2023 ICANN Nominating Committee Delegates

Vanda Scartezini – Chair

Vanda Scartezini was educated as an electronic engineer specializing in research and development management. Her career spans more than 40 years in management positions in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry in both the public and private sectors. She is board certified in both management and innovation.

She has advised on, helped write, and helped implement many core pieces of legislation across Brazilian commercial life, including laws on integrated circuits, information technology, software, copyrights, patents, and agricultural varieties. She owns two consulting companies dealing with ICT and data protection law, as well as serving as the intellectual property and technology director for RASTRO, the authority manager for a cargo company's data platform. She is the Vice Chair of a local IT women's association called Nexti and a director of DNS Women, an international group for women's empowerment in the Domain Name System (DNS) industry.

Scartezini has had an illustrious public service career, serving twice as Brazilian National Secretary for Technology and National Secretary for Information Technology Policy, President of the Brazilian Patent Office, and as adviser to the Economic Development Secretariat for the São Paulo State Government. She has represented Brazil in international forums including the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, MERCOSUR, various Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations, and regional agreements. She also led a World Bank project on e-waste and e-commerce for small businesses in MERCOSUR.

In the private sector, Scartezini has served as the Superintendent at Sid Microelectronic and as General Manager at Vertice Design House for 10 years. She has coordinated a group of companies to promote Brazilian agrisoftware and advised law offices and environmental companies on ICT issues. She has helped various ICT companies to set up their manufacturing plants in Brazil and helped local small and medium enterprises absorb transferred technologies.

Amir Qayyum – Chair-Elect

Amir Qayyum is a professor and the Dean of External Linkages and International Collaborations at the Capital University of Science and Technology in Islamabad, Pakistan. He received his doctorate in mobile wireless networks from the University of Paris-Sud, France.

Qayyum has been involved with ICANN since 2012, initially as an ICANN Fellow, then as the At-Large Structure coordinator. He served as a member of the ICANN Nominating Committee from 2014–2017, representing the Asia Pacific Regional At-Large Organization and the At-Large Advisory Committee. He is a member of the Root Server System Advisory Committee Caucus and has served as a member of the Fellowship Selection Committee since 2018.

Qayyum has been actively involved with the Internet Engineering Task Force since 1997 and was the co-author of a Request for Comments on Mobile Ad Hoc Networks. He is one of the founding members of the Internet Society Islamabad chapter and was the Chair of its Board of Directors (2014–2019). He is on the Board of Directors for the Pakistan Internet Exchange. He has been actively involved with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) since 2004, and has also served as the Chair of the IEEE Islamabad Section (2017–2020), the Professional Activities Committee (2014–2016), and the IEEE Computer Society Islamabad chapter (2009–2014), as well as the Secretary and Treasurer of the section (2011–2013).

Qayyum is the founding Director of the Center of Research in Networks and Telecom. He is the project director of many national and international funded research and development projects in the domain of wired and wireless networks, as well as the local coordinator of many Erasmus Mundus and Erasmus Plus European projects. He is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Pak France Alumni Network. In recognition of his services, he was awarded the Ordre des Palmes académiques by the French government.

A philanthropist and actively involved in community service, Qayyum chairs the Board of Trustees of the Rifah Trust focused on education, health care, and community service, and serves on the Board of the Ehsas Trust for education and the Meethi Zindagi Foundation working for health care for diabetic patients.

Michael R. Graham – Associate Chair

Michael R. Graham recently retired as Senior Corporate Counsel and Global Director of Intellectual Property with Expedia, Inc. He has over 35 years of experience in trademark, copyright, Internet, and related intellectual property (IP) law. Michael joined Expedia in 2014 after many years representing a broad range of clients as a partner at the Chicago IP law firm Marshall, Gerstein & Borun, LLP, where he established one of the earliest Internet IP legal practices. He previously practiced at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, was the founder of Gnosis IP Law, and served as co-director of the DePaul University College of Law's Technology & Intellectual Property Clinic. He is an active member of the International Trademark Association (INTA), a past member of INTA's Board of Directors, and currently Vice Chair of the Internet Committee.

