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Members of the ICANN 2016 Nominating Committee

This page contains some background biographical information about each Nominating Committee member.

Members of the Committee

The members of the 2016 Nominating Committee are: Stéphane Van Gelder (Chair), Hans Petter Holen (Chair Elect), Wolfgang Kleinwaechter (Associate Chair), Alejandro Acosta, Damon Ashcraft (as of April 2016), Thomas Barrett, Stephen Coates, Eduardo Diaz, Bill Drake, Hartmut Glaser, Zahid Jamil, Dave Kissoondoyal, Yrjö Länsipuro, Sylvia Herlein Leite, Osvaldo Novoa, Amir Qayyum, Jörg Schweiger, Mark Seiden, Ellen Shankman (until April 2016), Ken Stubbs and Tim Wicinski.

2016 NomCom Leadership Team

Stéphane Van Gelder – Chair

Stéphane Van Gelder

Stéphane is Chairman and Managing Director of Milathan LTD. (www.milathan.com) a provider of domain name and Internet intelligence. Services include evaluating domain name requirements and refining naming strategies, sourcing domain management partners, identifying new industry trends, analysis and participating in Internet governance processes, determining general online strategies and also providing senior management advice…

Previously, Stéphane was General Manager of Indom, a corporate domain registrar which he cofounded in 1999 and sold to Group NBT in 2010.

Stéphane has been active in Internet governance for years. He was a board member for the French registry AFNIC from 2004 to 2010. He was elected treasurer of ICANN's Registrar Stakeholder Group in 2008, and that group's European representative on the GNSO Council that same year. Stéphane was elected Vice Chair of the GNSO Council in 2009 and Chair the following year. He was re-elected as GNSO Council Chair at the 2011 Dakar ICANN meeting. Stéphane served on ICANN's 2013 Nominating Committee and was Chair Elect of the 2014 Nominating Committee. Stéphane has been selected by the ICANN Board to serve as the committee's Chair for 2015 and 2016.

Stéphane earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Sussex University (UK). He was a print and TV journalist for ten years before starting Indom.

Hans Petter Holen – Chair Elect

Hans Petter Holen

Hans Petter Holen is Chief Information Security Officer in Visma IT & Communications AS. The Visma Group is present in twelve countries with a pivot in Northern Europe with headquarter located in Oslo, Norway. Visma provides solutions that keep our customers one step ahead of their competition. At Visma, we aim to provide solutions and services that are of such high quality that they turn our customers' business and administrative processes into competitive advantages.

He has been working for Visma since 2004, IT Director and Managing Director for Visma IT & Communications until August 2013. He is now working with corporate IT projects in the Visma group. He is also board member at Visma Personnel, a recruitment company, and the Hosting division, which is providing web hosting and domain-names through Active 24 and Loopia brands in Norway, Sweden, the Czech Republic and other European countries.

Hans Petter Holen from Norway is Chair of RIPE – the open policy forum for the regional Internet registry for Europe and Middle East, since 2014. He has been actively involved in RIPE and the Internet industry for over 20 years. His extensive and long-standing first-hand knowledge of global IP address policy creation was developed in the RIPE Address Policy Working Group, of which he was Chair from 1998 to 2007.

Hans Petter has also been part of ICANN's ASO Address Council aso.icann.org since its formation in 1999 until 2013 where he spent 10 years as Chair or Co Chair. He is serving on a strategy panel for NORID, the Norwegian ccTLD .no, and has previously been on the policy advisory board NORPOL from 2003 to 2013 and on the dispute resolution function, NOK, from 2001 to 2003.

He is also a member of the Norwegian IPv6 forum and has been deputy chair of ISOC Chapter Norway from 1997 and part of the interim board tasked to rejuvenate the chapter in 2013.

