Next Generation Leaders (NGL) Program > IGF Ambassadors Program > Past IGF Ambassadors

Past IGF Ambassadors

2018 IGF Ambassadors

Aisyah Shakirah Suhaidi

Aisyah Shakirah Suhaidi (Malaysia) is presently undertaking her undergraduate studies in law at University Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, and most recently completed external studies in the area of multilateralism via a partnership of the EU and ASEAN at Maastricht University and Universitas Indonesia. Aisyah has participated in Internet governance fora such as WSIS, ITU’s Girls Day in Geneva, and ICANN 52. She is particularly interested in the areas of multilateralism, multistakeholder cooperation, gender affairs, and youth engagement in Internet governance. Aisyah is actively involved in the ISOC Malaysia Chapter, organizing activities such as the Malaysian Internet Governance Forum and the Safer Internet Forum for Youth.

Akua Walters

Akua Walters (Jamaica) runs a startup called Hacker Hostel. The organization identifies final year Computer Science, Math, Physics and Electrical Engineering students from countries across the Caribbean and pairs them with senior software engineers for four weeks, where they undergo a boot camp that allows them to easily transition into junior software engineering roles. He also advises members of the Government of Jamaica on matters related to innovation and entrepreneurship. His goal for attending the Paris IGF meeting is to further push the dialogue across the Caribbean region around the governance of the Internet, the essence of net neutrality, and the nuance of fostering local talent to ensure a free and open Internet for all.

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Anahiby Becerril

Anahiby Becerril (Mexico) is a Researcher and Professor who has been working at the intersection of Law and ICTs for several years, and specializes in Cybersecurity and Human Rights Online. She currently works with the INFOTEC Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación, and most recently participated in the creation of the National Cybersecurity Strategy for Mexico in collaboration with the Organization of American States (OAS). Anahiby has been chosen as the Implementation Lead for the ‘Legal Framework and Self-Regulation’ group for the implementation of the strategy. She is a Returning Ambassador having first participated in the program at IGF Guadalajara.

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Dajana Mulaj

Dajana Mulaj (Albania) is an Internet Governance Specialist and the Coordinator of the Albanian Youth IGF, an open platform which aims to empower youth in her country to engage in Internet-related discussions. In 2017, she was selected as a youth participant at the South Eastern European Dialogue on Internet Governance (SEEDIG) and then later as a YouthDIG Fellow at the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG). She also attended the 2017 IGF Meeting as an Internet Society Youth@IGF Fellow. Dajana is currently involved in Digital Grassroots, an initiative which was founded by ISOC Youth@IGF Fellows to empower young people to address Internet-related issues in their communities and to increase youth participation and influence in the Internet ecosystem.

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Eduardo Tome

Eduardo Tome (Honduras) is an IT Policy Officer at Red de Desarrollo Sostenible (Sustainable Development Network), an NGO that focuses on capacity building through the use of ICTs, multimedia production, and community radio, and also manages the ccTLD for Honduras. He is currently the Vice Chair of the ISOC Honduras Chapter and a member of the Youth SIG (Youth Observatory). Eduardo holds a law degree from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras. He is part of the chapter team that received a Beyond the Net grant in 2017 to deploy his country’s first community network (CN) along with the Lencas (indigenous people) in the Azacualpa Valley, a remote region that has no paved roads, no running water and no electric power. Eduardo has been a LACNIC Fellow and is a Member of the Legal and Policy working groups in LACTLD.

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Elif Sert

Elif Sert (Turkey) is a Graduate Law Student at the University of California – Berkeley, with a particular focus in information technologies law. She previously worked as a Privacy Consultant at a startup and a Research Assistant at Istanbul Bilgi University. Her academic work is centered around the use of algorithms and how they affect human rights, especially the right to privacy. She has also been involved in research topics such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI), GDPR, telemedicine law, and data localization. Elif has attended the Balkan School on Internet Governance, and has been a Youth@IGF Fellow, RIPE NCC Fellow and a YouthDIG Fellow. She is a Board Member of the ISOC Turkey Chapter and a Co-Organizer/Executive Committee Member of YouthIGF Turkey. Elif is a practicing yogi and has a deep passion for academic research.

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Joshua Musasizi

Joshua Musasizi (Uganda) is the Secretary-General of Internet Society Uganda Chapter. The chapter has implemented a number of projects related to child online protection and the translation of Wikipedia into local languages to promote easy access and also uploading local content for schools to leverage as an educational resource. Joshua is the Co-Founder of TIFAT Uganda Ltd, a social enterprise that harnesses the use of technology to uplift and improve livelihoods of small and medium scale farmers, especially in rural Uganda. He is also the Country Director of Matendo International, an NGO that works with rural communities in Uganda to solve challenges that local people face on a daily basis with emphasis on child education, health campaigns and poverty alleviation. He is a former AFRINIC Fellow.

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Luã Fergus

Luã Fergus (Brazil) is currently a Law Student and a Research Assistant at the Center for Technology and Society of FGV RIO (CTS/FGV). He has been dedicating himself to academic endeavor around Internet governance, specifically personal data protection in smart cities and copyright reform. He is also interested in areas such as Youth Engagement, Community Networks, and Intermediary Liability. Along with colleagues, he founded the Youth SIG (better known as the Youth Observatory). In 2016 and 2017, Luã was invited by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) to be a Mentor to the Youth@IGF Brazilian participants.

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Matías Jackson

Matías Jackson (Uruguay) is an Assistant Professor of Computer Law at the University of the Republic of Uruguay, where he also obtained his undergraduate law degree. He is currently undertaking post-graduate studies in Information Systems and IT Management at the same institution. He first got involved with Internet governance when he was selected for the NextGen@ICANN program in 2015. Matías is a chapter leader at the ISOC Uruguay Chapter and is part of the team that established the Uruguay IGF. He has also been an ICANN and LACNIC Fellow, and supports a number of different youth initiatives in his country and across the region. In 2016, he participated in the South School of Internet Governance (SSIG) in Washington D.C.

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Noha Ashraf Abdel Baky

Noha Ashraf Abdel Baky (Egypt) is Senior Data Storage Analyst at Dell EMC. She is also a Dell University Relations Committee Member and a Dell Social Media Ambassador. She has previously worked for multinational companies like Microsoft and Orange Business Services. Noha has participated in the Mozilla Open Leaders Program, and is a Fellow to the Middle East and Adjoining Countries School of Internet Governance (MEAC SIG). She was selected as an ISOC Youth@IGF Fellow in 2017, and after the Geneva IGF, she co-founded Digital Grassroots with other fellows, a youth-led initiative to promote digital citizenship. She has completed several ISOC online courses, and is currently part of the organization’s group of qualified moderators.

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Nomsa Mlambo

Nomsa Mlambo (Zimbabwe) is a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) graduate from the University of Cape Town, and is currently studying to be admitted as an attorney of the High Court in Zimbabwe. She recently moved back to Zimbabwe after living and working in South Africa developing the next generation of African leaders at the African Leadership Academy. She is an alumni of the Internet Society Youth@IGF program and the NextGen@ICANN program. Her passion is facilitating increased access to the Internet, developing local content, and assessing the impact of Internet shut downs on the African continent, and to this end she aspires to formulate policies that address these challenges in her country.

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Priyatosh Jana

Priyatosh Jana (India) is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Mallabhum Institute of Technology where he is focused on teaching and facilitating to undergraduate engineering students along various streams. He is also the single point of contact (SPOC) of the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) for MOOCs and the Remote Center Coordinator of the National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) for the Government of India. Priyathosh has participated in the Asia-Pacific School on Internet Governance (APSIG), IETF 98 Chicago, and has been selected as a Fellow to the India School on Internet Governance (InSIG). His passion is facilitating capacity building and empowering individuals to use the Internet to transform their lives.

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Stanley Osao

Stanley Osao (Papua New Guinea) is a Control Systems Engineer by profession. He currently serves as Board Chair of iPNGC for the second term. He has also been active in ICANN with their fellowship program and At-Large communities. Stanley has worked in academia, international NGO, the private sector, and also undertakes freelance work in ICTs, telecommunications, and electrical engineering. He has a technical background in industrial communication systems, computing and automation engineering. Stanley graduated with a BEE from PNG University of Technology and a MEng in Control Systems from Auckland University of Technology. His main interests in the Internet space is to promote, defend and facilitate a fair, secure, open, safe and affordable internet in his country and region.

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Yeseul Kim

Yeseul Kim (South Korea) is presently studying Science and Technology Policy at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) where she is focusing on Internet governance and cybersecurity. She has been working with organizations such as Creative Commons, Wikimedia, ICANN, ISOC and others. Yeseul has also participated in the Asia-Pacific School on Internet Governance (APSIG), Asia-Pacific Internet Governance Forum (AprIGF) and the global IGF. Her main study areas are cross-border legal cooperation for the Internet, IoT data, and other cross-border data transactions. She has recently developed an interest in how the Internet can preserve world heritages and cultures, and as such is studying what impacts the Internet and social media have brought to this field.

2017 IGF Ambassadors

Adaora Okoli

Adaora Okoli (Nigeria) is a Broadcast Journalist working with Info FM 99.3 Ltd. She also runs a blog techcultureng.com which is focused on telling stories of young people using ICTs for development in the Niger-Delta and across the broader Africa continent. It is also a platform for awareness and advocacy for digital rights and internet freedoms. Adaora has a legal background and holds a LLM in Internet Law & Policy from the University of Strathclyde.

Alessia Zucchetti

Alessia Zucchetti (Uruguay) is the Research Project Manager and Coordinator of Ceibal Foundation in Uruguay. Alessia has been involved in Internet governance and policy for the past four years, and her current work includes developing and managing national and international ICT projects and programmes, capacity-building initiatives, and providing policy assessment in education & technology, digital citizenship, open access, privacy and data protection, among other fields.

Angélica Contreras

Angie Contreras (Mexico) is a Writer for the Association for Progressive Communications’ GenderIT e-zine and also runs a feminist digital magazine. She is a Youth@IGF Fellow and a Founding Member of the Youth SIG (better known as the Youth Observatory). She actively participates in the ISOC Mexican Chapter and is now in the process of forming the Gender Issues SIG. Her primary interests are access, diversity, and gender issues and the Internet. She holds a Bachelor of Communications with studies in social communication and gender, and is currently studying for her Bachelor of Laws (LLB).

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Aris Ignacio

Aris Ignacio (Philippines) is the Dean of the College of Information Technology at Southville International School and Colleges in the Philippines. He is an advocate for the youth being a major stakeholder group in Internet Governance discussions, and has facilitated the participation of university/college students in local, regional and global Internet governance events, particularly in Asia-Pacific. Aris is a Board Member and Vice President of Development at the ISOC Philippines Chapter. He is a Past ICANN Fellow and was a participant the 1st Asia Pacific School of Internet Governance.