Graham's legal practice has included a broad range of cyberlaw issues since 1995, including work on the Memorandum of Understanding regarding domain name disputes, as well as copyright and trademark clearance, registration, and protection matters. He has participated actively in ICANN since 2012 as a member of the Intellectual Property Constituency of the Generic Names Supporting Organization and has been a member of several working groups and policy development processes (PDPs). He contributed to the Competition, Consumer Trust, and Consumer Choice (CCT) Review Working Group and the Implementation Advisory Group for the CCT Working Group that developed metrics and directed the research efforts necessary to support the CCT Review Team. Graham has also served as Vice Chair of the Policy and Implementation Non-PDP Working Group that developed definitions and policies to guide its work and future ICANN policy and implementation development, including the expedited PDP and implementation review processes. Previously, he served as the NomCom representative from the Intellectual Property Constituency from 2019 to 2021 and is presently a member of the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs PDP. Graham is also a musician, national ski patroller, and music festival volunteer with a passion for travel, the outdoors, and family.

Alvaro Javier Aguilar – At-Large Advisory Committee, Latin America and Caribbean Region

Alvaro Javier Aguilar Alfú graduated in 1991 from the University Santa Maria La Antigua of Panama with a degree in law and political science. Aguilar in 1992 earned a master's degree (LL.M.) in international legal studies with a concentration in international trade and banking, at the American University Washington College of Law. In addition, he took courses in international corporate law at Widener University in Switzerland.

After working as legal assistant with a Panama business law firm, Aguilar served as an administrative intern at the Administrative Tribunal of the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. Currently, he is a founding member of the Lombardi Aguilar Group, which is a consultancy member of Praelegal, a global network of 242 firms.

In novel areas of law, Aguilar is involved in the negotiation and drafting of software licensing agreements for businesses and advises information technology startups that use the advantages of Panama legislation on call centers and the electronic transfer of funds. He has also given presentations on the tax aspects of transactions on the Internet. Aguilar is also involved in trademark, patent, and copyright litigation and registration procedures, as well as the coordination of trademark registrations throughout Latin America.

Aguilar served as Secretary of International Relations of the Board of Directors of the Panama Bar Association, Board member and Committee Chair of the Panama American Chamber of Commerce, President of the Association of Chinese-Panamanian Professionals, and Board member of several nonprofit institutions. Aguilar is a founding member and Vice President of the Panamanian Association of Law and New Technologies, formed in 2013 by attorneys and engineers who specialize in tech regulation, and an At-Large Structure of the Latin American and Caribbean Islands Regional At-Large Organization. He has been a member of the International Bar Association and is currently a full member of the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners and the Internet Society Panama Chapter. He speaks Spanish, English, and French.

Taiwo Peter Akinremi – Noncommercial Users Constituency

Taiwo Peter Akinremi has been involved in Internet governance since 2013 and has worked information and communication technology consulting, risk, compliance, data protection, and privacy for about 10 years. Akinremi is currently the Operations and IT Manager with Data Analytics Privacy Technology Ltd., a leading consulting and data protection compliance organization in Nigeria. He oversees a team of specialists to provide advisory, data protection impact assessment, IT infrastructure assessment, and bespoke training to sectors including financial, technology, and health.

Akinremi is an active ICANN participant and member of the Noncommercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) and the Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO). He is one of the NCUC appointees to the NCSG Policy Committee and serves on the GNSO Standing Selection Committee.

Akinremi is also Executive Director of the Africa Rapporteur Network, a nongovernmental organization that provides rapporteur, translation, and interpretation services. He also served as the Regional Coordinator for the West Africa for African Civil Society for the Information Society, and as Seventh Africa Rapporteur General of the African Internet Governance Forum.