Hans Petter graduated from The University of Oslo (1988) with a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science with a year from University of York as part of the degree. He continued with further studies at the University Oslo, while working at the University Computing Centre administering the Norwegian EuNet node, name server for .no. In 1991 he was one of the founders of Oslonett AS, one of Norway's first commercial ISPs, and since has been working for other ISPs and content providers.

Wolfgang Kleinwächter – Associate Chair

Wolfgang Kleinwächter

Wolfgang Kleinwächter is a Professor for International Communication Policy and Regulation at the Department for Media and Information Sciences of the University of Aarhus in Denmark where he teaches "Internet Policy and Regulation" since 1998.

He has studied Communication, International Law and International Relations at the University of Leipzig (B.A. 1971, M.A. 1974, Ph.D. 1981). His Academic Teaching Experiences includes courses and lectures on Internet Governance at numerous universities around the globe, including, inter alia die School of International Services at American University in Washington D.C. and the Faculty of Journalism at Lomonossow University in Moscow.

He is involved in Internet Governance issues since 1997 and has participated - in various capacities - in 45 ICANN meetings. He served five years in the NomCom (2009/2010 as its chair) and was since 2011 a member of the GNSO Council, elected by the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) where he is a member of the NCUC.

In the WSIS process he was a member of the Civil Society Bureau, co-chaired the Internet Governance Caucus (IGC) and was appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as for the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). In the Tunis Summit he was part of the governmental delegation of Denmark. Between 2006 and 2010 he served as Special Adviser to the Chair of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), Nitin Desai. In 2011/2012 he was a member of the UNCSTD Working Group on IGF Improvement. In 2012 he joined the German governmental delegation to the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT) and served in the Informal Expert Group of the World Telecommunication Policy Forum in 2013.

He is a co-founder of the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EURODIG), the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GIGANET), the Summer School on Internet Governance (SSIG) and chair of the ICANN Studienkreis. He served in the Advisory Board of the dotmobi Registry and became in 2010 an International Adviser to CNNIC. In the EU, he was involved in the Safer Internet Action Plan (SIAP), the Task Force on the Internet of Things and the Inter-Regional Information Society Initiative (IRISI). In the Council of Europe he chaired the Expert Group on Cross Border Internet (2009 – 2011).

For more than 20 years he was a member of the Council of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) and served as the president of the IAMCR Law Section between 1988 and 1998. He was a member of the Program Committee for INET 2002 in Washington D.C. and a Key-Note Speaker, Panelist, Moderator and Rapporteur of numerous international conferences.

His research work includes more than 100 international publications, including 7 books. Since 2011 he is the editor of the publication series MIND (Multistakeholder Internet Dialogue). He also served as member of several advisory boards of scientific journals, including Transnational Data and Communication Report, Computer Law and Security Report, The Journal of Media Law and Practice, Gazette and the Journal for Virtual Reality.

He testified in Hearings in the Deutsche Bundestag and the European Parliament. He is Chair of the Board of Medienstadt Leipzig e.V., a recognized At Large Structure under the ICANN Bylaws and got the "Internet Award" the highest Internet prize in Germany, by the German Internet Economy Association (eco) in 2012.

He is the Special Ambassador of the Net Mundial Initiative (NMI) and was a member of the ICANN Board of Directors (2013 – 2015).


Committee Members

(listed in alphabetical order by family name)

Alejandro Acosta - RSSAC Representative

Alejandro Acosta

Alejandro Acosta studied Computer Sciences at Universidad Nueva Esparta, Venezuela, where he later went on to complete a master's degree in Information Technology Management.

He is currently serving as President of LAC-TF (the Latin American and Caribbean IPv6 Task Force) and is a Research and Development Engineer at LACNIC. He was previously Technology and Support Manager at British Telecom (BT) and member of LACNIC's Electoral Commission. Today, Alejandro coordinates the annual FLIP-6 meeting (Latin American IPv6 Forum) and moderates the Latin American IPv6 Task Force mailing list.

He also teaches TCP/IP –a subject that is part of the ninth semester Engineering curriculum– at Universidad Nueva Esparta.

