Biographies of the NomCom's 2011 Selected Nominees

Dr. Stephen Crocker

Dr. Stephen Crocker is CEO and co-founder of Shinkuro, Inc., a start-up company focused on dynamic sharing of information across the Internet and on the deployment of improved security protocols on the Internet.

Dr. Crocker has been involved in the Internet since its inception. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, while he was a graduate student at UCLA, he was part of the team that developed the protocols for the Arpanet and laid the foundation for today's Internet. He organized the Network Working Group, which was the forerunner of the modern Internet Engineering Task Force and initiated the Request for Comment (RFC) series of notes through which protocol designs are documented and shared. For this work, Dr. Crocker was awarded the 2002 IEEE Internet Award. Dr. Crocker also holds an honorary doctorate in mathematics from the University of San Martin de Porres in Lima, Perú.

Dr. Crocker's experience includes research management at DARPA, USC/ISI and The Aerospace Corporation, vice president of Trusted Information Systems, and co-founder of CyberCash, Inc. and Longitude Systems, Inc. His prior public service includes serving as the first area director for security in the the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the IETF Administrative Support Activity Oversight Committee (IAOC), service on the Board of the Internet Society and the Board of The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC.

Dr. Crocker earned his B.A. in mathematics and Ph.D. in computer science at UCLA, and he studied artificial intelligence at MIT.

Steve Crocker was selected by the 2008 Nominating Committee to serve as a Board Member. He was been Chair of ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) from its inception in 2002 until December 2010, and he served as SSAC's non-voting Liaison to the ICANN Board until being selected by the Nominating Committee. His current term runs from the end of the 2008 annual meeting through the conclusion of the 2011 annual meeting.

Steve served as Vice-Chair from December 2010 until June 2011. At the organizational meeting following the regular ICANN Board meeting on June 24, 2011, Steve was elected Chair of the ICANN Board.

Judith Duavit Vazquez

Judith Duavit Vazquez is an acknowledged visionary in the Philippine ICT space.

In 1995, she laid the first fiber in the nation's Central Business District and constructed its first 45-storey skyscraper and intelligent building, The Peak. Her construction of telecommunications neutral infrastructure has provided impetus to pioneering endeavours on the Internet.

Judith is founder and chairman of PHCOLO Inc. the Philippines telecommunications cross connection site, which provides colocation and local last-mile infrastructure to leading Carriers and Internet Services Providers on four (4) platforms: wireless, cable, ethernet and copper. Her investments in ICT include the ownership of telecommunication towers and data centre-grade properties leased to high-value secured-packet data providers such as the financial industry.

Her experience extends into the vast realm of broadcast media, radio, film, cable and web-content development and media-platform ownership through GMA NETWORK, the Philippines leading Media Corporation. A publicly traded company, ratings leader and internationally awarded network, GMA News and Entertainment reach 26 million Filipino Households and 450,000+ International Subscribers every day. Judith has served the GMA board and its subsidiaries for over 20 years. Her corporate governance responsibilities are further exercised as a member of the Compensation, Audit and Risk Management Committees.

Judith's board experience extends to non-profit organizations: the Philippines leading business organization- Management Association of the Philippines- and two national foundations. Other international memberships include the Clinton Global Initiatives Foundation and the Young Presidents-World Presidents Organization (YPO-WPO).

She is an active member of the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC), the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) and recently the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Judith holds a BSc Economics (honours) degree from the University of the Philippines. She is an alumna of the Harvard Business School, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and the Asian Institute of Management.

Lanre Ajayi

Lanre Ajayi had his Bachelors and Masters degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He worked for the Nigeria Telecomunications Ltd (NITEL) for 11 years before establishing Pinet Informatics, which became one of the first Internet Service Providers in Nigeria.

Lanre Ajayi has served as the Vice-President of the Internet Service providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN) and as the Vice-Chairman of African ISP Association (AfrISPA). He is a co-founder and the immediate Past President of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), a Non Profit Organisation committed to the promotion of the Internet in Nigeria. He is a founding member of Africa Network Information Center (AfriNIC). He has also served on the council of the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS) as the Chairman of Research and Statistics committee. He was Chairman of Technical committee on the Nigeria Country Code Top Level Domain Name (.ng). He was also the Chairman of ISPAN committee on the implementation of the Nigeria Internet Exchange Point.

Lanre Ajayi has served Nigeria in several capacities. He served as a member of the National Cybercrime Working Group (NCWG). He also served on the Federal Government committee on the National University Network (NUNet). He was appointed as a member of the Presidential task force for the restructuring of the Information and Communication Technology sector in Nigeria.

He is a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), a Fellow of the Nigerian Computer Society (NCS) and a registered member of the Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN).

Lanre Ajayi was listed as one of the icons of Information and Communication Technology in Nigeria in a compendium compiled in the year 2004 and was named the Nigerian ICT personality of the year 2007.

Thomas Rickert

Thomas Rickert is the Owner and Managing Director of Schollmeyer & Rickert Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH with offices in Bonn and Frankfurt am Main, Germany (http://www.anwaelte.de/). He specialises in IT-law, IPR and domain-related legal aspects in particular.

Thomas is also Director of Names & Numbers at eco - Association of the German Internet Industry (http://www.eco.de/) where he chairs the eco Names & Numbers Forum, a platform for registrars, registries, resellers and other companies active in the area of the Domain Name System (DNS).

Since 1998, Thomas has been involved in various national and international projects in the area of Internet safety and security. He was instrumental in establishing a hotline in Germany that handles public reports of illegal activity or content on the internet and was President of the Inhope Association (http://www.inhope.org/) from 2002 to 2005. Inhope is the global umbrella organisation of hotlines fighting illegal content on the Internet.