Ali AlMeshal – At-Large Advisory Committee, Asia, Australia, and Pacific Region

Ali AlMeshal is currently the Head of Digital Business and Innovation at CrediMax-Bahrain. He is part of senior executive management, including the marketing and risk committees, and chairs the strategic business project committee. In this role, he is responsible for managing, directing, and participating in growing the digital innovation business base through different channels and business volume, coaching, and developing staff to ensure output quality in all sales and operations efforts, and tracking market performance. He is responsible for establishing and maintaining current top-tier client accounts and acquiring new major potential client relationships. Prior to this, AlMeshal was Head of IT and Project Manager at CrediMax-Bahrain, responsible for the IT infrastructure and all other business-IT-related projects. He has 27 years of banking experience in the payment industry business, working at the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait. As a special assignment, he managed the setting up of a new joint venture company in Bahrain called Global Payment Services, a third-party processor for card business.

AlMeshal is the Vice Chair of the Bahrain Internet Society (ISOC) and a former member of the Steering Committee for the Chapter Advisory Council in Global ISOC. He was the Vice Chair of ICANN's Asian, Australasian, and Pacific Islands Regional At-Large Organization (APRALO) for three terms. With APRALO, he led and managed the first APRALO mentorship program, was the APRALO delegate to the At-Large Outreach and Engagement Subcommittee, and was a member of the Finance and Budget Subcommittee and the Technology Task Force. Additionally, he was on the Steering Committee for the ICANN Middle East Strategy Working Group.

AlMeshal obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Bahrain University in business information systems and his Master of Business Administration from the New York Institute of Technology. He is a Certified Bullet Proof Manager and received a diploma in disruptive strategy from Harvard Business School. He was on the jury of the Bahrain eContent award and eGov Excellence award and is an Advisory Board Member of Ahlia University in Bahrain. He has participated in many conferences and forums around the world as a speaker.

Tom Barrett – Registrars Stakeholder Group

Tom Barrett is the founder and President of the ICANN-accredited registrars EnCirca Inc. and Name Share Inc. He is also the current Chair of the Blockchain Subcommittee of the International Trademark Association. EnCirca's recent projects involve restricted TLDs and integration to blockchain naming services.

Barrett was previously the CEO of NetNames, which he sold to Netbenefit, and Vice President at Thomson CompuMark (now part of Clarivate), where he led the development of the SAEGIS trademark research platform. He also previously engaged in Business Process Re-Engineering at Accenture and factory automation at General Electric Aircraft Engines and Pratt & Whitney Aircraft.

Barrett has engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and lives in Rockport, Massachusetts.

Tijani Ben Jemaa – At-Large Advisory Committee, Africa Region

Tijani Ben Jemaa has been an active ICANN community member since 2008. He is the former Vice Chair of both the African Regional At-Large Organization and the At-Large Advisory Committee, as well as the founder and Co-Chair of the Middle East Space.

A founding Board member of the dotAfrica Foundation, Ben Jemaa serves on the Steering Committee of the .africa generic top-level domain. In addition, he is the Executive Director of the Mediterranean Federation of Internet Associations. Trained as a telecommunications engineer, he was the Director at the Tunisian Broadcasting Agency until 2006.

Ben Jemaa is an active participant in many parts of the global information society ecosystem, including the World Summit on Information Society, where he served as a member of the Civil Society Bureau representing the Science and Technology family, and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) at the national, sub-regional, regional, and global level. He is the Vice Chair of the North African IGF. He has been a trainer at several Schools of Internet Governance, including Tunisian, North African, West African, FFGI Francophone, and Middle East and Adjoining Countries SIGs. He is also a global member of the Internet Society.