During the past six years, Alejandro has participated in numerous events. He has obtained several certifications and is, among others, IPv6 Sage Certified (Hurricane Electric, 10th November), Novell Certified Linux Administrator (Novell CLA, February 2010), Novell Linux Spec (September 2013).

Damon Ashcraft- Intellectual Properties Constituency Representative (as of April 2016)

Damon Ashcraft

Damon Ashcraft is a partner with the law firm of Snell and Wilmer, LLP in Phoenix, Arizona, USA where he is a member of the firm’s intellectual property practice group. His legal practice involves the representation of intellectual property owners in procurement, enforcement, and monetization of intellectual property. Damon is a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and he also practices trademark law and copyright law. Damon is also a leader within the International Trademark Association (“INTA”) leading INTA’s Internet Subcommittee on the “Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet and at ICANN.”

Thomas Barrett - Registrars Stakeholder Group Representative

Thomas Barrett

Tom Barrett has over 30 years of experience in technology, including over 20 years of experience in internet development and management. Currently, he is President and Founder of ICANN-accredited Registrar: EnCirca, Inc. EnCirca is a registration and validation specialist for restricted and dotBrand TLDs and assists domain name registries with their go-to market strategies. EnCirca is currently the leading Registrar for: .BANK, .REALTOR, .PHARMACY, .JOBS and .TRAVEL. EnCirca also offers a Validation Portal for restricted TLDs and a white-labeled registrar for dotBrand and vertically-integrated TLDs. EnCirca is also a Trademark Agent for the Trademark Clearinghouse.

Mr. Barrett was previously Vice President at Thomson Compumark (part of ThomsonReuters), where he led the development of the SAEGIS trademark research platform. Previous affiliations include; Neustar, NetNames, NetBenefit, ThomsonReuters (Thomson Compumark), Ziff Davis Interactive (Interchange), Accenture (Andersen Consulting), General Electric - Aircraft Engines, Pratt & Whitney Aircraft.

Mr. Barrett has engineering degrees from MIT and WPI.

Stephen Coates - Commercial and Business Users Constituency (Large) Representative

Stephen Coates

Steve is Senior Managing Counsel at Twitter, Inc. where he leads the trademark, domain and marketing practices. He is responsible for the acquisition, maintenance and enforcement of Twitter's global trademark and domain portfolios, and advises clients on various intellectual property, branding, licensing, advertising and marketing issues. Steve also opines on various social media issues, including fair use and ethics in the use of social media content.

Active in intellectual property and Internet governance policy, Steve sits on the International Trademark Association's Internet Committee and New gTLD Subcommittee, and is also an active member of the ICANN Business Constituency.

Prior to joining Twitter as its first trademark counsel, Steve was Senior Corporate Counsel, Trademarks at Amazon.com in Seattle and an Associate at Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton LLP in New York City. Follow Steve on Twitter @trademarkninja.

Eduardo Diaz - ALAC Representative; North America Region

William (Bill) Drake – Non Commercial Users Constituency Representative

William (Bill) Drake

William Drake is an International Fellow and Lecturer in the Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich, where he teaches Global Internet Governance and related courses. Within ICANN, he served in three elected position prior to joining the 2016 Nominating Committee: three terms (2013-2015) as Chair of the Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) in the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO); nine terms (2007-2015) as a member of the Board of Directors of the European At Large Organization (Euralo); and two terms (2009-2012) on the GNSO Council. Currently he is also a member of the inaugural Coordination Council of the NETmundial Initiative; an advisor to the World Economic Forum's Future of the Internet Initiative; a member of the Advisory Group of the Global Internet Policy Observatory; an organizational representative to the Network of Internet and Society Research Centers; NCUC's representative on the Advisory Council of the Public Interest Registry; a core faculty member of the European and South schools on Internet governance; and an Affiliated Researcher at the Institute for Tele-Information, Columbia University.

