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.

Jordan CARTER (SOI) joined auDA (.au) in 2022 in the new role of Internet Governance and Policy Director. He is responsible for building effective coalitions to advance multi-stakeholder Internet governance processes and outcomes in Australia and internationally. He leads auDA’s work to support Australia’s digital transformation and advocates for effective and innovative technology policy.

Jordan brings with him a great depth of experience from his 19 years at InternetNZ, including nine as Chief Executive, where he engaged deeply on local and international Internet policy. His achievements include significant contribution to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)’s country code Name Supporting Organization (ccNSO), including as a ccNSO Council Member, and as co-chair of the Accountability Work Stream related to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) Stewardship Transition. He also convened civil society input to the New Zealand government’s Christchurch Call, and contributed to the establishment and development of New Zealand’s Internet Governance Forum, NetHui.

He has participated in Asia Pacific regional internet governance since the mid 2000s, including through work with APTLD, the national and regional Internet Governance Forums, and a wide range of other processes in the region and globally.

Nicole T.I. CHAN (SOI) is former Chairperson of National Communications Commission (NCC), Taiwan. When she took the position, Nicole was responsible for planning the 5G , IoT and Cybersecurity regulatory framework and development of Taiwan, coordinating the National high level of Security Strategic Project, and also co-working with TWNIC, especially for the DNS and IP issues, for promoting and implementing the Internet Governance and multi-stakeholders model within Taiwan and connect to the APNIC, ICANN, and other Internet International Organizations. Nicole is an attorney at law and industrial consultant. In her professional career, she deeply involved in the Internet and technology development issues raised and discussed by the Internet society. She also work closely with ICT Industry and international organizations, especially for the multi-related issues. She has been Board director of Dot Asia from Feb. 2019 until Feb. 2022 and current is ICANN ASO/AC (reappointed by APNIC and serving until Dec.2023), Vice Chair of Digital Transformation Association, Honorable Chairperson of Taiwan Blockchain Association, as well as many distinguished positions in the areas of Internet and Technology law, policy making and strategy.

Nicole is a frequent speaker, panelist and moderator of domestic, reginal and global Internet, technology, and digital transformation related conferences, such as APNIC and APrIGF, TWNIC, APNIC and ICANN Engagement Forum, APSIG, SIGGRAPH, etc. Previous roles have included Chairperson of National Communications Commission (NCC), Taiwan.

When Ms. Chan worked as the Board director of DotAsia and ICANN ASO/AC in the past few years, she helped the achievements including completing the Governance Documents of DotAsia, processing the collaboration projects with Internet Communities, and the election of No.9 seat of ICANN Board.

Nicole’s areas of expertise include Internet Law, Intellectual property law, international cyberspace law and jurisdiction, internet governance, cybersecurity, Regulatory Mechanism, and many vertical domain Industries such as Electronic, Health Care, Audiovisual and film, etc, and the relationship with Internet Organizations making her an excellent candidate to offer academic and practical knowledge to the DotAsia. Especially, she has been dedicating to the promotion of law-making on Digital Convergence Regulations in Taiwan so that she has consolidated her highest level of understanding on the Internet-based industries.

Nicole is a graduate of University of LONDON, UK and National Taiwan University, qualified as a lawyer in Taiwan. Her areas of expertise include Science & Technology Law, Intellectual Property Law, Telecommunication Regulations and Policy, Internet Jurisdiction and Policy, Internet Governance, Cybersecurity Governance, Internet & e-Commerce Regulation, Creative Industry Regulation and Management, Hi-tech & creative Industry Policy, Enterprise Investment & Management…, etc.

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 (SOI) – I relocated to the Cook Islands from New Zealand in 2004 initially as an Advisor to the Cook Islands Ministry of Education’s Distance Learning section. During my 4 years with the Ministry, I joined the Internet Society’s Pacific Islands Chapter which led to role as the PICISOC Board Chair and then on to the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) of ICANN. PICISOC was one of At-Large’s first ALSes. While on the ALAC, I was the ALAC Liaison to the ccNSO for 6 years until I first became the Vice Chair in 2017 and then the Chair of the ALAC in 2018. During this 4-year period through my contacts with APRICOT and the APRIGF, I was elected to the Board of DotAsia in 2016 and was the first officially elected Board Chair in 2021 until the end of my term.

At the conclusion of my term as ALAC Chair, I will remain a member of the ALAC during 2023 and am the ALAC Vice Chair in charge of At-Large Outreach and Engagement. I am also the ALAC representative on the GNSO Guidance Process for Applicant Support which will be preparing the Guidebook for new and underserved applicants for the new round of gTLDs, who may be wanting to better understand the requirements of not only being a successful new gTLD applicant but also a successful registrar. At-Large has also maintained a high-level interest in Universal Acceptance of Internationalised Domain Names and mitigating DNS Abuse. I was fortunate to have spent 5 years on the Advisory Council of the Public Interest Registry and was selected to transfer in 2021 to the Advisory Council of the DNS Abuse Institute which coordinates the efforts of registries and registrars to minimise DNS Abuse that can impact negatively on end-user experiences on the Internet.

Akinori MAEMURA (SOI) (前村 昌紀) is Chief Policy Officer of JPNIC – Japan Network Information Center, a not-for-profit Internet promotion body and National Internet Registry for Japan.

Maemura has more than 25 years of career and experience in the Internet technical operations and coordination. He started the Internet career at NEC Corporation, Japan, to launch its ISP business, which is now known as BIGLOBE, as a network engineer in 1994. After that he got involved in the Internet Coordination among ISPs and associations, as the commercial Internet is emerging in Japan, including the establishment of JANOG, the Network Operators’ Group of Japan, and IP address management at JPNIC – Japan Network Information Center. Then his involvement expanded to the region when he was first elected to the Executive Council of APNIC, Asia Pacific Network Information Centre, one of five Regional Internet Registries which administer the Internet number space for respective regions in 2000. He served as an EC member for 16 years, especially as the Chair of it for 13 years until February 2016. After that, he was elected to the Board of Directors of ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers as an appointee of its ASO, Address Supporting Organization. He served as an ICANN Board Member for two terms, six years until 2022.

As the Chief Policy Officer of JPNIC, Maemura presides JPNIC’s consideration, coordination and communication of the Internet Policies as well as its external and international relations.

He also serves as a Board Director at JPCERT Coordination Center, the national computer incident response team in Japan.

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.