Vittorio Bertola – Internet Architecture Board of the Internet Engineering Task Force

Vittorio Bertola is the Head of Policy and Innovation at Open-Xchange, a provider of open source email and Domain Name System solutions for hosting, service providers, and telecommunications companies. He develops and promotes new technical standards and advocates an open Internet based on user choice, privacy, and federation. In the last 20 years, Bertola has been involved with several Internet startups, including the early pan-European digital music platform Vitaminic. He has served in many positions in national and international Internet governance organizations, including as an ICANN Board liaison, Chair of the At-Large Advisory Committee, and as a member of the United Nations' Working Group on Internet Governance.

Jordyn Buchanan – Commercial Business Users Constituency (Large)

Jordyn Buchanan has a long history of leadership both within ICANN and in the Internet industry. While working at Register.com in the late '90s, he served on the Domain Names Supporting Organization Names Council (a predecessor to the current Generic Names Supporting Organization Council). He chaired the Deletes Task Force and WHOIS Task Force, and was a member of both the Registry Services Technical Evaluation Panel and the Competition, Consumer Choice, and Consumer Trust Review. Buchanan led the development of Google's domain names business, launching both Google Domains and Google Registry. More recently, as a member of Google's CIO organization, he has defined the company's strategy for the adoption of cloud-based technologies for its IT systems. In that role, he frequently works with Fortune 500 CIOs and leaders in the cloud technology space.

Vivek Goyal – Commercial Business Users Constituency (Small)

Vivek Goyal is the Co-Founder and COO of LdotR, an online brand protection company in India. LdotR is the only pure play brand protection company in India, serving Fortune 100 clients in India across multiple industries and sectors.

Goyal has over 10 years of experience in digital transformation, business strategy and planning, and new brand development across industries such as insurance, telecom, retail, leisure, logistics, and consumer packaged goods in the U.S.A., India, and Southeast Asia.

He has been associated with ICANN since the launch of the first new generic top-level domain program, having managed the entire process for four dotBrand applications.

He holds a dual master's in management (marketing) and sciences (IT) from the Questrom School of Business in Boston and a bachelor's in engineering (computers) from Pune University.

An avid reader, he enjoys creative arts and is an amateur wood turner.

Judith Hellerstein – At-Large Advisory Committee, North America Region

Judith Hellerstein is the Founder and CEO of Hellerstein & Associates, a research consultancy specializing in opening up telecom and technology opportunities worldwide. Hellerstein has over 30 years of experience in developing policies and regulations, building regulatory capacity, strategy development, broadband build-out, digital governance assessment and strategies, regulatory reform, competition law, and Internet governance issues. She worked on several high-profile projects while at the International Bureau of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, MCI Communications, and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's Reinventing Government office before founding her firm.

Hellerstein is a passionate advocate for bringing connectivity to empower communities. She has advised regulators, governments, international organizations, commercial, and nonprofit clients around the world on the adoption of telecom laws and policies, competition policy, and the development of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, including market and regulatory reforms. She has led several regional and national assignments for the World Bank resulting in reforms in their legal, regulatory, and ICT frameworks.

Hellerstein is very active within ICANN, serving as the Chair of the At-Large Technology Task Force, and was an active participant in several past cross-community working groups, such as those on auctions proceeds and Internet governance. She has worked with actors across stakeholder groups in the Internet ecosystem to develop and manage Internet-related projects and campaigns.

Hellerstein is currently assisting the Department of Information and Communications in Papua New Guinea on the drafting, design, and implementation of Digital Government Act for Papua New Guinea and on digital government strategy, policies, and cyber issues.

Hellerstein has a master's degree in public policy from the Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in New York City, where she focused on international development. She was awarded a Public Fellowship Award and has published many papers relating to public policy in the ICT market.

Hiro Hotta – Root Server System Advisory Committee

Hirofumi Hotta is a Board Member and also Senior Executive Vice President of JPRS, which manages the .jp country code top-level domain. He holds a master's degree in engineering. He has experience in software engineering, R&D project management, Internet service provider business incubation, and domain name related business.

