Santanu ACHARYA (SOI) is Head of Finance, Audit, Accounts, Taxation and Compliances with National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), the Registry operator of India’s ccTLD – .IN

Santanu is a daring leader & strategic qualified finance professional with 25 years of experience in developing financial strategy, conducting revenue analysis, increasing cost efficiency, steering fraud investigations and meeting organizational objectives, as well as in designing financial strategies for maximizing profitability & revenue and attaining an organization’s goals.

With his decades-long engagement in the IT industry and NIXI in particular, he has also developed a profound expertise in the Names and Numbers area.

An effective leader with excellent communication, negotiation and relationship building skills, he spearheaded various projects on enhancement of operating, fiscal and technological policies.

Thanks in particular to his work, NIXI earned a prestigious 2019-20 National Award for Excellence in Financial Reporting in India from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of

Santanu holds Masters in Commerce and is a Qualified Chartered Accountant, the highest national qualification and also is a Certified Fraud Prevention Controller.

He is married & blessed with one daughter and resides with his family in New Delhi, India.

“With my experience, I would like to contribute to the DotAsia community by helping promote best practices and an accountable governance structure. ”

Kashif ADEEL (SOI), with over 20 years of management experience spread across large scale business and technology transformation initiatives with some of the largest financial institutions in the Middle East and Pakistan, is a technology evangelist and advocate.

As a mentor and coach to start up and technological initiatives, he has strong expertise in digital transformation, IT Strategy and Governance, Enterprise Architecture and Agile delivery. He has spearheaded digital and transformation initiatives to implement cutting edge and emerging digital technologies including but not limited to – BlockChain, Artificial Intelligence; Robotics Process Automation & Internet of Things.

He is an advisor to various digital, training and start-up companies. As an active researcher, Kashif has presented and published various papers on technology and its innovative applications in various reputed journals & conferences. He has also worked as technology research reviewer of an international journal. He was also invited to address conferences as Chair/Keynote/Moderator in various international conferences/events in Asia Pacific, Middle East and European countries. He is currently part of APNG Executive Team and previously served as 12th APNG Camp Co-Chair held at Hiroshima, Japan.

His qualifications include Certified Governance in Enterprise IT (CGEIT), Project Management Professional (PMP), Agile Program Management (Agile PgM), Scaled Agile (SAFe Agilest), IBM BlockChain Essentials, BlockChain Business Foundation, Scrum Master, ITIL and COBIT5 and Master’s Degree in Software Project Management.

Satish BABU (SOI) is a Free Software activist, early Internet advocate and development professional based out of Kerala, India. He is the founding Director of the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), an autonomous academic/research institution of the Government of Kerala, India, where he worked from March 2011 to September 2015. He was earlier the CEO of SIFFS, a co-founder and President of InApp Information Technologies, and is associated with national and international professional societies such as IEEE, Internet Society (ISOC), ICANN, and the Computer Society of India (CSI).

Satish has been active in Internet Governance since the 2009 IGF. He was a Fellow of the 2012 European Summer School in Internet Governance (EuroSSIG). He is associated with ICANN since 2012 and with ISOC as a member since 2009. He was appointed the Interim Chair of the Asian, Australasian and Pacific Islands Regional At-Large Organization (APRALO) of ICANN in Sep 2016, and elected as Chair in Nov 2016.

Andi BUDIMANSYAH (SOI) – Currently, he is the Chair of the Indonesia IT Federation, which consists of the IT-related Association in Indonesia. Besides, he is also one of the Councilors of the ASEAN Chief Information Officer Association (ACIOA).

During his eight years as Chairman and CEO of PANDI ccTLD.ID (2011-2019), he has brought PANDI forward rapidly through product and service development, marketing and socialization, policy development, compliance with ISO standards, and community involvement in decision making, to have panels and policy for domain dispute resolution.

With 32 years of experience in the IT field, he started his career as a computer programmer, system analyst, to the managerial level at the Yellow Pages Publisher company in Indonesia during 1988-1998.

He has been in several business fields, ranging from call-centers, Internet Service Providers, TV Broadcasts, System Developers, and IT Consultants.

His track record in organizations is also quite large, including at the ISP Association, Indonesia Wireless, ID-IGF, ISOC Indonesia Jakarta Chapter.

He is also very interested in Cybersecurity and Privacy security and its mitigation.

Introduction

Nicole T. I. CHAN (SOI), an attorney at law and Industrial Consultant, Vice Chairperson of Digital Transformation Association, Board director of Industrial Technology Research Institute, as well as many distinguished positions in the areas of law and technology.

She is a frequent panelist and moderator and conferences around the world. Previous roles have included Chairperson of National Communications Commission, Taiwan, Director of Nankang Software Incubator, Director General of Science & Technology Law Institute (STLI), Institute for Information Industry (III).

Her areas of expertise include Intellectual Property Law, Telecommunication Regulations and Policy, Internet Jurisdiction and Policy, Internet Governance, Cybersecurity Governance, ICT and Creative Industry…, etc.

