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Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

Veni Markovski was born on April 3, 1968. He has been working on Internet-related issues since September 1990 when he started as a SysOp of the FidoNet MicroComm BBS (2:359/101). He was the founder and CEO of Bulgaria's second Internet Service Provider, BOL.BG, and is founding and current Chair of the Board of the Internet Society - Bulgaria (founded December 1995). He currently serves as the Bulgarian country coordinator for the Global Internet Policy Initiative and Chairs the Bulgarian President's IT Advisory Committee, founded on March 8, 2002. He's also an expert to the Bulgarian Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Telecommunications. His recent activities include the United Nations Development Program project on implementing free and open source software on the municipality level in South East Europe, which is implemented by the Internet Society of Bulgaria.

Mr. Markovski has been an active advocate for reform of laws and regulations governing the Internet, working to change licensing requirements on ISPs in Bulgaria, amend his country's laws on computer crimes, and reach agreement with all Bulgarian stakeholders on liberalization of VoIP regulations in 2001.

In 1999 Internet Society - Bulgaria filed a case against the proposed licensing of ISPs by the government at the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC), and managed to reach an out of court agreement to ensure ISPs are not subject to licensing or registration.

In 2002 ISOC-Bulgaria filed another case at the SAC against the unjust privatization of the Bulgarian national Telco, and as a result of the delay, caused by this and follow-up cases, the offer for the Telco was changed in favour of the state, more funds were paid for social programs and benefits, and the government managed to obtain better dividents.

In 2003 ISOC-Bulgaria was among the organizers of the First Regional South East European meeting on cybersecurity cooperation, and also helped editing many of the texts of the newly accepted Telecommunications Law. Thus today in Bulgaria, by law, the IP addresses and Internet domain names are left outside of the control of the National Regulatory Authority, and ISPs do not need to register or obtain a license in order to offer access to the Internet.

Mr. Markovski was a Member of the Civil Society Bureau to the World Summit on the Information Society and has been involved actively in the work of the PrepComs and other formal and informal meetings to the WSIS, long before he joined ICANN as a director. A frequent contributor to ICANN, Mr. Markovski also served as a Chair of ICANN's Membership Implementation Task Force in 2000.

Mr. Markovski has published hundreds of articles on Internet-related issues in the last decade in Bulgaria and worldwide. He's also frequently invited as a speaker on international conference all over the world. He's also contributing as a Board member of the Bulgarian New Symphony Orchestra.

On the web, Mr. Markovski can be found at <http://www.veni.com>.

Veni Markovski was selected for the ICANN Board by the Nominating Committee. He started serving on the ICANN Board of Directors on 26 June 2003. His current term will end after the conclusion of ICANN's annual meeting in 2006.