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Bruna Santos

Bruna Santos (Brazil) is the Coordinator at the Research Lab on Public Policies and Internet (LAPIN) where she focuses on studying multistakeholder processes and broader Internet governance related issues. She holds a Bachelor of Laws and is currently pursuing a Masters in Internet Regulation at the University of Brasilia. Over the past couple of years, Bruna has worked on initiatives such as the Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet, the Arena NetMundial (a civil society unconference during NetMundial) and the Draft Brazilian Data Protection Bill.

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Elizabeth Longworth

Elizabeth Longworth has over 28 years experience on issues of internet development and policy as a lawyer, privacy expert, business person, activist, facilitator and international policy-maker. From 2003-14 she held various senior director positions in the United Nations, setting strategic direction and providing leadership and management oversight. She led global programmes which relied on consensus-building, multi-stakeholder partnerships, and maintaining strong relationships with civil society (including community and technical groups, academia and business), and governments.

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Hanen Idoudi

Hanen Idoudi (Tunisia) is an Assistant Professor in Computer Science at the University of Manouba. She has a strong background in the technical aspects of Internet protocols, enterprise networks protocols and overall network design in general. She has a particular interest in routing and security in wireless technologies. She is an ISOC Next Generation Leader, having completed the ’Shaping the Internet – History & Futures’ online course in 2012. She is actively involved in the ISOC Tunisian Chapter, is an ICANN Fellowship alumni, and has participated in the Middle East and Adjoining Countries Internet Governance School in 2016.

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Ines Hfaiedh

Ines Hfaiedh (Tunisia) is the Head of Education Programs at the Arab World Internet Institute (AWII). She is also the AWII Representative on the Partnership and Steering Committee Member at ICANN’s MEAC School of Internet Governance. Ines holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Language Teaching and a Bachelors of English Literature. She has previously been a Fulbright Teaching Assistant at the Catholic University of America (District of Columbia). Ines is an ICANN Fellow and Coach and has been involved with DiploFoundation and the Geneva Internet Platform.

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Josephine Miliza

She is currently the Africa regional coordinator for the Association of Progressive Communication-LOCNET project hosted by KICTANET. The LOCNET project focuses on creating an enabling environment for the growth of sustainable and scalable community networks.

In 2016, Josephine has been involved in community networks since 2015 and led the establishment of TunapandaNET a community network in Kibera Nairobi Kenya that focuses on promoting access for all, adoption of digital technologies and ICT capabilities for the local community.

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Kinfe Desta

Kinfe Desta (Ethiopia) is a Lecturer at Addis Ababa University, where his teaching and research interests are Internet governance and media law. He undertook his undergraduate studies in law in Ethiopia and further graduate studies in Norway (IT Law) and the UK (International Law). He is a past ICANN Fellow and has been involved with the internationalized domain name program for the Ethiopic Script. He is also a member of ICANN’s Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group within the Generic Supporting Organization. Kinfe is passionate about Internet governance, and is current dedicating his time to a long-term research project on the Internet Bill of Rights and the post-Snowden privacy discussions at the United Nations.

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Lenandlar Singh

Lenandlar Singh (Guyana) is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Guyana. He is an ISOC Next Generation Leader (NGL), and participated in the ’Shaping the Internet – History & Futures’ online course in 2012. He has participated in both the EuroSSIG Fellowship and the LACIGF Fellowship programmes. He is currently part of the team which is leading the formation of the ISOC Guyana Chapter, and hopes that his experience at the IGF will help with the development of the chapter. At the University of Guyana, he recently created an Internet governance course that will debut in the curriculum in 2018. Lenandlar is highly committed to educating the next generation about the Internet in general and to encourage more youth participation in IG issues.

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Paola Pérez

Paola Pérez (Venezuela) is the Vice-President of the ISOC Venezuelan Chapter and the Chair of the LACNIC Public Policy Forum. She is also a human rights activist for the Network of Citizen Activists (REDAC), Chief Executive Officer of the non-profit foundation ‘Lids for Life’, and a member of the IT Women Working Group in LACNIC. Her interests are online censorship, mass surveillance, net neutrality, access, infrastructure, IoT, freedom of expression and association, gender issues and the Internet, and sexual exploitation online. Paola is a former Google Fellow and a Returning IGF Ambassador.

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Sarah Kiden

Sarah Kiden (Uganda) is currently a Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellow hosted by Research ICT Africa in Cape Town, South Africa. She is working on an Internet measurements project, focusing on broadband performance, and Internet peering and users’ behaviour in some countries in Africa. Sarah possesses a technical background in networks and systems administration through her previous employment as Head of Systems at Uganda Christian University. She holds a Master of Science in Information Systems, and has worked mostly in research and education networks.

Susannah Gray

Susannah Gray (United States) is a Communications Consultant who works with organizations such as ICANN, AFRINIC, APNIC, AMS-IX, Royal Dutch Shell, and others. She has previously worked for ICANN, RIPE NCC and Greenpeace in the areas of media analysis, corporate communications and publication. Susannah is the President and Chair of the ISOC San Francisco Chapter, and has been involved with the IANA functions transfer and the ICANN CWG Accountability proposal. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, Social Anthropology and Business Administration from Keele University, and is multilingual.

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Tracy Kadesa

Tracy Kadesa (Kenya) is an Independent ICT Researcher focusing on intellectual property online consulting. She also works with the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTAnet) and Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA). Tracy was part of the KICTAnet team that organized the Kenya Internet Governance Forum (KenIGF) and the Kenya School of Internet Governance (KenSIG). She is currently part of a team that is reviewing the Computer and Cyber Crime Bill for the Government of Kenya. Tracy holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Nairobi and a Post Graduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law form the Kenya School of Law.

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Vashkar Bhattacharjee

Vashkar Bhattacharjee (Bangladesh) is the Program Manager at Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), where he is responsible for the overall strategic direction and management of disability and ICT related activities. He is also the focal person for DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) and 2nd Vice President at the Global Alliance on Accessible Technologies and Environments (GAATES). He has been working as a National Consultant in developing web accessibility with the Access to Information (A2I) initiative in the Office of the Prime Minister.

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Vineet Kumar

Vineet Kumar (India) is the Founder and President of Cyber Peace Foundation and National Anti-Hacking Group (NAG). He has received several national awards for his work in the area of cybersecurity, including the ‘National IT Excellent Award’, ‘Cybersecurity Entrepreneur of the Year’, and the ‘Top 100 CISO Award’. He was the recipient of the Chevening Scholarship by the British Government, and studied Cyber Defense and Information Assurance at Cranfield University (UK). Vineet is an Advisory Council Member at Public Interest Registry (PIR) and is a Member of the Expert Group on Cybersecurity for the Government of India.

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Zakir Syed

Zakir Syed (Pakistan) is the Research Manager, Telecoms & ICT Market Research at SAMENA Telecoms Council where he looks at emerging technologies and innovation, public policy, regulation and the latest trends in the role of ICTs in different sectors. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering, Master of Business Administration (MBA), and a Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT). Zakir has participated in the ISOC Next Generation Leaders programme and is also ICANN fellowship alumni. He is particularly interested in ICTs for development (ICT4D), evidence-based policy development, and the impact of mobile Internet on the Middle East and North Africa.

2016 IGF Ambassadors

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Aarti Bhavana

Aarti Bhavana (India) is a Programme Manager with the Centre for Communications Governance (CCG) in New Delhi. She is relatively new to Internet governance, and has been involved with ICANN processes such as the IANA transition, CCWG accountability and various human rights-related processes within ICANN. She is eager to broaden her involvement in the Internet governance ecosystem, and believes that the IGF is the ideal platform. Her background is law, specifically human rights and institutional accountability. Aarti holds a BA, LLB (Hons) from the National Law University in Delhi, India.

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Adrian Wan

Adrian Wan (Hong Kong) is a Post-Graduate Student at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He previously worked as a Beijing-based technology correspondent for the South China Morning Post. Adrian is interested in topics at the intersection of technology and human rights. He was recently employed at the research arm of the APEC Secretariat as a Google Policy Fellow, and focused on issues related to digital trade policy and digital skills development in Asia-Pacific.

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Adriana Castro

Adriana Castro (Colombia) is a Research Professor at the Universidad Externado de Colombia, School of Law. She obtained her LLM in International Business Law from the Queen Mary, University of London and is currently studying her PhD in Law at the Universidad Externado de Colombia. Her current work is in the areas of e-commerce law, international e-contracts, consumer protection in the digital age, and cross border data protection. Adriana is involved with the Colombian Internet Governance Forum, working in outreach and partnership development.

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Alessia Zucchetti

Alessia Zucchetti (Uruguay) is the Research Project Manager and Coordinator of Ceibal Foundation in Uruguay. Alessia has been involved in Internet governance and policy for the past four years, and her current work includes developing and managing national and international ICT projects and programmes, capacity-building initiatives, and providing policy assessment in education & technology, digital citizenship, open access, privacy and data protection, among other fields. Before joining Ceibal Foundation, she worked at the Directorate General of the European Commission (Brussels) and the Information and Communications Center of the European Commission (Italy).

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Anahiby Becerril

Anahiby Becerril (Mexico) is a Researcher and Professor who has been working at the intersection of Law and ICTs for several years, and specializes in Cybersecurity and Human Rights Online. She currently works with the INFOTEC Centro de Investigación e Innovación en Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación, and most recently participated in the creation of the National Cybersecurity Strategy for Mexico in collaboration with the Organization of American States (OAS). Anahiby has been chosen as the Implementation Lead for the ‘Legal Framework and Self-Regulation’ group for the implementation of the strategy. She is a Returning Ambassador having first participated in the program at IGF Guadalajara.

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Andrej Petrovski

Andrej Petrovski (Serbia) currently works as a Computer Forensics Analyst at SHARE Foundation. He holds a BEng in Informatics and a MSc in Electronic Crime and Digital Forensics. He currently works on obtaining and analyzing evidence in cases of cybercrime that occur in the online media sphere. He is also involved in research on the impact of cyber attacks on basic human rights in the digital environment, such as freedom of speech, freedom to access to knowledge and information, and related rights. In the past, he worked with RIPE Labs on mapping the Internet infrastructure across Serbia.

Anna Orlova

Anna Orlova (Russian Federation) is a Researcher at the Cooperation and Development Network Eastern Europe (CDN). She also participates in the Working Group for the Amazon Digital Radio HF Network (UNESP). Anna obtained her BA in Psychology and MA in Sociology (European Societies) from the Saint-Petersburg State University. She recently joined the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Initiative of CDN where she is focused on dissemination and education about digital rights and open source culture and technology in Eastern European countries. Her interests are education and advocacy of digital rights for young people, community networks and access, and online harassment and discrimination.

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Arsene Tungali

Arsene Tungali (Democratic Republic of Congo) is a Mandela Washington Fellow, and has been engaged with UNICEF, AfriNIC, ICANN, Central Africa IGF Organizing Committee, and DiploFoundation. Arsene holds a BSc in Agricultural Studies from Université de Goma as well as a number of certificates in Internet governance and civic leadership. He has been working with the ITU on their Girls in ICT Day and Child Online Protection (COP) initiatives for the last 3 years. Arsene specializes in child online protection, Internet governance, and capacity building. He is presently the Co-Coordinator of the Internet Governance Caucus (IGC).

