives on these issues to the WSIS and WGIG processes.
Alejandro Pisanty is currently Director of Computing Academic Services at UNAM, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, in Mexico City, Mexico. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of CUDI, Corporación Universitaria para el Desarrollo de Internet, the Mexican Internet 2 Consortium, as well as of ISOC Mexico. He has served UNAM as Coordinator of the Distance Education Project (1995-1997), Technical Secretary of the Computing Advisory Council (1991-1997) and Head of the Graduate School in Chemistry (1993-1995). He is a Professor in the School of Chemistry. From UNAM he also leads the National Network for Videoconference in Education. Mr. Pisanty received a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry, and M. Sc and Ph. D. Degrees in Physical Chemistry from UNAM. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute für Festkörperforschung in Stuttgart, Germany (1984-1986).
Nii Quaynor served as a member of ICANN Advisory Committee during 1998 and 1999. He is a member of the Council of the University of Ghana, the Ghana Frequency Registration and Control Board, and a member of the Board of the Ghana News Agency. Nii worked as a UNDP consultant to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation where he established Network Computer Systems to provide technology solutions. He taught at the international center for Theoretical Physics in many countries including Italy and China. Nii Quaynor holds a PhD and a Master in Computer Science.
Richard Sambrook is Director of the BBC's Global News division, responsible for leading the BBC's international news services across radio, television and new media. He is a member of the BBC's Executive Direction Board and the BBC's Journalism Board. Previously as Director of BBC News from 2001 to 2004, Richard led the world’s biggest broadcast news operation. Prior to that, from 1999 to 2001, he was Deputy Director of the News division. During his career in BBC News, Richard has worked as a producer and program editor on the BBC's national TV news program. In 1996, Richard was appointed Head of Newsgathering and led a major expansion of the BBC's overseas news capability, creating a network of "hub" bureaus in key regions around the world and building the BBC's live broadcasting capability. Richard's first job with the BBC was in 1980 as a sub-editor in the radio newsroom.
Experienced in Information Technology (IT) policies development and implementation strategies with extensive technical, management and training experience in IT including E-Commerce and Internet. In addition to rich exposure to Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), generic and country code Domain Names, and Multilingual Domain Name issues, Charles Sha'ban is the Executive Director of the Regional office of Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP), member of TalalAbu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAGO). Mr. Sha'ban is the leader of the AGIP Executive Committee, member of the Digital Office Committee (DOC) of TAGO and member of the Professional Development - IP Committee (PDI) of AGIP, whose mission is to define the policies and work processes of the company. Charles holds a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science, from the University of Jordan.
Current responsibilities are Policy Planning on E-Infrastructure, E-Learning and Internet Governance. Ravi Shanker holds a Bachelor degree in Electrical & Electronics Eng. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He holds an AMP (Advanced Management Programme) Certificate from IESE Barcelona. He is a member of the Indian Administrative Service with 27 years of experience in public Administration & Public Policy Shears, Matthew Matthew is the Public Policy Advisor for the Internet Society. Matthew has extensive experience in public policy, advocacy, communications, business development and strategy in both the public and private sectors. After working as a standards and market entry adviser at the US Mission to the EU in Brussels, he worked as AT&T's EMEA Regional Director for Public Affairs, drove public affairs in Europe for the Seattle-based satellite Internet start-up Teledesic, and then moved to Cisco, where he created the EMEA Government Affairs team. Matthew is a British national and lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sostariè, Davoris [4]
Theresa joined ICANN in 2001 as Counsel for International Legal Affairs, where her work involved Governmental Advisory Committee, country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs), and other global coordination activities. In February 2004, Theresa was appointed General Manager, Global Partnerships at ICANN. Theresa continues to lead ICANN's outreach activities, building relationships with all interested participants and regional organizations in the private and public sector. Prior to joining ICANN, Theresa was also Director for Global E-Commerce at MCI, where she was responsible for e-commerce, ISP liability, and ENUM (telephone numbering on the Internet). She also served as a North American representative on the ICANN Domain Name Supporting Organization's Names Council from 1999-2001.
Mr. Zicai Tang serves as the Deputy Director in the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) of the People’s Republic of China, with the main responsibilities for the coordination and participation in activities relating to international telecom organizations, including ITU, APT, APEC, UNGAID and IGF. Born on 8 January 1973, Mr. Zicai Tang holds a Masters Degree in Optical Fiber Communications and Doctor of Philosophy Degree (PhD) from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT, China).
After reading Classics at Cambridge, and gaining a distinction at the College of Law, Emily trained at McKenna & Co (now CMS Cameron McKenna), and qualified into the contentious IP department. Emily then worked at Manches' Oxford office before joining Nominet in 2000. Emily's responsibilities include management of Nominet's vehicle for stakeholder consultation, the Policy Advisory Board. She has been monitoring the WGIG process on Nominet's behalf. Emily was responsible for the review of Nominet's Dispute Resolution Service, which was launched in September 2001. In 2005, Emily was elected as a non-executive director of CENTR, the Council for European National Top Level Domain Registries.
Issah Yahaya is also a member and Secretary of the National Policy and Plan Development Committee. He was a member of Ghana's preparatory committee for the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS). He is also coordinating the Ministry's commitment to WTO, ITU, CTO, ATU and NEPAD. Issah Yahaya hold a Master of Communications Management from the University of Strathclyde of Glasgow. [1] replaced Mr. Auguso Cesar Vieira Gadelha The Chairman asked a number of special advisers to assist him in this process. The Regional Coordinators may attend the meeting as special invitees. |