Hotta has attended almost all ICANN meetings since its establishment and has deep experience in ICANN-related activities. He is known for his specialty in Internationalized Domain Names and has been active in various working groups and committees of ICANN. Among the roles in his over 20 years of experience with ICANN are Internet Service Providers and Connectivity Providers Constituency Officer, Domain Names Supporting Organization Names Councilor, Country Code Names Supporting Organization Councilor, Root Server System Advisory Committee Member (alternate), and Japanese Generation Panel Chair for the Root Zone Label Generation Rules.

ICANN recognized Hotta in 2004 for his work on promoting IPv6 name server addresses for top-level domains, and granted him the Multistakeholder Ethos Award in 2017.

Brajesh Jain – Address Supporting Organization

Brajesh Jain is an independent consultant after a very active corporate career. Previously, he served as the Vice President of the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) and on the Board of the National Internet Exchange of India. He was the elected member of Address Supporting Organization Advisory Council from the Asia Pacific region for the 2017–2018 and 2019–2020 terms. He served on the ICANN Nominating Committee in 2018, 2019, and 2022.

Jain has worked in the telecom and IT Industry for more than four decades. He has been involved with the Internet industry since 1999, when the Government of India licensed private Internet service providers. For ISPAI, he has worked closely with Department of Telecommunications, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. He has also held leadership positions at Bharat Electronics, CMC, RPG India, and a Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Japan joint project. Working with NTT experts, Jain gained valuable telecom networks and service experience in Japan, Philippines, Thailand, and Hong Kong.

He has regularly attended and contributed to events hosted by ICANN, the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), and other national and international Internet and telecom-related events such as the Internet Governance Forum, Euro IX, and the South Asian Network Operators Group. Jain assisted in organizing conferences in India, such as the APNIC and Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT) in New Delhi and ICANN57 in Hyderabad. He was part of the team that set up the National Internet Registry in India and IPv6 pilot project. He served as Chair of the New Delhi chapter of the Internet Society from 2008–2013.

Jain holds a degree in electronics engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, and is a recipient of the university gold medal.

Yrjö Länsipuro – At-Large Advisory Committee, Europe Region

Yrjö Länsipuro is an independent writer, lecturer, and consultant on information society and Internet issues. He has had 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. He worked as a print and television journalist for over 30 years, including assignments as Bureau Chief in New York, Moscow, and Hong Kong. Engaged early 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.

Joining the Finnish 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 has led Finland's participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process, including national coordination of the implementation and follow-up of the WSIS outcomes at various forums such as the International Telecoms Union, Commission on Science and Technology for Development, and Internet Governance Forum. He also represented the Finnish government on ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and served on the ICANN President's Strategy Committee.

After leaving the government service in 2009, Länsipuro continued his Internet governance work as an independent professional. He is the Vice President and serves on the Board of the Internet Society Finland chapter. He is a member of the Finnish national multistakeholder committee on WSIS follow-up and serves on the Boards of ICANN's European Regional At-Large Organization (EURALO) and the EuroDIG Support Association.

Länsipuro was the Chair of the 2013 ICANN Nominating Committee, Associate Chair in 2014, and a member in 2011–2012, 2015, and 2022. In 2016, he was appointed as the first At-Large liaison to the GAC, serving until the Annual General Meeting in 2021.

Pam Little – Registrars Stakeholder Group

Pam Little is Head of Policy and Compliance at the Alibaba Cloud Domains division. She has been working in the domain name industry since 2009.

Most recently, she served on the Generic Names Supporting Organization Council as a representative of the Registrars Stakeholder Group for four years and as the Contracted Parties House Vice Chair of the Council for three years.

Sophie Mitchell – Country Code Names Supporting Organization

Sophie Mitchell is the Chief Communications Officer at .au Domain Administration Ltd. (auDA), the self-regulatory body that develops and administers the .au country code top-level domain in the public interest.