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Ashell Forde

Ashell Forde (Barbados) is a Senior Telecoms Officer at the Telecoms Unit (national regulator). She has been active in the deployment of the Barbados IXP, as well as the setting up of the national CSIRT. Ashell holds a BSc in Computer Science and Electronics from the University of the West Indies, has qualified with City & Guilds in Microcomputer Technology, and possesses a number of industry certifications in ethical hacking, routing & switching, and information security. She has also attended USTTI training on a number of occasions, completed cybersecurity war games with the ITU and OAS, and is the Founder of the non-profit group ’No! to Online Abuse and Harassment (NOAH)’.

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Chenai Chair

Chenai Chair (Zimbabwe) is a Researcher / Communications and Evaluations Advisor with Research ICT Africa, a non-profit think tank based in Cape Town, South Africa. She currently works on Research ICT Africa’s mobile pricing indices, Internet access and user issues focused on youth and gender, as well Internet governance. Chenai participated in the 2015 Africa School for Internet Governance (AfriSIG). Her areas of passion and interest are gender and youth issues in policy spaces, Internet rights and developing demand side awareness for optimal Internet.

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Dirgayuza Setiawan

Dirgayuza Setiawan (Indonesia) is a Student / Researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII). His current research and policy interest is in online age verification for the purpose of keeping young users away from unintentional exposure to pornography and other age-inappropriate content. He obtained his BA in Media Communication and Political Science from the University of Melbourne and is currently working on the MSc in Social Science of the Internet.

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Elvin Prasad

Elvin Prasad (Fiji) works as a Senior ICT Engineer in the Ministry of Communications. He is also the ICANN Government Advisory Committee (GAC) Representative for his country. Elvin holds a BSc in Engineering & Computer Science and a MSc in Information Systems. His present interests are Internet of Things (IoT), IPv6, privacy, and cybersecurity, and he hopes to use the experienced gained at the global IGF to assist him in setting up Fiji’s CSIRT and to deliver the first national IGF in the country.

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Humberto Arthos

Humberto Arthos (Ecuador) is the Projects Director at Usuarios Digitales del Ecuador where he advocates for the freedom to exercise your rights on digital platforms. His background is mechanical engineering and drilling, but in recent years he is working in the areas of cloud computing, communications networks, and monitoring & controls systems. He is looking forward to participating in IGF Guadalajara and being engaged and involved in discussions on digital rights, cybersecurity and the Internet of Things (IoT).

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Ivy Hoetu

Ivy Hoetu (Ghana) works for the National Communications Authority (NCA) as an Engineering Officer. In this role, she monitors the frequency spectrum bands allocated to the various communications services providers in the country to ensure that interference is minimized. She also volunteers her time providing technical facilitation for ICT training courses. Ivy previously worked as the Managed Networks Supervisor for one of the largest ISPs in Ghana and was a Cisco Networking Academy Instructor at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE).

Jeannette Torrez

Jeannette Torrez (Argentina) is a Researcher in the privacy and freedom of expression areas of Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She holds a degree in Sociology and participates in research groups at the University of Buenos Aires in the area of Urban Sociology. Jeannette oversees a number of projects that analyze the actual challenges to freedom of expression in the digital realm across South America. Her passion is monitoring and reporting on issues related to freedom of expression and privacy in order to build a stronger democracy in Argentina. She’s also interested in gender issues and female empowerment.

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Jevgenija Voronko

Jevgenija Voronko (Belarus) is a Public Relations Manager for the Registry of Belarusian domains .BY and .БЕЛ (.BEL) She is also the Secretary of the Belarus IGF and was part of the organizing team for the first Belarus national IGF that was attended by more than 300 representatives from government, business and civil society. She is committed to providing better opportunities for the Internet users in her country by developing the Belarus domain zone in accordance with the principles of a stable, secure and open Internet.

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Jose Mendoza

Jose Mendoza (Venezuela) is a Legal Consultant at Fundacion Acceso Libre (Foundation for Free Access). He is also an Independent Researcher focused on publishing articles that emphasize the importance of the Internet as a means for the realization of human rights, and maintaining Internet governed under ethical principles. Jose obtained his legal qualifications from the University of Carabobo and completed his MSc in Political Science at the Simon Bolivar University. The topics that most interest him are public policy, net neutrality, and open access.

Khushboo Khanna

Khushboo Khanna (India) is currently pursuing a double Masters degree in Global Media and Communications from the London School of Economics & Political Science (United Kingdom) and the Fudan School of Journalism (China). She obtained her BA in Mass Media from the University of Mumbai with a specialization in Journalism. Her interests are human rights and the Internet, data protection, and open data.

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Mamothokoane Tlali

Mamothokoane Tlali (Lesotho) is a Manager at the Lesotho Network Information Centre (LsNIC), which is a non-profit organization formed by the national telecommunications regulator to oversee ccTLD operations and to promote Internet access and ICT penetration in the country.  Prior to that, she was an IP Systems Engineer at Vodacom Lesotho where she worked on core routing and IP backbone services. She developed her interest in Internet governance after having participated in the 2015 Africa School for Internet Governance (AfriSIG). She is currently in the processing of setting up a local ISOC chapter and establishing a local Network Operators Group (NOG). She hopes to use the experience gained at the global IGF in Guadalajara to deliver the first Lesotho national IGF.

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Michael Oghia

Michael J. Oghia (United States) is a Belgrade-based Internet governance Consultant and Editor. He is currently the Communications Manager of IGMENA, a program operated by Hivos, and works with DiploFoundation as Assistant Curator for the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP). He is actively involved in regional IGF initiatives, such as the Southeastern European Dialogue on Internet governance (SEEDIG) and the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG). He has attended the 2016 EuroDIG New Media Summer School and the 2016 Annenberg-Oxford Media Policy Summer Institute. Michael holds a MA in Sociology from the American University of Beirut and a BSc in Sociology from the University of Louisville.

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Sonia Herring

Sonia Herring (Turkey) is a Magazine Editor, Social Media Manager and Civil Society Activist from İstanbul. She has been involved in the Internet governance community for the past year as a Youth Delegate in the ‘Youth Leadership in Internet Governance’ initiative of the Network of European Digital Youth.  She has attended a number of national and regional IGFs as a participant and speaker, and recently participated in the 2016 Middle East and Adjoining Countries (MEAC) School on Internet Governance. Sonia is one of the organizing members of the Turkish Youth IGF, a member of ISOC’s Turkey Chapter and an Assistant Curator for the DiploFoundation’s Geneva Internet Platform Digital Watch Observatory.

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Victor Ramos

Victor Ramos (Venezuela) is Founding Member and Director of Generacion en Red. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. Victor is involved with TEDxMetropolitanCaracas where discussions will center around Internet access, freedom of information, citizen participation and transparency. He is also currently in discussions with the Commission on Science and Technology of the National Assembly of Venezuela around the development of an online e-participation platform for the general public to discuss new legislation in the country.

Victor Ryan Biran

Victor Ryan Biran (Trinidad and Tobago) is a Team Leader at the National Information and Communication Technology Co. Ltd. (iGovTT). He holds a BSc in Computing & Information Systems, a MSc in Telecoms Regulation & Policy, and a MBA. He is also a past recipient of the Commonwealth Professional Fellowship and Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship. Ryan has a deep background in ICTs and over the years has worked in policymaking, telecoms strategy, project management, and ICT standardization. His main interests are net neutrality, open data, OTT services, and cybersecurity.

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Yolanda Mlonzi

Yolanda Mlonzi (South Africa) is a Student at the University of Witwatersrand studying towards a degree in Media Studies. In 2015, she was was a Google Policy Fellow (Africa), and it was through this fellowship that she gained a deeper understanding of pertinent issues related to Internet governance. Subsequently, she worked for the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) assisting with their policy work across the African continent. She is a graduate of the 2015 African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG). Her interests are ICTs for development (ICT4D), multistakeholderism, gender issues, and human rights and the Internet.

2015 IGF Ambassadors

Agustina Callegari

Agustina Callegari (Argentina) specializes in political communication for the digital age. She is very involved in work related to privacy and data protection, freedom of expression, and Internet governance. She is a former NextGen@ICANN Fellow, and a current LACIGF Fellow. Agustina holds a BA in Communication Science from Buenos Aires University and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Data Protection from the Latin American University (FLACSO).

Amanda Soares Kemmer

Amanda Soares Kemmer (Brazil) is an Attorney-at-Law specializing in cyberlaw, copyright law, international trade law, and tax law. She is also currently a Researcher attached to the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy & Management at Bournemouth University. Amanda holds a LLB from the Catholic University of Paraná and a LLM in International Tax Law from Bournemouth University. She is very interested in digital rights, and particularly in the Marco Civil da Internet legislation in Brazil.

Ana Kakalashvili

Ana Kakalashvili (Georgia) works for the U.S. Peace Corps in the area of security and safety. She has participated in meetings of ICANN, RIPE NCC, and EuroDIG. She holds a LLB from the Tbilisi State University, and is currently working on organizing the inaugural Georgian National IGF Meeting. She is a former Fellow to RIPE NCC and a former ICANN Fellow. Ana is very interested in multistakeholder models of governance, online privacy and security, and copyright regulation in the digital era.

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Argyro Karanasiou

Argyro Karanasiou (Greece) is a Lecturer at Bournemouth University, and specializes in intellectual property in the digital economy, media law, IoT, privacy by design, and big data. She holds a LLB and a LLM in Public Policy & Politics from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, and a PhD in Law from the University of Leeds. Argyro is currently involved with the Dynamic Coalition on Freedom of Expression and Freedom of the Media on the Internet and the Dynamic Coalition on Internet Rights and Principles. She is a former ISOC Ambassador to the IGF, and has recently been named as an Ambassador for the Information and Privacy Commissioner in Ontario, Canada.

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Arsene Tungali

Arsene Tungali (Democratic Republic of Congo) is a Mandela Washington Fellow, and has been engaged with UNICEF, AfriNIC, ICANN, Central Africa IGF Organizing Committee, and DiploFoundation. Arsene holds a BSc in Agricultural Studies from Université de Goma as well as a number of certificates in Internet governance and civic leadership. He has been working with the ITU on their Girls in ICT Day and Child Online Protection (COP) initiatives for the last 3 years. Arsene specializes in child online protection, Internet governance, and capacity building. He is presently the Co-Coordinator of the Internet Governance Caucus (IGC).

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Ashell Forde

Ashell Forde (Barbados) is a Senior Telecoms Officer at the Telecoms Unit (national regulator). She has been active in the deployment of the Barbados IXP, as well as the setting up of the national CSIRT. Ashell holds a BSc in Computer Science and Electronics from the University of the West Indies, has qualified with City & Guilds in Microcomputer Technology, and possesses a number of industry certifications in ethical hacking, routing & switching, and information security. She has also attended USTTI training on a number of occasions, completed cybersecurity war games with the ITU and OAS, and is the Founder of the non-profit group ’No! to Online Abuse and Harassment (NOAH)’.

