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ICANN invited to participate at the Russian Economic Forum

30 May 2007
By
Veni Markovski

Veni Markovski

VP, Government Engagement - UN NY and Interim Head of Government and IGO Engagement

Veni Markovski is based in New York, and is responsible for the relations with the United Nations, the UN Agencies in New York, and the Permanent Missions to the United Nations.

Veni Markovski has graduated law, but before that, back in September 1990 he started his work on the Internet, as a system operator of the first Sofia-based bulletin-board system, part of FidoNet.
In 1993 Mr. Markovski formed with another of the Bulgarian Internet pioneers, Mr. Dimitar Ganchev, their company - bol.bg, the first commercial Internet service provider in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Veni Markovski was President and CEO of bol.bg for nine years. The two owners sold the company successfully in 2008 to an international investment fund
In 1995 he co-founded the Bulgarian Internet Society, a non-profit, of which he serves as President and chairman of the Board.
In March 2002 Mr. Markovski was appointed as Chairman of the Bulgarian President's IT Advisory Council, a position he held until the President stepped down from office at the end of his second term on January 22, 2012.
In 2005 he was invited to be the senior international projects adviser to the chairman of the governmental Agency for Information Technologies and communications, a position that he held until 2009. He was also adviser to the Bulgarian national cybersecurity coordinator from 2009 till 2013.

Since the beginning of his career, Veni has been involved in different international organizations and programs on different levels - as project manager, adviser, senior adviser, advocate for policy changes, mediator, board member, etc. He has served on the Boards of CPSR, ISOC, ICANN, among others.
Widely recognized as a computer geek and expert in cyber, Mr. Markovski is a frequent speaker at international conferences, and is often being approached for advice by companies, organizations, and governments.

ICANN has been invited to participate in the XIth St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Both myself (Veni Markovski) and CEO and President Paul Twomey will be attending. Paul will speak at the Round Table entitled: “Knowledge based economy” where the moderator is Andrei Fursenko, Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, and other speakers include Leonid Reiman, Minister of Information Technology and Communications of the Russian Federation; Esko Aho, President, Finnish National Fund for Research and Development (SITRA), former Prime Minister, Finland; Todd Bradley, Senior Executive Vice President, Hewlett Packard; William Swope, Vice President, Intel; Evgeny Utkin, President, Sitronics; and Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO, Telenor ASA.

During the two days of the conference Paul Twomey and myself will be meeting Russian and foreign governmental officials, representatives of private and governmental businesses from Russia and all over the world. A meeting with representatives from the Russian Internet business community is also scheduled.

I believe the invitation to participate at the Forum, is a clear sign, that ICANN’s commitment to work in cooperation with Russia and the countries from the region, has been welcome by our Russian colleagues. I also hope that during the meetings with the Russian officials, we’ll send some clear messages, one of which is the importance all countries with Cyrillic alphabet have for the development of IDNs. We believe that Russia, with its large number of engineers, could be more active within ICANN, the IETF, ISOC and other relevant organizations – at all levels. We are looking forward towards further Russian participation at the ICANN meetings, and we encourage Russian and regional representatives to put forward their names for different positions at ICANN – from the Board level, to the supporting organizations.

We signed the accountability framework with the .ru ccTLD at the end of March 2007, and that’s only the beginning of what, we hope, will be a long-term and positive development.

Other participants at the Forum include Russian president Vladimir Putin, vice-president Al Gore, Gerhard Schroeder, James Wolfensohn – former president of the World Bank, Klaus Schwab – Executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, Pascal Lamy – Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Jean Lemierre – President of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Susan C. Schwab – US Trade Representative, and many others.

Authors

Veni Markovski

Veni Markovski

VP, Government Engagement - UN NY and Interim Head of Government and IGO Engagement
Veni Markovski

Veni Markovski

VP, Government Engagement - UN NY and Interim Head of Government and IGO Engagement

Veni Markovski is based in New York, and is responsible for the relations with the United Nations, the UN Agencies in New York, and the Permanent Missions to the United Nations.

Veni Markovski has graduated law, but before that, back in September 1990 he started his work on the Internet, as a system operator of the first Sofia-based bulletin-board system, part of FidoNet.
In 1993 Mr. Markovski formed with another of the Bulgarian Internet pioneers, Mr. Dimitar Ganchev, their company - bol.bg, the first commercial Internet service provider in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Veni Markovski was President and CEO of bol.bg for nine years. The two owners sold the company successfully in 2008 to an international investment fund
In 1995 he co-founded the Bulgarian Internet Society, a non-profit, of which he serves as President and chairman of the Board.
In March 2002 Mr. Markovski was appointed as Chairman of the Bulgarian President's IT Advisory Council, a position he held until the President stepped down from office at the end of his second term on January 22, 2012.
In 2005 he was invited to be the senior international projects adviser to the chairman of the governmental Agency for Information Technologies and communications, a position that he held until 2009. He was also adviser to the Bulgarian national cybersecurity coordinator from 2009 till 2013.

Since the beginning of his career, Veni has been involved in different international organizations and programs on different levels - as project manager, adviser, senior adviser, advocate for policy changes, mediator, board member, etc. He has served on the Boards of CPSR, ISOC, ICANN, among others.
Widely recognized as a computer geek and expert in cyber, Mr. Markovski is a frequent speaker at international conferences, and is often being approached for advice by companies, organizations, and governments.

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