Previously he has been, inter alia, a Senior Associate at the Centre for International Governance, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies; President, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility; Senior Associate and Director of the Project on the Information Revolution and World Politics, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; founding Associate Director of the Communication, Culture and Technology Program, Georgetown University; and Assistant Professor of Communication, University of California, San Diego. In addition, he has been co-editor of the MIT Press book series, The Information Revolution and Global Politics; a member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group of the Internet Governance Forum; a member of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance; a member of the Group of High-Level Advisors of UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development; a founding Steering Committee member and Vice Chair of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network; an advisor to the high-level Panel on Global Internet Cooperation and Governance; and advisor to the World Economic Forum Task Force on the Global Digital Divide. He received his MA, MPhil and PhD in Political Science from Columbia University. www.williamdrake.org [home] and www.uzh.academia.edu/WilliamDrake [publications]

Hartmut Glaser - Address Supporting Organization Representative

Zahid Jamil - Commercial and Business Users Constituency (Small) Representative

Zahid Jamil

Zahid qualified as a Barrister from Gray's Inn and is currently practicing law in Pakistan specializing in Corporate and Commercial law, Technology, IPR, Litigation and, ADR. Currently he serves on the Advisory Board of the .pk ccTLD (PKNIC), the Board of ICC's Pakistan National Committee and Chairperson the EBITT Commission, Chairs the Joint Legal Working Group of AFACT, and Cybersecurity Advisory Committee of the Federal Investigation Agency. He served on the Multistakeholder Advisory Group to the UN Secretary General and served on ICANN's GNSO as the Business Constituency's elected representative to the Council for two consecutive terms. As a member of ICANN's new gTLD Implementation Recommendations Team and the Special Trademark Issues Working Group he advocated for greater protection for brand owners and businesses in the new gTLD Rights Protection Mechanisms. He also actively represented business at the Internet governance principles discussion at the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance (NETmundial) in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

As the Chair of the Centre for Strategic and Policy Analysis initiative Developing Countries' Centre on Cyber Crime (DC4) and expert consultant to the Council of Europe he provides legislative assistance to developing countries with respect to Cybercrime legislation and has conducted capacity building workshops and provided analysis and commentary on cybercrime legislation for Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, Malta, Maldives, Tanzania, Ghana, Dominica, Jamaica, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius. He drafted the Electronic Transactions Ordinance 2002, assisted the drafting of the Payment Systems and Electronic Funds Transfer Act, 2007. He recently drafted Pakistan's Cybercrime legislation the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill and is also consulting with the Commonwealth for a global Cybercrime Initiative. He has also presented several papers and presentations on Cybercrime, Security, e-Banking, e-Commerce and e-Logistics at domestic (ISACA, CISA, IBP, DG FIA, NR3C, PASHA, MoITT etc.) and international (ICC, EBITT, BASIS, IGF, WSIS, UN, AFACT etc.) fora. He has participated in several Cyber security related forums many of which are domestic as well as on several occasions at the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention Octopus Forum and also at the UNODC, the UN Task Force dealing with Terrorist Use of the Internet. As a CEDR Accredited Mediator Teacher Trainer he is involved in mediating disputes and is the founding Chairman of the Domain Name Dispute Resolution Center which deals with domain name disputes under the .pk ccTLD.

At the 2007 IGF in Rio, was a panelist at the CoE Workshop "Legislative responses to current and future cyber-threats" and also been a panelist in the main Session at the Rio IGF on 14 November 2007. Attended the 2007 IGF in Athens and made interventions from the floor and was a panelist in the APC workshop. He also attended the IGF Second round of consultations on the convening of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 19 May 2006, Geneva. As the Chair of DC4, he conducted a workshop on the Advantages of Cyber Crime Treaties for Developing Countries at the 2013 IGF in Bali and a capacity building workshop on Frameworks for Developing Countries Cybercrime Cooperation at the 2014 IGF in Istanbul.