When she took the position of Chairperson of National Communications Commission, NCC Taiwan, Nicole was responsible for planning the 5G and IoT regulatory development of Taiwan, coordinating the National high level of Security Strategic Project, and also co-working with TWNIC for promoting and implementing the Internet Governance and multi-stakeholders model within Taiwan and connect to the APNIC, ICANN , and other Internet International Organizations.

She received an EMBA degree from National Chengchi University, an LL.M degree in Intellectual Property from the University of London and an LL.B degree from National Taiwan University.

Position

• Attorney at Law/ Industrial Consultant
• Vice Chairperson of Digital Transformation Association
• Advisor, Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association
• Board director of Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)
• Adjunct Professor, School of Law, National Chiao Tung University

Professional History:

• Chairperson, National Communication Commission (Aug. 2016~Apr.2019)
• Vice President & Director General, Science & Technology Law Institute (STLI), Institute for Information Industry (Mar. 2013~Jul. 2016)
• Department of Culture & Creative Industries Management, National Taipei University of Education, Assistant Professor（2013~ 2016）
• Department of Filmmaking, Taipei National University of Arts, Assistant Professor（2010~ 2016）
• Consultant, Central Picture Corporation, （2010 ~ 2013.02）
• Flying Dragon Dancing Phoenix, Executive Producer（2012）
• Seven Days in Heaven, Producer（2010）
• Managing Director, Industrial Supporting Division, Institute for Information Industry（2008~2010）
• Director, Project Office for Creative Culture Industry, Council for Culture Affairs）（2010）
• Director, Nankang Software Incubator, Ministry of Economic Affairs（2008~2010）
• Chief Legal Officer, Foxlink Group（2007~2008）
• Senior Advisor & Special Assistant for the Board of III, Institute for Information Industry（2007）
• Director, Secretarial & Public Affairs Office, Institute for Information Industry（2001~2007）
• Director, Japan Office, Institute for Information Industry（2006~2007）
• Partner, Shay & Partners Law Office（1999~2000）
• Partner, Lo & Partners Law Office（1995~1997）
• Attorney-at-Law, Meridian Law Office （1992~1994）

Mr. Billy Mooho CHEON (SOI) is a senior researcher of Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA). He has 20 years of experiences in various international affairs with non-governmental organizations and inter-governmental organizations. In the early 2000s, he started his carrier as a policy maker of number address resources (IPv4, IPv6 and AS numbers) in Asia-Pacific community. From 2005 to 2007, with in-depth knowledge and rich experiences in the Internet addresses management, he contributed to the AP region in policy development and cooperative system development as a member of Executive Council (EC) of Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC).

In 2008, he also participated in Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of ICANN and presented the views of Korean government on the naming resources (new gTLD, ccTLD, IDN) and Internet governance issues. In 2009, he organized Freedom of Expression session with KISA at Internet governance Forum (IGF). In 2011, he attended at Working Party on Information Security and Privacy (WPISP) of OECD and participated in developing global information security policies and guidelines. In 2012, he worked with the Multi-lateral Development Banks such as the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank in the field of Information Communication Technologies and Cyber Security issues. Since 2015, he is in charge of international affairs on the Internet Governance issues in KISA, serving as Chair of National Internet Registry (NIR) SIG of APNIC and Head of KISA-ICANN partnership center.

With the above experiences and knowledge, he is strongly hope he can contribute to the development of Asia Pacific region in naming industry and Internet governance as DotAsia Board member.

Edmon CHUNG (SOI) is serving as the CEO for DotAsia Organisation and heads the secretariat for the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF). Edmon currently Co-Chairs the ICANN Joint ccNSO/GNSO IDN Working Group (JIG) and participates extensively on Internet governance issues.

Edmon is an inventor of patents underlying technologies for internationalized domain names (IDN) and email addresses on the Internet. Edmon has served on many global IDN related committees, including technical and policy groups, that made it possible for the introduction of multilingual domain names and email addresses on the Internet. Edmon founded Neteka Inc. in partnership with the University of Toronto Innovations Foundation in 1999, and went on to win the Most Innovative Award in the Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurship Award in 2001. In 2000, Edmon was selected by The Globe and Mail as one of the Young Canadian Leaders. Between 2007 and 2010, Edmon served as an elected member on the ICANN GNSO Council. Between 2010 and 2012, Edmon served as an elected member on the ICANN At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) from the Asia Pacific Region. Between 2006 and 2011, Edmon served as an elected member of the Elections Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the Information Technology Subsector.

Edmon has a Bachelor of Applied Science and Master of Engineering from the University of Toronto.

Jose Emmanuel DISINI (SOI) – I was born and raised in the Manila, Philippines. I moved to California in 1980 to study, and graduated in 1984 from Caltech, specializing in Computer Science. I found work in Silicon Valley, working on the Macintosh, which had then just been released, writing networking software. In 1990 I moved back to Manila, founded one of the first ISPs here, and became the ccTLD for .PH. I’ve been in the Domain Industry for 30 years.