Titi Akinsanmi

Mrs. Titi Akinsanmi is an academic serving as a researcher, lecturer and prospective PhD candidate with the LINK centre, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. She holds a Masters in Management specializing in Knowledge Management for the development sector from the University of Witswatersrand. Her experience spans both the public and private sectors consulting for a range of international institutions including AfriNIC, the World Bank Institute, IICD, Mindset, UN-GAID, UNECA, SchoolNet Africa and MTech Communications. She initiated, managed and or led delivery on projects and initiatives for ICT & development, ICT& Education, the Information Society, Internet Governance, Telecom Value Added Products & Services within Nigeria, South Africa and across over 30 other nations world wide. She has engaged with dynamic policy processes nationally, regionally and internationally in particular as it spanned the sessions on the World Summit on the Information Society, Internet Governance and ICT for Education. She served two terms on nomination of the UN Secretary General, on the Internet Governance Forum Advisory Group, and as High-Level adviser of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT for Development amongst other roles. Since 2005 she has served as a jury member of the World Summit Awards and on the board of the world Summit Youth Awards as well as on other non-profit organizations boards in Nigeria and South Africa. Her area of growing expertise as a project manager and strategist is in policy research & development focused on the Knowledge Society, ICT4D, Universal access and service provision), and the Internet ecosystem.

Rinalia Abdul Rahim

Rinalia Abdul Rahim is Founder and Managing Director of Compass Rose Sdn Bhd (http://www.compassrose.my/), a company that provides strategic advice and solutions on innovation management, knowledge management and business development towards enhancing organizational performance, learning and impact.

She is experienced in bringing together stakeholders from the public, private and civil society sectors to explore innovative and collaboration-based solutions to development challenges worldwide. She has successfully established global programs and networks for sharing knowledge, building multistakeholder partnerships, and spreading best practices across thematic clusters involving government agencies, private sector companies, UN agencies, NGOs, Academic institutions and media organizations.

She has spent more than 10 years working on issues of access, empowerment and governance in the information age and has spoken on these issues widely including at the World Summit on the Information Society (2003 and 2005). She has also conceptualized and moderated many multistakeholder discussion and learning forums at the regional and global levels.

An expert in developing and managing global multistakeholder networks, she led the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) as its Executive Director from 2001-2008 and successfully positioned GKP as the world's leading multi-sector network in the field of "ICT for Development" and "Knowledge for Development". She established the GKP Secretariat in Kuala Lumpur upon its transfer out of the World Bank in 2001. Prior to joining GKP, she supported the Malaysian Government in developing its ICT policies, strategies and programs for nurturing Malaysia’s knowledge-based society.

She has held advisory positions with the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, GAN-Net, the Malaysian Government, the Wawasan Open University, the International Task Force on Women and ICT, and the Youth Social Enterprise Initiative.

She holds a Master in Public Policy Degree from Harvard University and a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from Princeton University.

Carlton Samuels

Carlton Samuels was formerly the Chief Information Officer & University Director of IT at The University of the West Indies, a regionally funded institution of higher education in the English-speaking Caribbean. He is now an independent consultant specializing in the areas of technology strategy and policy development, business process re-engineering, and ICTs in education and has been a leader in the development and implementation of the EU-funded C@ribNET project. He is a teacher of Information Science as an adjunct in the Department of Library and Information Studies, the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the UWI, Mona.

Carlton's current and previous volunteer positions include being a foundation member of and Secretariat for the Latin America and Caribbean Regional At-Large Advisory Organization (LACRALO), member of the advisory boards of Microsoft Partners in Learning and the Project Advisory Board of the Caribbean Universities Project for Integrated Distance Education (CUPIDE). He is a member of the Advisory Committee for the National Information Systems in Jamaica, a member of ICT4D Jamaica and the Board Committee for ICT Governance for HEART/NTA and the Scientific Research Council. Carlton has also been a member of the CARICOM ICT Task Force, a regional ICT leadership position charged with developing a cohesive ICT policy framework for Caribbean governments.

Carlton was awarded undergraduate & graduate degrees from The University of the West Indies at Mona and George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia respectively. He has over twenty (25) years of business experience primarily in the ICT sector across North America, Europe, and the Caribbean. His industry experience covers telecommunications, financial services, strategic management consulting, higher education and technology service delivery. He has served as a director on several Boards of Management, including e-Learning Jamaica Limited, CCAlum Enterprises and as Managing Director of Mona Informatix. He now serves on several international advisory boards occupied with issues of Internet Governance and ICTs in education; Microsoft's Partners in Learning and ICANN's At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC).

Dr. Hong Xue

Dr. Hong Xue is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Institute for the Internet Policy & Law at Beijing Normal University. Prof. Xue is an elected Top Ten Nationally Distinguished Young Jurists by the China Law Society. Prof. Xue is a Fellow of Yale Information Society Project and the Chinese Representative to Global Academy on Access to Knowledge. She had taught in Yale Law School, Law Faculty of University of Hong Kong, Law School of Murdoch University, Australia and World Intellectual Property Academy. She is an invited professor to teach at Torino Law School-WIPO Master of Laws in Intellectual Property and the Faculty Chair of Asia Pacific Internet Leadership Project (APILP). She is appointed by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to the United Nations Network of Experts for Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific (UNNExT). She had served as a founding member and then the founding IDN Liaison of the ICANN At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) and was appointed on the ICANN President's Advisory Committee on Internationalized Domain Names. She was the Chair of Asia Pacific Regional At-Large Organization (APRALO). She is a founding member of Chinese Domain Names Consortium (CDNC).