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Elsa Saade

Elsa Saade (Lebanon) is a social and political activist working in the fields of humanitarian assistance and capacity building. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs and Political Science from the Lebanese American University in Byblos. Elsa has a solid belief in the enormous potential of youth in her country.

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Encel Sanchez

Encel Sanchez (Venezuela) is a student at the University of The Andes – Mérida, Venezuela, studying systems engineering. His areas of competency are web development, social media, security and privacy, and open source. The IGF topics that are of primary interest include access and diversity, security and privacy.

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Evelyn Namara

Evelyn joined the Internet Society in 2017 as the Policy Outreach Fellow. In her new role she will join the global policy team and work closely on policy work related to access and human rights. She will also work on supporting the Internet Society’s communications campaign as well as focus on special initiatives including the Internet Society’s 25th Anniversary.

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Grace L.N Mutung’u

Grace L N Mutung’u (Bomu) is a young Kenyan ICT lawyer. She works for a theatre company, Fanartics Limited as a public relations, communications and legal officer. Since 2005 she has served as the secretary of the Kenya ICT Consumers Association which is an organisation advocating for consumer empowerment in the ICT sector. She is a Diplo 2009 Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme alumni.

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José Eduardo Rojas

José Eduardo Rojas (Bolivia) is the CEO of REDES Foundation, where he leads country-specific efforts in Internet policy and development. He is a Vice President at the ISOC Bolivia Chapter, and a member of the organizing committee for the Bolivia IGF. Eduardo was responsible for the design of the national strategy of ICTs for Development (ICT4D) in Bolivia, and was also instrumental in the development of the Telecommunications Act (Bolivia) and the underlying model for telecoms regulation.

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Kasek Galgal

Kasek Galgal (Papua New Guinea) is a Lecturer at the University of Papua New Guinea. His work is focused on cybersecurity, free and open source software (FOSS), and network development. He is a former APNIC Fellow and is active in local and regional Internet governance efforts. He is an active member of the Pacific Island chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC), is very passionate about ICTs for development (ICT4D), education and bridging the digital divide.

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Krishna Kumar Rajamannar

Krishna Kumar Rajamannar (India) is a Student, and is completing his MA in Public Policy (specializing in Internet Governance) at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. Prior to this, he worked for the Omnicom Media Group as a New Media Planner. He currently serves as the Secretary for the Internet Society Chennai Chapter. Krishna was selected as a Fellow to ICANN 51 and ICANN 53, and is also an alumni of the NGL e-Learning programme. Krishna is passionate about keeping the Internet open and accessible for all, and is keenly interested in better understanding the societal impact of the Internet on various global communities.

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Lianna Galstyan

Lianna Galstyan (Armenia) is the Public Relations Manager for ISOC Armenia and the Head of the ISOC Armenia At-Large Structure in ICANN. Lianna has been a Member of ISOC Armenia since 2000 and a Board Member since 2013. She has also been an ICANN Fellow on a number of occasions. Lianna has been actively involved as  speaker, presenter, and workshop organizer at EuroDIG, APrIGF, Russian IGF (RIGF), and the Ukrainian IGF. She is also a Member of the Executive Committee of SEEDIG (South Eastern European Dialogue on Internet Governance) and a Member of the Executive Committee overseeing the preparatory activities for the first Armenian IGF (ArmIGF).

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Maureen Hernandez

Maureen Hernandez (Venezuela) is a System Engineer who specializes in free and open source software (FOSS) and web security. She is also a human rights activist interested in online freedom. She is currently working on TV white spaces as an technical opportunity for bridging the digital divide. She has participated in the ISOC NGL e-Learning programme, and has been previous selected as a Fellow to the IETF. She is eager to continue to develop her technical capabilities as well as enhance her involvement in policy development.

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Michael Oghia

Michael J. Oghia (United States) is a Belgrade-based Internet governance Consultant and Editor. He is currently the Communications Manager of IGMENA, a program operated by Hivos, and works with DiploFoundation as Assistant Curator for the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP). He is actively involved in regional IGF initiatives, such as the Southeastern European Dialogue on Internet governance (SEEDIG) and the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG).

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Mohit Saraswat

Mohit Saraswat (United Arab Emirates) is the Senior Manager – IT Infrastructure at Pepsico (UAE). He specializes in telecoms engineering, cybersecurity, child online safety, and Internet governance. He currently serves on the Research and Academics Development Committee of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) UAE Chapter, and is a Founding Member of the ISOC UAE Chapter. Mohit has previously been participated in the Arab Regional INET and the ISOC Middle East Chapter Workshop. He is a past participant in the NGL e-Learning course. 

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Mwendwa Kivuva

Mwendwa Kivuva (Kenya) is a Policy Fellow at Google, and also volunteers his time working on policy formulation for ICANN and AFRINIC. He previously worked as the Senior Network Administrator at the University of Nairobi where he oversaw a project to transition the IP addressing schema for an 18-campus WAN network from IPv4 to IPv6. Mwendwa holds a BSc in Computer Science from the Catholic University of Eastern African and a MSc in Distributed Computing Technology from the University of Nairobi.

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Paola Pérez

Paola Pérez (Venezuela) is the Vice-President of the ISOC Venezuelan Chapter and the Chair of the LACNIC Public Policy Forum. She is also a human rights activist for the Network of Citizen Activists (REDAC), Chief Executive Officer of the non-profit foundation ‘Lids for Life’, and a member of the IT Women Working Group in LACNIC. Her interests are online censorship, mass surveillance, net neutrality, access, infrastructure, IoT, freedom of expression and association, gender issues and the Internet, and sexual exploitation online. Paola is a former Google Fellow and a Returning IGF Ambassador.

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Shreedeep Rayamajhi

Shreedeep Rayamajhi (Nepal) is a Nepalese social activist and blogger. He is also the Managing Director of RayZnews.com, an online news portal and blog, and has been featured on BBC Outriders and the World Bank’s Provocative Voices. He is one of the Founding Members of the ISOC Nepal Chapter, and currently serves as a Member of the Steering Group for the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF). Shreedeep is passionate about the Internet and Human Rights, online activism, and building awareness on the Internet-related issues that affect the masses.

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Suprita Lnu

Suprita Lnu (India) is currently employed as a Network Planning and Design Engineer at Reliance JIO Infocomm Limited in India. She is part of team working towards launching 4G mobile services across India. In this role, she is working on deploying MPLS for LTE backhaul and FTTx services, deploying OSS tools and automation, and providing first-hand analysis on IPoDWDM, NFV, and SDN. Suprita is passionate about delivering next generation networks (NGNs) and services that contribute to wide scale development in her country.

2014 IGF Ambassadors

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Alexandra Permyakova

Alexandra Permyakova is the Digital Marketing Manager at LLS Rambler Internet Holdings. She holds a Bachelors degree in Applied Informatics from Moscow State University of Railway Engineering, and is currently working towards her Masters degree in Electronic Business at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow. She has participated in previous EuroDIG meetings, and is keen on becoming more deeply involved in the areas of Internet and Human Rights and ICT Policy.

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Ankush Bagotra

Ankush Bagotra is a Senior R&D Engineer with Synopsys Inc. He holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and specializes in Security & Privacy, Big Data, Cloud Computing, and Intellectual Property Rights. He is a member of the IPv6 Task Force setup by the Government of India, and works specifically to provide guidance to the public sector and local industry on IPv6 transition and related issues.

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Carlos Raul Gutierrez

Carlos Raul Gutierrez is the President of the ISOC Costa Rica chapter. He holds a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University. Carlos has been involved in Internet governance for over 5 years, mainly from the perspective of local regulatory issues and participating in ICANNs Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). He now represents the chapter as an organizational member of the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) of the ICANN GNSO.

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Fedor Smirnov

Fedor Smirnov is currently a Board Member and Secretary of the Russian Federation ISOC Chapter. Fedor has 8+ years of experience on the domain names & hosting market and since 2012 works as the Chief Marketing Officer at Webnames.ru, an accredited ICANN registrar. He holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics and Bachelors of Arts degrees in German/English Philosophy and Financial Management respectively.

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George V. Salama

George Victor Salama, an Italian – Egyptian national joined SAMENA Telecommunications Council in July 2011 as Senior Manager – Public Policy and has since then been involved in setting up a policy plan that includes: Digital Dividend, Spectrum Harmonization and Efficiencies, Broadband Infrastructure Development, Global Roaming Quality, Sustainable Internet Business Model, Internet Governance, Net Neutrality, Public Private Partnership and ICT Policy. 

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Ivan R. Mendez

Ivan R. Mendez is a Journalist and works in digital media across Latin America. In 2000, he created a website called “Cyberanalitica” which was used to broadly engage the populace in discussing cyber-culture. He currently runs another website called “Opinion y Noticias” where he writes about technology, society and politics. He has co-authored the book “10 Years of Digital Journalism in Venezuela”. He is passionate about the Internet and human rights and is looking forward to continuing his advocacy in this area.

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Mehmet Bedii Kaya

Mehmet Bedii Kaya is a Lecturer at the Istanbul Bilgi University IT Law Institute (the only IT Law institute in Turkey), where he delivers post-graduate lectures on Internet law and Internet governance. He holds a LLM in Internet Law from Istanbul Bilgi University and a Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham. Mehmet also works closely with the Turkish Internet Development Board, which is a multi-stakeholder forum for developing the Turkish Internet policies and strategies.

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Sergio Alves

Sergio Alves Jr. is a Researcher in Internet Governance at the Berkman Center of Internet and Society at Harvard University. He holds a Bachelors in Law and a Masters in Regulation (Cybersecurity & Telecom Regulation) from Universidade de Brasilia. He has represented Brazil at several ITU, Citel, Mercosur, and other bilateral meetings/conferences, mostly handling cybersecurity and Internet governance issues. He is currently in the process of transitioning back to Brazil to work with the telecommunications regulator Anatel.

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Seun Ojedeji

Seun Ojedeji works as a Network Engineer at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti in Nigeria. He holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Ilorin, and also possesses a number of industry certifications from Cisco, Juniper, and Microsoft. Seun has contributed to Internet development in the African region through actively participating in Internet governance related activities and meetings such as the AfIGF, WAIGF, AfNOG, NgNOG, and AfriNIC.

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Shreedeep Rayamajhi

Shreedeep Rayamajhi (Nepal) is a Nepalese social activist and blogger. He is also the Managing Director of RayZnews.com, an online news portal and blog, and has been featured on BBC Outriders and the World Bank’s Provocative Voices. He is one of the Founding Members of the ISOC Nepal Chapter, and currently serves as a Member of the Steering Group for the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF). Shreedeep is passionate about the Internet and Human Rights, online activism, and building awareness on the Internet-related issues that affect the masses.

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Towela Nyirenda-Jere

Towela Nyirenda-Jere is the Programme Manager in the e-Africa Programme at the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency. Towela holds both MSc. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kansas. She is based in South Africa, and over the last 3 – 4 years has been working on ICT strategy/policy and Internet governance issues through various projects. She has been key in the establishment of the Southern Africa IGF, the formulation of national IGFs in the SADC region (recently launched local IGFs in Malawi and Mozambique), the creation of the Africa School on Internet Governance, and the development of a comprehensive ICT Strategy for Africa to name a few.