At auDA, Mitchell is responsible for public policy, stakeholder engagement, communications, marketing, and membership. She works to advocate for, and participate in, multistakeholder Internet governance processes and actively champion an open, free, secure and global Internet, for the benefit of all Australians.

Mitchell has almost 20 years of experience in the public and private sectors, providing legal, policy, regulatory, and strategic advice to businesses and executives across a range of fields, including information and communications technology and media.

Ram Mohan – Security and Stability Advisory Committee

Ram Mohan is the Chief Strategy Officer of Identity Digital, the second largest Internet domain name company in the world, where he works closely with the CEO, Board members, and executives to achieve the company's long-term vision. Prior to this, he was the COO of Afilias, a domain name registry infrastructure company, leading it from its founding to significant business growth and success, resulting in its acquisition by Identity Digital in 2020.

After immigrating from India at age 22, Mohan worked at Unisys Corporation and First Data Corporation before joining Philadelphia's first Internet startup firm Infonautics Corporation in 1995, eventually becoming the CTO and helping it list on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 1996. Mohan was a founder of the technology behind TurnTide, an anti-spam company acquired by Symantec (a provider of Internet security) in July 2004. He served on the Board of ICANN from 2008–2018. He currently serves on the Boards of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia and several startup companies.

A cybersecurity expert, Mohan co-founded the Security and Stability Advisory Committee at ICANN, which provides advice on major threats to Internet infrastructure. He is an inventor on 17 U.S. patents for his work in Internet technology. He was the recipient of the Philadelphia Business Journal's 40 Under 40 award, InfoWorld's Top 100 Technology Leaders award, a CIO100 honoree, and a Guinness World Record holder (2018).

Mohan completed his B.S. in electrical engineering and his M.B.A. in India before working on his M.S. at Drexel University and postgraduate coursework at Harvard University.

Craig Schwartz – Registries Stakeholder Group

Craig Schwartz is the Managing Director of fTLD Registry Services, which operates the community-based .bank and .insurance top-level domains.

Schwartz has been active in the domain name industry since 2006 and has served in several leadership positions, including: Vice Chair – Administration, Registries Stakeholder Group (ICANN), member of the Generic Names Supporting Organization Standing Selection Committee (ICANN), Co-Chair of the Community Top-Level Domain Applicant Group (CTA), and Co-Founder of the Verified Top-Level Domains Consortium.

Prior to leading the formation of fTLD in 2011, Schwartz spent five years at ICANN and held the position of Chief fTLD Registry Liaison. Before joining ICANN, Schwartz was with Widmeyer Communications, a Washington, D.C.-based public relations and strategic communications firm, for nearly a decade and most recently as Vice President of Operations.

Schwartz earned his B.S. degree in finance from the University of Maryland.

Vicky Sheckler – Intellectual Property Constituency

Victoria Sheckler is the Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She helps develop strategy for industrywide projects for the music industry and serves as corporate and compliance counsel to the RIAA.

Before joining the RIAA, Sheckler was a partner at Hogan & Hartson, LLP. Sheckler represented clients in several industries in licensing, commercializing, and acquiring or divesting intellectual property and related assets, as well as counseling clients on privacy, data security, and general corporate matters.

Sheckler graduated from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, magna cum laude. Sheckler received her Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from The George Washington University.

John R. Woodworth – Internet Service Providers and Connectivity Providers Constituency

John R. Woodworth is Chief DNS Architect with Lumen Technologies. He has worked in technology and telecommunications for over 20 years and served in the U.S. Air Force. He is active in the open-source software community and in the development of Internet standards. In addition, Woodworth is a mentor, avid innovator, and prolific inventor. 

Woodworth believes strongly in community and making things better. He enjoys an open mind and seeking out interesting opportunities to learn. Woodworth's leadership, guidance, vision, and sense of community helps provide a safer, more secure, and more reliable infrastructure.