Transparency and Accountability to its members – that is what I would like to see. DotAsia is a $2M/year business and there needs to be more transparency about how this money is spent. Wasteful expenses should be eliminated, and most importantly, Funds should go only towards projects that are approved by the members, and that benefit the countries and goals of the membership. That is what I promise to work towards.

Maureen Hilyard’s (SOI) former career was in primary teaching which led to moving to the NZ Correspondence School (TCS) in 1989. She started at a time when the internet was first being introduced to connect distance learners with their teachers, based at the school in Wellington. Her role as a Regional Representative based in Auckland was to introduce distance learners – from preschool to adults, including people with disabilities – to the “virtual classroom”. After 15 years with TCS, Maureen moved to the Cook Islands Ministry of Education in 2004 as a distance learning facilitator. This required working with the local telecom to connect the 13 outer islands schools to the internet; negotiating with TCS to redesign their programmes to meet the needs of distance learners of another culture; and training government Ministry personnel and school staff on technical and governance issues relating to the internet as a communication and learning tool.

Maureen joined the Internet Society following her first PacINET in Samoa in 2006 where she met Vince Cerf whose continued support has been a real asset for internet development in the Pacific. She coordinated a PacINET in 2008 on Rarotonga, and joined the PICISOC Board in 2009. She was their Board Chair from 2011-2014 with her main focus being to advocate for global support for affordable and sustainable internet connectivity in the Pacific.

Maureen attended her first IGF as a Fellow with the Diplo Foundation at Hyderabad in 2008, and then was an ISOC Ambassador at Sharm el Sheik in 2009. She helped to coordinate the first Pacific IGF in Noumea in 2011 as well as a number of PacINET meetings and training workshops in various Pacific countries during her term on the Board. She attended previous APrIGFs in Japan (2012) and Korea (2013). In 2014 she was selected as a Pacific participant in a Policy Diplomacy programme organised by the Diplo Foundation. In 2015 she represented the Pacific to work with other Asian NGOs and CSOs to put together and submit the Asia-Pacific WSIS+10 Non-paper to the UN.

She attended her first ICANN meeting as a Fellow in 2010 in Cartegena and became involved in At-Large policy development up until her next meeting in Costa Rica in 2012. She became the ccNSO Liaison to the ALAC in 2013 when she was elected onto the ALAC. Maureen is currently in her second term on the ALAC representing the Asian, Australasian and Pacific Islands Organisation (APRALO). She is a member of the ALAC Leadership Team.

On Rarotonga, she is the President of the Cook Islands Internet Action Group which lobbies government about internet issues and supports IT graduates to undertake projects in their interest areas. She is a member of the Telecommunications Advisory Committee which meets with the Minister to advise him about internet and telecommunications issues.

Maureen’s day job is a development consultant mainly working with the Development Cooperation (Aid) Division of the Ministry of Finance. She is the UNESCO Commissioner for Information and Communication. Development projects she have managed were attached to the Office of the Prime Minister (eGovernment), the National Environment Service (Hazardous chemicals) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Gender equality and women’s economic empowerment). She also worked as a Development Programme Coordinator with the NZ High Commission on Rarotonga.

Maureen has an Advanced Diploma in Teaching, Bachelor of Business, Post-Graduate Diploma in Business and Administration and Master of Management.

Alireza SALEH (SOI) is currently the CTO of .IR ccTLD Registry with increasing role in management affairs. Saleh has a B.Sc. degree in civil engineering but has been involved in networking technology for the last 13 years. Before taking on his present responsibilities, he was involved in various aspects of the operation of Iranian Academic NETwork. Most recently he has been involved in IDN development for Persian language and Arabic script and is one of the monitors of the current ICANN IDN tests. He is a frequent participant in meetings of IETF, RIPE, ICANN, ITU-T, APTLD and CENTR.

Ellen STRICKLAND (SOI) – I have been involved in Internet Governance in the region since the World Summit on the Information Society processes in the early 2000s, while working for the New Zealand government. I have worked for InternetNZ, the home and guardian of the .nz domain, since 2012.

Since joining InternetNZ, I have led the community funding and engagement work and subsequently the policy work of InternetNZ, including leading policy for .nz. My focus at InternetNZ is now international engagement, including at ICANN, the Internet Governance Forum, and at broader Internet Governance related processes and events, including technical community and civil society involvement and inclusion in the Christchurch Call process, a New Zealand and France led iniatiative to help address terrorism and violent extremism online.

I hold a PhD in information and communication policy, having researched Pacific Islands regional digital policy. I had the pleasure to serve as a member, and vice-chair, of the Board of the Pacific Islands chapter of the Internet Society from 2010-2016, and as co-chair of the Pacific Internet Partners from 2012-2015, a regional Internet community focused funding organisation. I also have served as a founding director, since 2012, of Oceania Women’s Network Satellites, an Internet infrastructure research and investment company. I currently serve as a member of the Christchurch Call Advisory Network.