Ysabel Briceno

Ysabel Briceno is a Journalist and University Researcher. She holds a Masters in Political Science and is currently working on her Ph.D. in Human Sciences. Ysabel has been involved with the Center for Scientific Computing of the University of Los Andes for a number of years, specifically in researching Internet governance issues. She is a visiting professor at several universities and also consults with Open Access (LA Referencia) and Distributed Computing (GISELA). She is very interested in media-democracy relationships and the challenges of collaborative, open science and the use of Internet.

2013 IGF Ambassadors

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Alejandro Acosta

Alejandro Acosta (Venezuela) is currently Technology Support Manager at British Telecom (BT). He is a member of LACNIC’s Electoral Commission and President of LAC-TF (the IPv6 Task Force). He coordinates the annual meeting of the Latin American IPv6 Forum and moderates the Latin American IPv6 Task Force mailing list. He also is Professor of TCP/IP at the Nueva Esparta University, a course for 9th semester students. Alejandro is a member of LACNIC, IETF.

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Andrés Azpúrua

Andrés Azpúrua (Venezuela) is the Director/Co-Founder at Venezuela Inteligente, an organization that develops and facilitates technology tools for civic engagement. He completed his Diploma in Leadership and Public Policy at IESA, UCAB, Fundación Futuro Presente in Caracas, Venezuela. Andrés is an Internet Freedom Fellow with interests in the areas of human rights, access and diversity and IG4D (Internet Governance for development).

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Anupam Agrawal

Anupam Agrawal has a long involvement with the Indian Internet community. He is the founding chair of the ISOC India Kolkata Chapter and is leading a Special Interest Group on Data Insurance in Data Security Council of India Kolkata Chapter. The SIG is working on various aspects of Data Insurance like creation of models, discussing and coordinating with various regulatory agencies and Insurance Companies.

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Argyro Karanasiou

Argyro Karanasiou (Greece) is a Lecturer at Bournemouth University, and specializes in intellectual property in the digital economy, media law, IoT, privacy by design, and big data. She holds a LLB and a LLM in Public Policy & Politics from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, and a PhD in Law from the University of Leeds.

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Cecilia Bermudez

Cecilia Bermudez (Venezuela) is currently studying systems engineering at the Universidad de los Andes (ULA) in Merida, Venezuela, where she is also a Teaching Assistant in the field of Computational Systems. Her topics of interest are access and diversity, critical Internet resources and security and privacy.

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Cintra Sooknanan

Cintra Sooknanan is Chair of the Trinidad & Tobago chapter of the Internet Society, as well as their attorney. She has been working for ICT non-profits in the country for the last ten years, and is involved with ICANN’s At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) which is responsible for considering and providing advice on the activities of the ICANN, as they relate to the interests of individual Internet users. 

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Fawaz Bokhari

Fawaz Bokhari (Pakistan) from Lahore is an Assistant Professor at the Punjab University College of Information Technology (P.U.C.I.T). His research interests include computer networks and distributed and cloud computing. Currently, he is working on designing efficient communication protocols (transport and network layer) for data centers. He also teaches an introductory level cloud computing course to graduate students.

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Filiz Yilmaz

Filiz Yilmaz (Turkey) is an Internet Governance & Policy Consultant. She has extensive work experience in the Internet industry in roles specific to resource management, policy, engagement, participation and strategic communications. She is the former Senior Director of Participation and Engagement at ICANN, and is currently the Programme Committee Chair at RIPE NCC. She is also a Founding Member of the ISOC Turkey Chapter.

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May-Ann Lim

May-Ann Lim (Singapore) currently works as the Research Director at TRPC. Her career has spanned a number of regional and global institutions, including the World Bank, the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, and the Singapore Internet Project. Her interests include telecommunication networks and ICT policy, new media and communications, technology developments and applications, mobile platforms, disaster relief and development work in universal education, and access to finance.

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Mwendwa Kivuva

Mwendwa Kivuva (Kenya) is a Policy Fellow at Google, and also volunteers his time working on policy formulation for ICANN and AFRINIC. He previously worked as the Senior Network Administrator at the University of Nairobi where he oversaw a project to transition the IP addressing schema for an 18-campus WAN network from IPv4 to IPv6.

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Nabil Benamar

Nabil Benamar (Morocco) works as a Professor of Computer Science at the Moulay Ismail University. He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Networks and a PhD in Computer Science from the Moulay Ismail University. Nabil has extensive experience in IPv6, DNS, security and privacy, open source culture, and networking. 

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Natalia Enciso

Natalia Enciso (Paraguay) is an Attorney-at-Law and a Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Asunción (UAA). Her work is concentrated in the areas of online trust and identity, e-Commerce, e-Government, data protection, and mediation.

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Nicolas Caballero

Nicolas Caballero (Paraguay) is the Vice President of Omnia S.A. He completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science at the Universidad Autónoma de Asunción, Paraguay, specializing in Networking and the Internet. He is currently the Paraguay representative to the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). Mr. Caballero is very interested in the areas of access and diversity, critical Internet resources, openness and security, and IG4D (Internet governance for development).

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Oswaldo Cali

Oswaldo Cali (Venezuela) is a Lawyer specializing in human rights, and is currently an Officer of the Promotion, Defense and Public Action Program. His work is predominantly in the field of freedom of expression, and he carries out studies of legislation and policies in Venezuela and participates in related national and international campaigns. He graduated from the Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela with an Abogado (Juris Doctor equivalent).

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Raitme Citterio

Raitme Citterio (Venezuela) is a computer engineer and graduate from UCLA – University Lisandro Alvarado. His specialty is management and development of knowledge and learning communities online.  As a consultant in the area of e-Learning, he works on issues of regional leadership and building capacity for the region. He is a member of the Royal Venezuela – Graduates of training programs in Latin America-Caribbean international cooperation programs of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

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Roxana Radu

Dr. Roxana Radu is the Chair of Internet Society – Switzerland since 2016. In this capacity, she leads the engagement of the chapter on Internet-related policy developments at the national level. Roxana has worked on Internet governance and digital policy for over 7 years and has been awarded the Swiss Network for International Studies Award 2017 (SNIS) for her PhD thesis, Global Rules for Emerging Issue Domains: Negotiating the Governance of the Internet, defended at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in September 2016. Her research and publications focus on international governance and global Internet policymaking.

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Sarah Kiden

Sarah Kiden (Uganda) is currently a Ford-Mozilla Open Web Fellow hosted by Research ICT Africa in Cape Town, South Africa. She is working on an Internet measurements project, focusing on broadband performance, and Internet peering and users’ behaviour in some countries in Africa. Sarah possesses a technical background in networks and systems administration through her previous employment as Head of Systems at Uganda Christian University. She holds a Master of Science in Information Systems, and has worked mostly in research and education networks.

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Sergey Ovcharenko

Sergey Ovcharenko (Russian Federation) is a Trainee Researcher at the Joint Supercomputer Center of the Russian Academy of Science. He is also the Director for .SU Domain Development at the Foundation for Internet Development in Moscow. He holds a BSc in Applied Physics and Mathematics and an MSc in Mathematical and Information Technology from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. His work experience is in the areas of ccTLD management, embedded systems development and network security research. 

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Sheba Mohammid

Sheba Mohammid (Trinidad & Tobago) is a multidisciplinary Internet professional with a background that includes experience working in digital inclusion, ICT policy and strategy, sustainable development, Internet governance, e-Learning and behavioral science of cyberspace. She is a Commonwealth Fellow and an African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Fellow to the IGF. Sheba is currently the Director of Policy and Implementation at the Global Social Media Impact Study, European Research Council.

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Teuku Geumpana

Teuku Geumpana (Indonesia) is presently employed by the BINUS International, School of Computer Science as a Program Coordinator. He holds a Bachelors of Information Technology from the International Islamic University of Malaysia. He was also awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to complete his Masters in Management Information Systems at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He is presently conducting academic research in the areas of software engineering, cloud computing, distributed systems and wireless mobile application.

2012 IGF Ambassadors

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Cintra Sooknanan

Cintra Sooknanan is Chair of the Trinidad & Tobago chapter of the Internet Society, as well as their attorney. She has been working for ICT non-profits in the country for the last ten years, and is involved with ICANN’s At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) which is responsible for considering and providing advice on the activities of the ICANN, as they relate to the interests of individual Internet users.   

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Emilar Vushe

Emilar Vushe (South Africa) is based in Pretoria where she is Resource Mobilization Coordinator with the Association for Progressive Communications. She is responsible for developing her organization’s strategic priorities in the ICT policy field across the African continent. Emilar has a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Science (Hons) and is currently working on her Master of Science degree in Information and Knowledge Management. 

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Encel Sanchez

Encel Sanchez (Venezuela) is a student at the University of The Andes – Mérida, Venezuela, studying systems engineering. His areas of competency are web development, social media, security and privacy, and open source. The IGF topics that are of primary interest include access and diversity, security and privacy.

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Faisal Hasan

Faisal Hasan (Bangladesh) is an associate professor of Computer Science at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.  Faisal received a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Otago, New Zealand, and has been active as the president of the Internet Society Bangladesh Dhaka chapter. Areas of interest include TCP congestion control, distributed protocols, and systems. 

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Fatima Cambronero

Fatima Cambronero (Argentina) graduated from Universidad Nacional de Cordoba and received a diploma in Law and Technology from the Universidad Blas Pascal. She is a lawyer involved in Internet governance issues and personal data protection, privacy, and intellectual property rights.

Jorge González

Jorge Gonzalez (Venezuela) works at UCLA University in Venezuela in the Networking Department.  Jorge believes there are various technology-related issues that require attention in the developing countries, including teaching Internet governance, making the Internet a safer place for children, and operationalizing cyber security. 

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Kris Seeburn

Kris Seeburn (Mauritius) teaches at the University of Technology, Mauritius, and is an evangelist of good Internet practices. Kris is actively involved in the telecom and Internet policies, and a Board member of the RIR – AFRINIC and of the National Telecom Authority. 

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Nabil Benamar

Nabil Benamar (Morocco) works as a Professor of Computer Science at the Moulay Ismail University. He holds a Master’s degree in Computer Networks and a PhD in Computer Science from the Moulay Ismail University. Nabil has extensive experience in IPv6, DNS, security and privacy, open source culture, and networking. 

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Natalia Enciso

Natalia Enciso (Paraguay) is an Attorney-at-Law and a Professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Asunción (UAA). Her work is concentrated in the areas of online trust and identity, e-Commerce, e-Government, data protection, and mediation.

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Olga Cavalli

Olga Cavalli is an Internet leader whose work has been fundamental for enhancing participation of Latin America and the Caribbean in Internet Governance. She served on the Internet Society Board of Trustees from 2016 – 2021.