Zahid is the Head of Chambers, Jamil & Jamil, Barristers-at-law, Pakistan; Legal Advisor to Board of the Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative; Chair, Domain Name Dispute Resolution Center of Pakistan for the .pk ccTLD since 2006 and Chair, Developing Countries Centre on Cyber Crime.

Dave Kissoondoyal - ALAC Representative; Africa Region

Dave Kissoondoyal

Dave Kissoondoyal has been appointed as a NomCom member from Africa. Dave will be an invaluable asset to the NomCom given his experience in Management, Internet governance and the Internet Society, whose Mauritius chapter he founded. Dave is the CEO of KMP Global Ltd.

Previously, Dave was Director of Information Technology at Apolloblake and at Teleforma (Mauritius), Ltd - A US Upstream Company. Dave was also Group Technical Director and Chief Technology Officer for the Bowman Group of Companies. Dave has been an Executive Member of the ALAC and the NCUC; a member of the Public Interest Registry .ORG Advisory Council, a member of the African Stakeholders Network (ASN) of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force and has been an Ambassador of the Internet Society to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

Dave's other volunteer work includes acting at different times as Secretary, Treasurer and President (CEO) of Save the Children Mauritius. He also founded the Internet Society of Mauritius. He is the Assistant General Secretary for media and communications of the Mouvement Militant Mauricien and stood as candidate for the National Elections in 2010.

Dave's education background includes a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Technology Mauritius, a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from the Mauritius Institute of Management / University of Surrey, United Kingdom, Certificate in electronics from the University of Mauritius, Certificate in Telecommunications and Electronics from the City and Guilds of London Institute. He speaks English, French and Hindi.

Yrjö Länsipuro – ALAC Representative; Europe Region

Yrjö Länsipuro

Yrjö is an independent writer, lecturer and consultant on Information Society and Internet issues, and Vice President of the ISOC Finland, with a career in television journalism, international broadcasting cooperation, public diplomacy and internet governance.

Länsipuro graduated from the University of Tampere, Finland, majoring in political science. Starting from the 60's, he worked first as print and then as television journalist for over thirty years, including assignments as bureau chief in New York, Moscow and Hong Kong.

Engaged early on in international cooperation among news broadcasters, he participated in the planning and implementation of regional television news exchanges among the Arab countries and the Asia-Pacific as a part-time consultant for the German Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES).

Joining the Foreign Service in 1992, he served as the Press Counselor of the Finnish Embassy in Washington, D.C and as Director General of the Department of Press and Culture of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Helsinki. Since 2005, he led Finland's participation in the WSIS process including national coordination of the implementation and follow up of the WSIS outcomes at various fora such as ITU, Commission on Science and Technology for Development and Internet Government Forum. He also represented the Finnish government on the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of ICANN and served on the ICANN President's Strategy Committee.

After leaving the government service in 2009, Länsipuro continues his Internet Governance work as an independent professional; writing and giving lectures on the topic in the University of Tampere and other Finnish Schools. He is a member of the Finnish national multi-stakeholder committee on WSIS follow-up and Internet Governance and serves on the boards of ISOC Finland (the Finnish ALS) and the European Regional At-Large Organization (RALO) of ICANN, as well as a member of core organizing groups of EuroDIG and Finnish Internet Forum.

Yrjö Länsipuro was a member of the ICANN Nominating Committee 2011-2012 and 2015; its Chair in 2013 and Associate Chair in 2014.

Sylvia Herlein Leite – ALAC Representative; Latin America/Caribbean Region

Sylvia Herlein Leite

In 2009, Sylvia was appointed as a member of the Advisory Committee At-Large (ALAC) of Latin America & Caribbean at the 1st Summit of the At-Large Organizations which took place in Mexico. She was elected with more than 70% of the votes from the region representatives.

She was the first woman to be chosen as ALAC member and LACRALO Secretary. Sylvia held the position of LACRALO Secretary for the period of 2012 – 2014.

