Biographical Information on the Nominees

This page contains some biographical information on the nominees.

Sophia Bekele

Ms. Bekele has maintained a successful career track record spanning over a decade of constant professional activity and business ownership/operation, working for multinational consulting firms and large financial/banking companies in Corporate America such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi/Union Bank of California, San Francisco, to mention but a few. Currently, Ms. Bekele and her company consult various Clients in public/private markets, primarily in corporate governance and risk management areas, including the recent Sarbanes-Oxley ACT. Additionally, she has been advising in corporate relations/communications programs within public companies. Her Client's in the US include OnScreen Technologies, Inc. (OTC), Intel Corp. (Nasdaq), BDO Sieldman LLP.

Previously in 2000, Ms. Bekele has focused on international technology issues and Third-World technological development using Africa as a base model. Most of Ms. Bekele's work in these years has been associated with CBS International, a company she founded and serves as President and Chief Executive Officer. CBS International is a consulting company based in Walnut Creek, California, USA with focus on, technology transfer to emerging markets, technology procurement, project-based capacity building, technological project management, internet/intranet systems integration, information systems security/privacy, auditing and corporate governance.

Ms. Bekele was appointed and served into the Advisory Interim Steering Committee of the African Regional Network in 2003 and the Advisory Technical Committee of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI) under the sponsorship of the UN-ICT Taskforce, United Nations, New York. In her tenure, Sophia has co-authored 'Common position for Africa's digital inclusion', a blue print for reflecting Africa's position to global fora on ICTs including the G8 DOT Force, ECOSOC, United Nations Task Force, World Economic Forum, etc. Also a member of many technological alliances and professional associations, she is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), has served on the Board of the International Information Systems Audit and Control Association, San Francisco Chapter. Ms. Bekele was also nominated to serve on the Board of Governors of the Golden Gate University San Francisco International Alumni Association.

Ms. Bekele is a published writer and contributed often to local and international publications on various topics including technology for development, good governance, public affairs issues, business and women's issues, and sports. Ms. Bekele's community involvement and contributions include the Rotary Club, World Affairs Council, Common Health Club and the SF Symphony.

Ms. Bekele holds an MBA in Management Information Systems (MIS) from Golden Gate University, San Francisco and a Bachelor of Science in Computer and Information Systems.

Susan Crawford

Susan Crawford is Assistant Professor of Law at Cardozo Law School in New York City, where she teaches cyberlaw.

Ms. Crawford received her B.A. and J.D. from Yale University. She was a partner with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale Dorr) until the end of 2002, when she left that firm to enter the legal academy. She maintains a blog where she discusses telecommunications policy and related issues.

Avri Doria

Avri Doria is an independent researcher currently affiliated as a research consultant with Lulea University of Technology in Sweden and with ETRI in the Republic of Korea. She also works part time in the CTO Office of Operax AB as a senior consultant.

Ms. Doria, has been an Internet technologist involved in the development of Internet protocols and architectures for over 25 years and is an active participant in the IETF, co-chair of the IRTF Routing Research group, Technical Committee chair of the Multi Service Forum, an active participant in WSIS Civil society and was a member of the WGIG.

Her current projects include research into methods of bringing the Internet into areas that are communication challenged and is working with the semi-nomadic Sámi population of Sapmi (aka Lapland) to develop an ICT infrastructure for the UNESCO heritage region of Laponia. Ms. Doria has a MA from the University of Chicago in Philosophy and one from Rhode Island College in Counseling Psychology and is currently trying to complete a trans-disciplinary PhD. dissertation at Blekinge University of Technology.

Slobodan Marković

Slobodan Marković (born 1977) has had over 12 years of practical experience in both technical and regulatory aspects of the Internet. He has an extensive knowledge of technical fundamentals of electronic networks, protocols and standards, from the early bulletin board systems and UUCP communities to the global Internet as we know it today. Mr. Marković is also familiar with legal and regulatory issues related to global electronic networks, such as telecommunications infrastructure regulation, freedom of expression and privacy, consumer protection, etc.

In the early years of Internet in Serbia Mr. Marković launched Internodium mailing list (www.internodium.org) dedicated to exploring how the new communication technologies change our society and how politics affects development of the new technologies. The list was initially focused on monitoring cases of Internet access blocking and content censorship imposed on citizens, student groups and independent media by the Milosevic's regime.

After pro democratic changes on the local political scene in 2000, the list's focus changed to monitoring and discussing developments on the intersection of technology, law, politics and culture in Serbia and wider area of former Yugoslavia.

Over the years, Internodium has become an important communication platform of the local Internet community. The list has been regularly quoted in dozens of printed and electronic media in Serbia.

In 2001, Mr. Marković founded Center for Internet Development (CID), which became a leading Serbian non-government and non-profit organization active in the area of information society policy.