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Paul Muchene

Paul Muchene (Kenya) is a software entrepreneur and a network engineer at the iHub in Nairobi. He also runs a web startup in Nairobi building websites and web applications and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Nairobi. His interests encompass Domain Name System (DNS), DNS Security, and IPv6. 

Rolando Rodriguez

Rolando Rodriguez (Venezuela) is a Field Engineer with Advantech Wireless, where he specializes in IPv4, IPv6, satellite communication, switching and routing, and network monitoring.

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Roxana Radu

Dr. Roxana Radu is the Chair of Internet Society – Switzerland since 2016. In this capacity, she leads the engagement of the chapter on Internet-related policy developments at the national level.

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Samuel Morgan

Samuel Morgan currently works as a technical coordinator for mobile money and financial solutions with Advanced integrated Systems in Jamaica. Samuel has bachelors degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics, as well as a Law degree, and will be undertaking his bar training this year.

Sorina Teleanu

Sorina Teleanu (Romania) is a civil servant working on ICT legislation in the Romanian Parliament and doing a fellowship at the IGF Secretariat in Geneva. Her main interests include management of Internet critical resources, e-government, privacy, and data protection and freedom of expression.

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Tracy Hackshaw

Tracy Hackshaw is Vice Chair of the Internet Society Trinidad & Tobago Chapter. He is a graduate of the DiploFoundation’s Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme in 2008 and is now a member of their Research & Teaching Faculty. Tracy participated in the ICANN Fellowship Program at the Sydney and Seoul Meetings in 2009, at Catagena in 2010 and at Prague in 2012.

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Ulkar Bayramova

Ulkar Bayramova (Azerbaijan) is currently a PhD student and working as senior expert at the International Relations office of the Azerbaijan University of Languages. Ulkar is an active member of the Azerbaijan Internet Society Chapter formation group and also director of an Internet Society small community grant. 

2011 IGF Ambassadors

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Antonio M Moreiras

Antonio M. Moreiras is a Computer Engineer at NIC.br, where he is in charge of IPv6 dissemination, and other projects related to the Internet infrastructure.

Elif Küzeci

Elif Küzeci is an Assistant Professor at Bahçeşehir University Faculty of Law. Her areas of interest include data protection, freedom of expression, intellectual property rights on the Internet, and computer crime.

Farzaneh Badiei

Farzaneh Badiei is an Intern at the Internet Governance Forum Secretariat. She holds an LLM in International Commercial Law and has carried out research at Geneva University on the role of the Internet in facilitating commercial dispute resolution.

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Fatima Cambronero

Fatima Cambronero (Argentina) graduated from Universidad Nacional de Cordoba and received a diploma in Law and Technology from the Universidad Blas Pascal. She is a lawyer involved in Internet governance issues and personal data protection, privacy, and intellectual property rights. She is also an alumnus of DiploFoundation’s Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme and the ICANN Fellowship Programme. 

Hempal Shrestha

Hempal works as a Programme Officer with Bellanet Alliance c/o SAP International in Nepal. He is an lawyer working in the Open Development issues. His work focuses on the appropriate use of ICTs and Knowledge Sharing Technologies to facilitate collaboration among development communities and individuals in civil society.

Madeeha Rehman

Madeeha Rehman is working as a Solution Architect in Nexus Telecom AG, Pakistan where her duties include designing technical specifications of network monitoring and management solutions for GSM and GPRS networks. Her interest areas are Wireless Technologies such as WiMAX, HSPA, LTE; transition from IPv4 to IPv6; and Network investigation and management.

Marcin Cieslak

ICT Consultant, President of ISOC Poland System Business Consulting.

Maria Casey

Maria Casey is a 22 year old scholar, who has recently graduated with a B.Sc in Computer Systems from the University of Limerick, Ireland and is about to commence with a Masters of Eng. in Information and Network Security. She has previously worked with the Information Systems department of Boston Scientific, a worldwide developer and manufacturer of medical devices which are used in a range of medical specialties.

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Paul Muchene

Paul Muchene (Kenya) is a software entrepreneur and a network engineer at the iHub in Nairobi. He also runs a web startup in Nairobi building websites and web applications and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Nairobi. His interests encompass Domain Name System (DNS), DNS Security, and IPv6. 

Philip Adar

Philip Adar is a Lecturer at the Faculty of IT at Strathmore University and Project Manager at Nokia Siemens Networks, where he is responsible for managing the deployment of 3G broadband networks for service providers in six African countries. His research interests include mobile access to the Internet and quality of service management for wireless networks.

Rafid Fatani

Fatani first gained academic insight into the different layers of the Internet architecture, its constraints and the development of its various standards and applications, experiencing Internet governance through the prism of the development of its technical infrastructure during his Engineering and computer science programme at the undergraduate level.

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Rajendra Prasad Poudel

Rajendra Prasad Poudel is a Nepalese citizen, with a Masters degree in Mathematics and Information Technology. He taught in the University of Nepal for six years before joining E-Network Research and Development (ENRD) as Project Director in 2004. At ENRD, Mr Poudel designed the organisations ICT project for rural areas of Nepal.

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Siranush Vardanyan

Siranush Vardanyan current position is Program Development Manager at Habitat for Humanity Armenia (HFHA). Siranush has more than fifteen years experience in working with international organizations. Before joining HFHA team, from 2000-2008 Siranush worked for Project Harmony Armenia first as an Outreach Manager and then as a Program Manager for the Armenia School Connectivity Program.

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Sorina Teleanu

Sorina Teleanu (Romania) is a civil servant working on ICT legislation in the Romanian Parliament and doing a fellowship at the IGF Secretariat in Geneva. Her main interests include management of Internet critical resources, e-government, privacy, and data protection and freedom of expression.

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Stanley Osao

Stanley Osao (Papua New Guinea) is a Control Systems Engineer by profession. He currently serves as Board Chair of iPNGC for the second term. He has also been active in ICANN with their fellowship program and At-Large communities. Stanley has worked in academia, international NGO, the private sector, and also undertakes freelance work in ICTs, telecommunications, and electrical engineering.

2010 IGF Ambassadors

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Andrew Cushen

Andrew Cushen is a New Zealander, and is employed as Senior Public Policy Advisor at Vodafone New Zealand. He is also a Director of the Internet Service Provider Association of New Zealand (ISPANZ) and a member of InternetNZ. Andrew has over five years experience in telecommunications, working across customer service; commercial procurement; strategic development; industry relations; and public policy. He is currently working on a number of projects related to public funding of high-speed data networks in New Zealand, and the policy, funding and commercial implications of these networks. Prior to joining the telecommunications industry, Andrew worked as a lobbyist on behalf of University students in New Zealand.

Andrew has a Master of Arts with Honours in Political Studies from the University of Auckland; a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Political Studies and a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Finance, both from the University of Otago. His academic interests include researching the influence of the internet upon politics and democracy, and the role that the internet can play in providing greater information about politics and motivating citizens toward greater participation in their democracies.

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Arnoud van Wijk

Arnoud van Wijk earned a Masters degree in biochemistry, studying at the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
After working for four years at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, USA, he moved into the ICT field leaving the Biomedical research behind. In 2000, he started working for Ericsson in the Netherlands. From 2003 until 2005, he joined the Dutch organization Viataal (now know as Koninklijke Kentalis) to work on accessible telecommunication and Internet. Which led to the development and introduction of the first mobile RTT application on Blackberry with AnnieS, a Dutch company that sells mobile text telephone services for people who are deaf and hard of hearing.
He is a technical adviser for the European Federation for Hard of Hearing People (EFHOH) and for the European Commission on ICT for e-Inclusion.

He is part of the European Disability Forum (EDF) expert network on ICT.

Since 2001, he also works together with the Trace Research and Development Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison which has a partnership with the Technology Access Program at Gallaudet University in Washington DC.

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Bunyamin Atici

As a Head of Computer Education and Instructional Technology department at Firat University, Dr. Atici has over ten years of management and teaching experience in Turkey.

He has assumed the responsibilities of teaching and researches at the university level, international project management and consulting. He has taught several courses related with pedagogy and computer at the university level.

He speaks English and Turkish. He has expertise in the following areas:

Virtual Learning Environments,

Terror and Pedagogy,

Cyber terror,

Computer Supported Cooperative Learning,

Computer Mediated Communication,

Online Learning Communities,

Distance Learning and Web Design,

Project Management.

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Ceren Ünal

Ceren Ünal joins the Internet Society as the Manager, Chapter Development- Europe.

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Charles Gaye

Liberia Chapter of the Internet Society
Member of the International Association of Business Communicators
Alumni at Diplofoundation Foundation
Two times Fellow at Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

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Cristos Velasco

Cristos Velasco is a Mexican attorney with practical experience in the fields of international trade, telecommunications and technology law.

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Epstein Dmitry

Dmitry Epstein is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication at Cornell University. He holds a BA in Economics from Tel-Aviv University and an MA in Comparative Media Studies from Ben-Gurion University. In addition, Dmitry has worked as a Research Assistant at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and as a Research Fellow at the Information + Innovation Policy Research Centre, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, where he remains a non-resident fellow.

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Grace L.N Mutung’u

Grace L N Mutung’u (Bomu) is a young Kenyan ICT lawyer. She works for a theatre company, Fanartics Limited as a public relations, communications and legal officer. Since 2005 she has served as the secretary of the Kenya ICT Consumers Association which is an organisation advocating for consumer empowerment in the ICT sector. She is a Diplo 2009 Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme alumni.

Maria Casey

Maria Casey is a 22 year old scholar, who has recently graduated with a B.Sc in Computer Systems from the University of Limerick, Ireland and is about to commence with a Masters of Eng. in Information and Network Security. She has previously worked with the Information Systems department of Boston Scientific, a worldwide developer and manufacturer of medical devices which are used in a range of medical specialties.

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Maria Dolores Puy

Maria Dolores Puy is a lawyer and civil-law or latin notary, who currently serves as contracts record holder in the city of Esperanza, Argentina. As public officer her role is to provide advice and also draft, authenticate and register legal instruments.

Her first approach to computer law and Internet infrastructure was during her undergraduate studies, having deepened his internalization about the different issues that the Internet raises while she was pursuing her specialization as a notary. The theme selected for her final dissertation was “The Electronic and Digital Signature as authentication methods”.

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Siranush Vardanyan

Siranush Vardanyan current position is Program Development Manager at Habitat for Humanity Armenia (HFHA). Siranush has more than fifteen years experience in working with international organizations. Before joining HFHA team, from 2000-2008 Siranush worked for Project Harmony Armenia first as an Outreach Manager and then as a Program Manager for the Armenia School Connectivity Program.

Siranush has the extensive managerial, communication, and project implementation skills.

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Tracy Hackshaw

Tracy Hackshaw is Vice Chair of the Internet Society Trinidad & Tobago Chapter. He is a graduate of the DiploFoundation’s Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme in 2008 and is now a member of their Research & Teaching Faculty. Tracy participated in the ICANN Fellowship Program at the Sydney and Seoul Meetings in 2009, at Catagena in 2010 and at Prague in 2012. Additionally, he participated as an Internet Society (ISOC) Ambassador (part of the ISOC Next Generation Leaders Program) to the 2009 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Sharm-el Sheikh; and returned as an ISOC Ambassador for the 2010 IGF in Vilnius.