From her work as an active member of LACRALO (Organization Regional At-Large Latin American and the Caribbean), Sylvia brings the experience and knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries and the ability to facilitate consensus-building with the community of the Internet in Latin America.

Since 2005, Sylvia has been serving on a voluntary basis as a Founding Member and the Chief Financial Officer & International Affairs of Internauta Brasil (Association of Internet Users in Brazil). Internauta Brasil (www.internautabrasil.org) is an organization that works for Brazilians' digital inclusion. It organizes courses in tele centers for disadvantaged communities, being its main public adult working age and elderly people. These activities are especially focused on the participation of Civil Society. The volunteer members of Internauta Brasil strongly believe that the use of the Internet is a right of all society members regardless of their social and economic status. From this basis, this organization carries out all its work.

Sylvia also works voluntarily as Executive Secretary at Nexti (Organization of the Executive IT Women in Brazil; http://executivasdeti.blogspot.com/). This position she achieved after the election in 2009, and she currently holds it. In addition, Sylvia has been serving since 2007 as a FLUI Secretary (Latin America Internet Users Federation; www.fuilatin.org).

Sylvia works as a language and business consultant for her own company: Pronto! Consultoria Linguistica (www.prontocl.com.br). As a business consultant, she advises South American companies on issues such as franchising and cultural peculiarities for their expansion to other countries. Sylvia is also a teacher and Spanish-Portuguese translator.

Sylvia's academic background includes a Bachelor's degree in Tourism. She is an Argentinean and Brazilian citizen.

Osvaldo Novoa - ISP Constituency Representative

Osvaldo Novoa

Osvaldo Novoa has more than 30 years in the telecommunications industry, most of them in the National Telecommunications Administration of Uruguay. In his actual position of Deputy General Manager, he is in charge of all the international relationships of Antel, as well as developing the business social responsibility strategy.

During his career in Antel he has occupied different positions in the engineer (radio communications design, technical planning) and commercial (data and mobile product design and development) areas.

Antel is the biggest telecommunications company in Uruguay providing voice and data services, both fixed and mobile, being the most important ISP in Uruguay.

Eng. Novoa has worked with several private companies as a telecommunications consultant and taught telecommunications technologies for several years in one of the universities of Uruguay.

He graduated in Electronic Engineering and has post-degree studies in Radio communications Engineering, Telecommunications Planning and Telecommunications Management.

Osvaldo served as GNSO Councilor in representation of the ISPCP Constituency from 2011 till 2015.

Amir Qayyum - ALAC Representative; Asia/Australia/Pacific Region

Amir Qayyum

Amir Qayyum is currently a Professor and Dean, Faculty of Engineering at Capital University of Science and Technology (CUST), Islamabad, Pakistan (www.cust.edu.pk). He is the Founding Director of Center of Research in Networks and Telecom (CoReNeT- www.corenet.org.pk) which he established in 2007. He is an Electrical Engineer and associated with Internet since early nineties. He did his Masters and PhD from France, and also worked as a researcher at the renowned lab: INRIA Rocquencourt, France. Being a French alumni, he is the founding member of the Board of Directors and the Vice-President of Pak-France Alumni Network (PFAN - www.pfan.org.pk).

Being a professor and researcher at a university, he enjoys working on network protocols. He actively participated in IETF WGs since 1997, and is also a co-author of the RFC 3626. He lead many funded R&D projects in the domain of wired and wireless networks, funded by ISOC USA, Govt of France in ICT-Asia program and also in PHC program, National ICT R&D Fund, and by the local industry too. He also served as the Chair IEEE Computer Society Islamabad Chapter, from 2011 to

2015 and as the Secretary and Treasurer IEEE Islamabad Section, from2011 to 2013.