CID advocates policies aimed at ensuring dynamic development of electronic communication networks based on open standards and free competitive market.

CID also promotes protection of the basic democratic values, such as freedom of choice, freedom of expression and individual privacy in the digital age.

Mr. Marković has had a leading role in the ongoing process of yuTLD registry reform. In this community-driven and consensus-based process, he has been intensely involved in drafting new rules for domain name registration and new internal structure of the registry organization. He was also responsible for ensuring transparency of the process by organizing and conducting public consultations.

Recently, Mr. Marković contributed a chapter on Development of Information Society for Serbian Strategy for European Union Accession and took an active role in the process of formulating Strategy for Development of Information Society in Serbia.

When not overwhelmed by his CID engagements, Mr. Marković helps in running CRI Ltd, a small ISP he founded with two of his close associates. The company provides Internet access and networking consultancy services to a number of business clients in Belgrade metro area.

Jacqueline A. Morris

Jacqueline A. Morris is an Internet Specialist at Media 21 Ltd in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and a part-time lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad. Previously, she has held several ICT and Internet focused positions at the Tourism and Industrial Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago; and has been a consultant at HR Consulting Associates and at Globaltech, Seattle. She was a Fulbright Fellowship and a 3 Guineas Foundation Fellow. Her primary interests are encouraging women's and girls' participation in the ICT field, as well as utilizing the Internet to market and promote Trinidad and Tobago Entertainment ventures. She holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the UWI, an MS in Chemical Engineering from the UFSCar, Brazil, and a MS in Engineering Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY. She was a member of the Working Group on Internet Governance.

Alice Wanjira-Munyua

Alice Wanjira-Munyua is currently working on the policy advocacy component of the Catalysing Access to ICTs (CATIA) programme as national coordinator for Kenya. The component managed by the Association for Progressive Communications, aims to promote increased and more effective advocacy to speed up changes in the ICT policy and regulatory frameworks of several African countries. She has convened an inter-dependent multi stakeholder network, the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) that has been working with the government towards speeding up the ICT policy process in Kenya. Wanjira is also a commissioner with the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) and was previously working with the African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) as a programme officer communication. She worked in Malawi on a civic education campaign that aimed at democratising communications by facilitating dialogue between civil society and the government of Malawi. In Tanzania she managed a Jesuit Refugee Service peace and reconciliation radio project in Ngara, for Rwandan and Burundian refugees and also worked with the Vatican radio for a couple of years. Wanjira graduated from the Pontifical Gregorian University with magna cum laude in social communications, and recently development evaluation from World Bank and Carleton University in Ottawa Canada.

Wanjira has been involved in a number of research projects, among them the Communication Rights in the Information Society (CRIS) Campaign, which aimed at promoting understanding of communication rights and governance. And is currently working on an IDRC funded Gender Research in Africa for ICTs for Empowerment (GRACE). The project seeks to document the use of ICTs for Kenyan Women's empowerment.

She was also very actively involved in the first phase of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) global process, as an alternate focal point on the Civil Society Bureau for the African Civil Society Caucus, a founding member of the Kenya WSIS civil Society Caucus and the NGO Gender strategies Working Group.

Njeri Rionge

Njeri Rionge is the Director and CEO of Wananchi Online, a five and a half year old company and one of the Leading Internet Service Providers in Kenya.

Njeri is an Entrepreneur whose sales & marketing savvy has seen her rise from a selling career in both local and international companies to the co-founder and CEO of Wananchi Online. Njeri is in charge of Operations and is focused on leading Wananchi Online to achieve improved growth in revenue, profitability and market share.

As co-founder of Wananchi Online, Njeri was instrumental in broadening the internet market for affordable services to the general public (initially a reserve of the wealthy). This initiative saw the cost of internet connectivity shrink to just about 6% of the initial cost per annum. As a result, Wananchi Online went on to achieve an equitable market share of 23%. Njeri is now engaged in leading the management into listing the company on the Nairobi Stock Exchange.

Njeri has played a key role in the:

• Successful execution and implementation of a Quality Management System based on ISO 9001:2000
• Implementation of Predictive Index (PI), a method for job mapping, profiling and competence.

Njeri sits on the Board of Wananchi Online, the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Institute of Directors of Kenya (IODK).

Siavash Shahshahani

Siavash Shahshahani has been involved with efforts to develop Internet in Iran from its very beginning there. He was the Deputy Director of IPM (the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics) when that Institute pioneered the introduction of Internet in Iran in 1994. Later he served as the head of IRANET (IRanian Academic NETwork), the networking arm of IPM. He is presently the director of IRNIC, .IR ccTLD Registry.

Shahshahani holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been on the faculty of Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, since 1974.