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Vanessa Cravo

Vanessa Copetti Cravo works as a telecommunication regulation expert at the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), in the regional office located at Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul State, since 2005, after graduating from Law School at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul State (UFRGS). In 2008 she finished a Public Law Specialization and she began her studies in Cyberlaw, which have reflected in her master dissertation theme’s choice for cybercrimes and international initiatives. During 2009 she completed DiploFoundation Internet Governance Capacity Building Program (Foundation, advance and research phases) and she was awarded a Fellowship to attend the IV IGF, held in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt. She has also joined some Brazilian delegations to ITU-D meetings (2009 and 2010). She is currently researching for her dissertation’s project and she is going to attend the EURO-SSIG2010.

2009 IGF Ambassadors

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Anupam Agrawal

Anupam Agrawal has a long involvement with the Indian Internet community. He is the founding chair of the ISOC India Kolkata Chapter and is leading a Special Interest Group on Data Insurance in Data Security Council of India Kolkata Chapter. The SIG is working on various aspects of Data Insurance like creation of models, discussing and coordinating with various regulatory agencies and Insurance Companies.

Burmaa Baasansuren

Ms. Baasansuren Burmaa has 13 years experience in the Internet industry. She works as MN Domain Registry Director of Datacom (Mongolia). Her experience includes regularly addressing domain name management, policy development, IPRs, and branding issues.

In 2006, she played key role in transitioning .MN to SRS (EPP). Burmaa has worked extensively on matters relating to the mnTLD policies and ccTLD issues. She has been involved in ICANN since 2006, APNIC since 2003 and APTLD since 2004.

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Ceren Ünal

Ceren Ünal joins the Internet Society as the Manager, Chapter Development- Europe.

Ceren’s engagement with ISOC began as an individual member that further developed through the NGL Program as an IGF Ambassador (Hyderabad 2008, Vilnius 2010) and various other ISOC events and projects she participated in and eventually became the founding chair of the Internet Society Turkey Chapter (ISOC-TR) in 2014.

Charity Gamboa-Embley

Charity Gamboa is an educator, writer, and consultant by profession, both in classroom and in distance education for ten years. Her teaching experience included Computer Literacy programs for modular/vocational courses in grassroots communities for out-of-school young women in the Phillippines that incorporated Basic English language learning into the Computer Literacy program. She also taught Information Technology courses, Science, and ESL in private institutions as a certified TESOL/TESL and trained online teachers. Charity is a Diplo Foundation associate, and graduated in the Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme 2007 and tutored for the IGCBP.

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Charles Mok

Charles Mok has a long involvement with the Hong Kong Internet community.

He is the founding chairman of the Internet Society Hong Kong Chapter, former president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation (HKITF), and former chairman and co-founder of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association (HKISPA).

Educated as an electrical engineer, he also has a strong business grounding, having been the Deputy Managing Director and a co-founder of one of Hong Kong’s first Internet service providers. He is a director of a technology consultancy business and sits on the boards of several technology companies.

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Cristos Velasco

Cristos Velasco is a Mexican attorney with practical experience in the fields of international trade, telecommunications and technology law. He was the co-founder of a Graduate Diploma Course on Legal Aspects of Information Technologies at Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM) in 2002 where he has lectured in the areas of Internet regulation, e-commerce, privacy, data protection and cybercrime law and policy.

One of his specializations is in the field of privacy and data protection law. He has written extensively in the field since 2000, and has presented in national and international workshops and seminars and related international organizations working in the field.

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Fouad Bajwa

Fouad is an international ICT for Development specialist, Practitioner, Researcher and Writer, he advises and consults civil society, public and private sectors, national governments, multilateral and bilateral institutions in the framework of strategic access and use of Information and Communications Technologies for Human Development (ICT4D), Internet Governance, ICT Policy, Open ICT Ecosystems, Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

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Gerard Dantec

Gerard Dantec is a public works engineer at the French Ministry of Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development. He is vice-president of ISOC France (February 2009).

Beginning in 1986, he was involved in the launch of Videotext servers (Minitel) for the Bureau of the Seine-Saint-Denis Department and in the deployment of applications on these servers.

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Godfred Ahuma

Godfred K. Ahuma is a Data Services Engineer with MTN-Ghana. He holds a CCNA and a Bachelor of Science in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), from the Presbyterian University College. Godfred has worked as a Program Assistant at the ITES Secretariat, Ministry of Communications in an office tasked with promoting the ITES/BPO industry in Ghana. His active participation in Internet Governance began when a colleague introduced him to the DiploFoundation Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme in 2008.

Hempal Shrestha

Hempal works as a Programme Officer with Bellanet Alliance c/o SAP International in Nepal. He is an lawyer working in the Open Development issues. His work focuses on the appropriate use of ICTs and Knowledge Sharing Technologies to facilitate collaboration among development communities and individuals in civil society.

John Kabogo Njoroge

John Kabogo Njoroge, from Nairobi, is a Global Member of ISOC, working for the Government of Kenya at the Directorate of e-Government in the Office of the President, currently as ICT Strategist (e-Applications and Web Development  Design, Policy and Strategy).

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Julian Casasbuenas

Julian Casasbuenas is a chemical engineer with more than 20 years experience in environmental, information, and communication technologies. He has been involved with ISOC since 1993, when he helped establish the NGO Colnodo, which provides Internet services to Colombian development organisations. Colnodo is motivated by issues such as human rights, environment, housing, and the betterment of women’s lives.

Maureen Hilyard

Maureen Hilyard is the Chair of the Board of the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC). As the PICISOC Board Chair since 2011, she has been able to introduce ICT for Development (ICT4D) issues and needs of small Pacific Island nations into discussions with ISOC and ICANN constituency groups, as well as at Pacific, regional and international IGF multi-stakeholder meetings. There are currently over 800 members, with 25% residing outside of the Pacific Islands but providing valuable support and advice to the Chapter.

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Naveed Haq

Naveed Haq is the Regional Development Manager, Asia-Pacific at the Internet Society (ISOC). He works closely with both the Senior Director, Global Engagement and the Regional Bureau in Asia. Prior to joining ISOC, Naveed was working with Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Government of Pakistan since 2002, most recently as Assistant Director, Information & Communication Technologies (ICT).

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Ni Chenying

Yvonne NI, born in Shanghai, began studying in Hong Kong after graduating from high school in Shanghai. She is currently a first year undergraduate student majoring in science of creative media, focusing on Internet Game development. She commenced art education as a child and is especially interested and experienced in painting. Also with a strong motivation for learning computer techniques and gaining a science education background, she began designing computer graphics in secondary school.

Rafid Fatani

Fatani first gained academic insight into the different layers of the Internet architecture, its constraints and the development of its various standards and applications, experiencing Internet governance through the prism of the development of its technical infrastructure during his Engineering and computer science programme at the undergraduate level.

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Tracy Hackshaw

Tracy Hackshaw is Vice Chair of the Internet Society Trinidad & Tobago Chapter. He is a graduate of the DiploFoundation’s Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme in 2008 and is now a member of their Research & Teaching Faculty. Tracy participated in the ICANN Fellowship Program at the Sydney and Seoul Meetings in 2009, at Catagena in 2010 and at Prague in 2012.

Veaceslav Sidorenco

Since 1983, Dr. Veaceslav Sidorenco has been an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Radioelectronics and Telecommunications with the Technical University of Moldova. Since 1999 he has also been a Leading Specialist of RENAM: Research and Educational Networking Association of Moldova (NREN of Moldova).

2008 IGF Ambassadors

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Ala’a Al-Din J. Kadhem Al-Radhi

Ala’a Al-Din J. Kadhem Al-Radhi has a Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Baghdad and a Masters in Computer Information Network Security from DePaul University, Chicago. He has worked and trained in several countries and is currently based in Jordan. With more than 27 years of career, his past works included the technical advisor to the Iraqi ministerial of Telecommunications, Engineering observer with ITU in addition to various positions in information systems management and engineering platforms. These positions have been in governmental, intergovernmental, and private enterprises in Iraq, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and France including the UN-ITU. His current activities include being an advisory council member of PIR (Public Interest Registry), ICANN Board of Directors Election Candidate 2009-2011, AKMS (Arab Knowledge and Management Society) Board of Trustees Member, ISOC IGF Ambassador, Regional ITU Consultant in addition to being a member of many global organizations. He is a fellow of ICANN, RIPE-MENOG, DIPLO Foundation and DePaul Alumni. He works for outreach, awareness, match making, capacity buildings and researches in various topics: Internet 2, Web 2.0, emerging technologies, IG, social networking, e-governance, ICT4D, digital divide, DNSSEC, IDNs, and convergence.

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Anju Mangal

Anju Mangal holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems and GIS at the University of the South Pacific; a Certificate in Internet Governance from the Diplo Foundation, Switzerland; and a Certificate in ESRI ArcGIS from the University of Hawaii. She is currently pursuing her Masters of Arts in Governance at the University of the South Pacific. Anju is the Information Specialist at the Land Resources Division in the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). She is working towards the development of information knowledge management (IKM) activities in Land Resources Division (LRD), SPC, where she is in-charge of training LRD staff in IKM and data management information systems. Ms Mangal promotes participatory approaches to support sustainable management of natural resources through geographical information systems (GIS) and coordinates appropriate training to build capacity in ICTs, using the Internet to access web-based information systems within the 22 Pacific Island Countries. Her project “Participatory 3D GIS Modelling Exercise for Resource Use, Development Planning and Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Fiji” received the e-culture World Summit Award in 2007.

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Ceren Ünal

Ceren Ünal joins the Internet Society as the Manager, Chapter Development- Europe.

Ceren’s engagement with ISOC began as an individual member that further developed through the NGL Program as an IGF Ambassador (Hyderabad 2008, Vilnius 2010) and various other ISOC events and projects she participated in and eventually became the founding chair of the Internet Society Turkey Chapter (ISOC-TR) in 2014.

Ceren Ünal studied law at Ankara University, subsequently gaining an LLM degree from Queen Mary, University of London, specialising in Computer and Communications Law as a British Chevening Scholar. Always fascinated by the Internet and the challenges and opportunities it presents to the law as we know it, Ceren has been teaching and consulting on IT/Internet law issues since 2003.

She is qualified as an Attorney-at-Law, a National Patent and Trademark Attorney and a European Patent Attorney as well as working as an instructor at Bilkent University Faculty of Law prior to joining Internet Society. She is also a PhD candidate in civil Law at Ankara University with a dissertation on ISP Liability, for which she has conducted research in Freiburg University and Swiss Institute of Comparative Law as a van Calker Scholar.