Amir Qayyum feels refreshing to see himself as part of a large connected community! He is an ICANN Fellowship alumni, and got involved into ICANN activities since 2012, through the local ISOC Chapter. He is currently the Chair, Executive Council of ISOC Islamabad Chapter, which is also one of the ALS in ICANN/APRALO. He is quite involved in capacity building activities (IPv6, DNSSEC, etc.) with ISOC, APNIC and ICANN's Middle-East regional team, and conducted many training workshops, informational seminars and general awareness talks. Apart from his technical activities, he is also running a charitable trust to improve the education and living of the under-privileged people of a slum area near Rawalpindi, and also a member of two more welfare trusts for the provision of education and basic health facilities in the rural areas of Pakistan.

Jörg Schweiger – ccNSO Representative

Jörg Schweiger

Jörg Schweiger is CEO of DENIC eG, the managing organization of Germany's TLD .de. In this role, he is responsible for all IT-related services, information security, research, process & product management as well as HR, public relations and government & regulatory affairs.

Before being appointed CEO, Jörg Schweiger was DENIC's CTO from 2007 through 2013. He regularly represents DENIC at international organizations, associations and conferences. Presently, he is actively involved in the IANA Transition, Accountability and Internet Governance process within ICANN.

Jörg Schweiger holds a doctoral degree in computer science. Before joining DENIC, he worked as a consultant, project manager and in senior management functions with major engineering and insurance companies.

Mark Seiden – SSAC Representative

Ellen Shankman – Intellectual Properties Constituency Representative (until April 2016)

Ellen Shankman

Born and educated in the US and lives in Israel since 1986. Ellen is fluent in English and Hebrew. She is a member of both US and Israel Bar associations.

Ellen heads her own firm, which represents a wide range of clients from start-ups to Fortune 10 companies, so brings exposure to broad range of Internet user interests. She is a frequent lecturer and author on Trademark and Domain Name issues.

Ellen's experience and knowledge of ICANN/Internet includes the following:

  • Generic Names Supporting Organization Council member
  • IPC Officer
  • Implementation Recommendation Team member
  • Nominating Committee (former member)
  • International Trademark Association Board of Directors
  • INTA Internet Committee Chair (with sub chair positions previously)
  • INTA Presidential Task Force: Building Bridges
  • .IL ccTLD: Drafted Rules for ccTLD including allocation of domain names, the IL-DRP, the introduction of Hebrew IDNs
  • .IL ccTLD IL-DRP Panelist
  • Involved in ICANN for about 15 years
  • Co-Chaired INTA's Internet Symposium

Ken Stubbs - Registries Stakeholder Group Representative

Ken Stubbs

Ken Stubbs has provided consulting services to various clients for over 25 years, with a principle focus on the development of marketing strategies and operational and organizational structures. Previously, Mr. Stubbs worked for KPMG and Ernst & Young specializing in accounting systems and operations management consulting with special emphasis on travel, retail, and real estate industries.

Since 1994, Mr. Stubbs has consulted on Internet business development strategies for the development of both commercial as well as non-profit web sites. Mr. Stubbs is also the former Chairman of the Executive Committee of CORE (3 years) and has testified before both the United States House Commerce as well as the House Judiciary Committees as an expert on Internet development and commerce.

Mr. Stubbs has been an active participant in ICANN activities since its inception, participating as a member of the Names Council, (serving as its chairman for 2 terms) representing both the Registrar as well as Registry constituencies. He was a member of the working group which formulated the UDRP and has been an active member of numerous task forces over the last 5 years. He has also been active participant in the World Summit on the Information Society and United Nations ICT Task Force. Mr. Stubbs graduated with honors from California State University at San Diego with a degree in business and is a Certified Public Accountant.

He served on the GNSO Council as the Registrar Constituency's representative from 1999 – 2002 and the Registries Constituency's representative from 2004 - 2006. He is a Director of Afilias Registry as well as a member of the Afilias Board of Director's Executive Committee.

Mr. Stubbs is a voting member of the 2016 Nominating Committee, selected by the Registries Stakeholder Group.

Tim Wicinski – IAB for IETF Representative

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."