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Dhanaraj Thakur

Dhanaraj Thakur is a Jamaican citizen, currently studying for a PhD student at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, USA), where his research focus is on ICT policy in developing countries. Using a variety of methodologies, he has worked on several ICT4D-related research projects (such as ICTs and political participation, telecentre sustainability, and telecommunications policy reform) in Jamaica, Liberia, and Kyrgyzstan among others. Mr Thakur has undergraduate degrees in computer studies (University of Technology, Jamaica), international relations (University of the West Indies, Jamaica), and a graduate degree in development studies (London School of Economics). Prior to commencing his doctorate studies, he worked with several government agencies and NGOs in Jamaica in the area of community development, to support both the planning and implementation of social and infrastructure projects. Mr Thakur currently volunteers with various development-oriented groups in Atlanta.

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Glen Farrelly

Glen Farrelly resides in Toronto, Canada. After ten years working in the Internet industry, he is now pursuing a Master of Arts in Communications via e-learning from Royal Roads University, Canada. He has also studied the Internet at University of Torontos Strategic e-Business program and at Humber Colleges Internet Management program. His career highlights include six years managing a financial services website, developing websites with a dot.com start-up, and writing online travelogues for Canadian Geographic and Bootsnall.com. His masters thesis will examine factors limiting the widespread adoption in Canada of website accessibility for the visually impaired. His other research interests include folksonomies, social media, website usability, microblogging, and Canadian Internet history. He is a member of the Association of Internet Researchers, Canadian Internet Registration Authority, the Internet Society, CaseCamp and other local Internet-related groups.

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Hanane Boujemi

Hanane Boujemi has worked on cyber-space related issues different issues throughout various research projects during her academic enrolment, culminating in work on Internet Governance. Her central field of research is the impact of the Internet on sustainable development and how it is important to implement monitoring, rather than controlling systems, that bring more opportunities to lesser developed countries (LDCs), while respecting civil liberties. Ms. Boujemi holds a Bachelors degree in Business & Commerce from Hassan II University and the Sorbonne and a Masters in Human Rights and Democratisation from the University of Malta and the University of London. She has also studied English literature and linguistics at Mohammed V University and is currently studying an intellectual property rights (IPR) course at UC Berkley. She speaks and writes six languages. Ms. Boujemi is very involved in the Internet governance process at the international level.

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Jean Philemon Kissangou

Jean-Philemon Kissangou holds a masters degree in informatique (networking) from Senegal and a diploma in Telecommunications Policy and Regulation from the University of the West Indies, St Augustine. From 2005 to 2006, he worked on Internet governance courses and research organised by the Diplo Foundation. This role led to a United Nations fellowship as a trainee at the Internet Governance Working Group Secretariat, Geneva, in September 2005. Mr Kissangou has been closely involved with the Internet community through ISOC, having helped to setup the Congolese chapter of ISOC, of which he is currently the chair. Before that, he managed and chaired two local Internet-related organisations, Le CACUP (Centre Africain de Complementarite Scolaire-Universitaire et de Promotion), an education and ICT NGO accredited by the WSIS, and ASCIS (African Civil Society for Information Society). Within those organisations, Mr Kissangou initiated many consciousness-raising activities, lectures, workshops, training sessions, and projects on Internet related-issues.

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Khaled Koubaa

As a forward-thinking, accomplished Government Relations and Public Policy expert, Khaled is respected for 20 years researching, defining, delivering, and coordinating key global public policy issues for companies and institutions, including Google and Facebook. Khaled is highly sought for advice and consulting on the intersection of business, technology, and public policy on the Internet, domain names, IP Address, e-Commerce, privacy, and telecommunications. He maintains a proven track record of providing clear direction on expectations and deliverables by designing outreach strategies and anticipating emerging policy issues. Khaled is proud to have earned a reputation as a motivational, influential leader and collaborator who engages with government officials and key stakeholders to bring about desired outcomes aligned with corporate interests. As an out-of-the-box thinker, Khaled is committed to developing innovative political and policy strategies to foster strong relationships with policymakers and increase the company’s influence and presence on a global scale.

Marcin Cieslak

ICT Consultant, President of ISOC Poland System Business Consulting.

Michiel Leenaars

Michiel Leenaars is a Dutch citizen, currently serving as Director of Strategy at NLnet foundation and Director of the Internet Societys Netherlands Chapter. In addition, he is employed by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) within its subsidiary Netherlands National Computing Facilities Foundation (NCF) as an advisor on e-Infrastructure and e-Science. Prior to 2007, Mr Leenaars was very active (on behalf of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) in the European policy body e-Infrastructures Reflection Group (e-IRG), and was lead editor of the e-Infrastructures Roadmap, a long term, strategic, pan-European vision document maintained by the e-IRG.

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Priyanthi Daluwatte

Priyanthi Daluwatte is from Colombo, Sri Lanka. She works in the higher education sector in university administration and policy capacities, currently as a Senior Assistant Secretary to the University Grants Commission (a government organisation). She hold a degree in Biological Sciences and an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Colombo. Ms. Daluwatte has tutored in the Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme for Diplo since 2007, after herself completing Diplo Foundations Internet Governance Capacity Building Programme in 2006. She also has work experience in the development field and in ICT4D projects bridging the digital divide. She works as a Volunteer in Sarvodaya Fusion, Sri Lanka.

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Rajendra Prasad Poudel

Rajendra Prasad Poudel is a Nepalese citizen, with a Masters degree in Mathematics and Information Technology. He taught in the University of Nepal for six years before joining E-Network Research and Development (ENRD) as Project Director in 2004. At ENRD, Mr Poudel designed the organisations ICT project for rural areas of Nepal. He is now involved in promoting tele-medicine and tele-education projects via broadband wireless networks in remote villages. This work involves considerable research in broadband wireless technology for mountainous and other difficult regions. To pursue this research, Mr Poudel is currently working with a Japanese company which is providing training for the projects through micro-server technology.

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Reynold Guerrier

Reynold Guerrier, a citizen of Haiti, is a network engineer who holds a Masters degree in Mobile networks. He has been working for the past 12 years as network administrator for Internet systems, a network engineer in a telecommunications company, and the technical manager of a data transmission company, designing and maintaining complex networks and information systems. Mr Guerrier is an experienced consultant who has provided advice for many NGOs based in Haiti. He was a member of the Haitian delegation in Doha, Qatar at the 4th World Telecom Development Conference held in 2006. Since 2003, he has led a team planning, designing, maintaining, and securing one of the biggest backbone networks in Haiti. More recently, he has been involved in WiMAX deployment in Haiti. He also has considerable experience working with international transit and peering.

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Sunyoung Yang

Sunyoung Yang is a Korean citizen studying a PhD with the University of Toronto, specialising in Internet user communities and their cultures. She also works as a researcher for the Center for Youth & Cultural Studies, Yonsei University, South Korea, on the anthropology of South Korea. Ms Yang is currently conducting field research in Korea for her dissertation, focusing on the theme of Internet cultures with special focus directed at so-called “Internet addict communities” since 1999. Previously, Ms Yang completed undergraduate and masters qualifications in Sociology and Anthropology in South Korea. She worked as a creative director in a youth center for three years, during which time she organised the second Internet Fiesta for the Korean ISOC Chapter. She has been a member of the Asia Pacific Next Generation Camp (APNG) since 2002, and organised the second and third camps as a chair and vice chair.

2007 IGF Ambassadors

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Abdul-Aziz Hilali

Dr Abdul-Aziz Hilali has a long history of experience in the Internet. As a founder of the ISOC Morocco chapter in 1994, his involvement has spanned a broad range of participation in both technical and governance spheres. He holds higher degrees in mathematics and has a distinguished career as an academic, researcher, and government advisor, with a history of publications on many aspects of the Internet and telecommunications sciences. Dr Hilali participated in the World Summit on the Information Society and the first IGF meeting in Athens. He has served on the ICANN At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) and taken part in many ICANN meetings around the world.

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Carlos Vera

Carlos Vera an experienced electrical engineer who also has formal studies in international relations, technology and intellectual property law, and telecommunications and Internet regulatory policy. He is the founder and International Director of the Ecuadorian Chapter of ISOC, responsible for the Ecuadorian Internet Governance Forum. His history within the telecommunications and Internet sector spans more than 20 years and includes work as a former advisor to the President of the Council of Telecommunications in Ecuador.

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Charles Mok

Charles Mok has a long involvement with the Hong Kong Internet community.

He is the founding chairman of the Internet Society Hong Kong Chapter, former president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation (HKITF), and former chairman and co-founder of the Hong Kong Internet Service Providers Association (HKISPA).

Educated as an electrical engineer, he also has a strong business grounding, having been the Deputy Managing Director and a co-founder of one of Hong Kong’s first Internet service providers.

Cristos Velasco headshot
Cristos Velasco

Cristos Velasco is a Mexican attorney with practical experience in the fields of international trade, telecommunications and technology law. He was the co-founder of a Graduate Diploma Course on Legal Aspects of Information Technologies at Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM) in 2002 where he has lectured in the areas of Internet regulation, e-commerce, privacy, data protection and cybercrime law and policy.

Gabriel Adonaylo headshot
Gabriel Adonaylo

Gabriel Adonaylo manages Internet business arrangements for Comsat in Latin America. He has broad international and Internet experience, including Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) and peering arrangements. He participated in the first IGF meeting in Athens in 2006 and has also been actively involved in the Latin American and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC) community and in many Argentinean initiatives, such as the IPv6 Task Force (AR-IPv6), Comision Interamericana de Telecomunicaciones (CITEL), Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA), and Cámara Argentina de Bases de Datos y Servicios en Línea (CABASE).

Julian Casasbuenas headshot
Julian Casasbuenas

Julian Casasbuenas is a chemical engineer with more than 20 years experience in environmental, information, and communication technologies. He has been involved with ISOC since 1993, when he helped establish the NGO Colnodo, which provides Internet services to Colombian development organisations. Colnodo is motivated by issues such as human rights, environment, housing, and the betterment of women’s lives. With Colnodo he has helped to promote and democratise the use of ICTs and the Internet in Colombia and has developed significant expertise in issues of rural access, telecenters, and open source software.

Mohammad Rahman
Monica Abalo Laforgia photo
Monica Abalo Laforgia

Monica Abalo Laforgia is a telecommunications and ICT lawyer specialising in Internet issues such as privacy, cyber crime, data protection, and regulation. She recently was an organiser of a public even on New technical and legal trends in the Internet for the ISOC Argentina Chapter in Buenos Aires. She is an experienced negotiator and has a background in international legal projects. She currently operates her own consultancy business, focusing on data protection, spam, security, and cybercrime. She also works in policy and regulation analysis. Ms Laforgia is an instructor in telecommunications law at university level and has participated in many events within the Latin American Internet community.

Veronica Cretu photo
Veronica Cretu

Mrs. Veronica Cretu has about 14 years of work experience in Moldova, both in private and in the not-for-profit sector. Mrs. Cretu is the Founder and the President of the CMB‶ Training Center since 2002, a NGO based in Chisinau, Moldova.

She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Diplomacy and IT, with Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies of Malta. Mrs. Cretu acted as a Team Leader for the last 9 years and implemented/coordinated projects in Education, Employment, Internet Governance, Labour Rights, Museum Marketing, and other areas.