ICANN|ARCHIVES

Biographical Information on the Nominees

This page contains some biographical information on the nominees.

Steven N. Goldstein, ICANN Board of Directors

Steven N. Goldstein Retired from the National Science Foundation in 2003. He had joined NSF in 1989 as a Program Director in the Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering (CISE) Directorate's networking division. Prior to his joining NSF, he was a MITRE Corporation contractor to NASA, helping to establish the NASA Science Network, NASA's entry into TCP/IP research networking. 

At NSF, Dr. Goldstein quickly gravitated to the international arena and launched the International Connections Management (ICM) project, awarded to Sprint, in 1991. Over the next six years, ICM implemented the connection of academic networks from about 25 countries to the NSFnet and to its advanced networking successor, the vBNS. ICM made the first academic connection with Russia in 1994, and two with China in 1995. The last country to be connected was Mongolia, in early 1996. Dr. Goldstein also managed a series of awards to the Network Startup Resource Center, NSRC, (http://www.nsrc.org), which assisted grassroots organizations in many under-networked countries to establish Internet connectivity. NSRC has been a major player in training network operators in sub-Saharan Africa and in supporting SSA networks in the formation of the African Network Operators Group (AFNOG).

By the mid-1990's, Dr. Goldstein had shifted his focus to even more advanced international networking under the High Performance International Internet Services project (HPIIS). Under HPIIS, a high-performance link with Russia was implemented, first as MirNet, and in a later more advanced version, as NaukaNet. He served as the U.S. representative to the G7 Global Information Society initiative entitled "Global Interoperability of Broadband Networks" (GIBN). To further the GIBN goals, he made an award to implement the international networking meet-point, STAR TAP (http://www.startap.net) and, as the technology progressed, its transition to the optical-networking meet-point, StarLight (http://www.startap.net/starlight/).

Dr. Goldstein helped to guide the high-impact HPIIS follow-on to NaukaNet, the Global Ring for Advanced Application Development (GLORIAD, http://www.gloriad.org/). GLORIAD has constructed a dedicated lightwave round-the-world link, initially connecting the U.S., Russia and China. Recently, Canada, Netherlands and Korea as well as the Nordic backbone association, NORDUnet, joined the enterprise. 

In his final tour at NSF's Engineering Directorate, Dr. Goldstein developed the strategy for the Information Technology subsystems for the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation, NEES (http://www.nees.org). 

Dr. Goldstein earned S.B (1961) and S.M. (1963) degrees in Physics (with a minor in Russian) at M.I.T. and a PhD. in Engineering and Public Policy (1981) at Carnegie-Mellon University. He served in the U.S. Naval Reserve after having received his master's degree from M.I.T. That tour brought him to Washington, D.C., where he has remained throughout the rest of his career and into retirement. In May, 2006, he was elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences as a Foreign Member.

Roberto Gaetano, ICANN Board of Directors

Roberto Gaetano has been an active participant in the Internet and the ICANN policy making process since 1997. As a representative of ETSI (European Telecommunication Standards Institute), he played important roles in the formation of CORE (Council of Internet Registrars), the policy discussions around the U.S. Government's White Paper (International Forum on the White Paper), and the formation of ICANN's original Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO). He served as one of the first chairs of the DNSO General Assembly and has focused his efforts in recent years on bringing to life a constituency for individual users and registrants.

Mr. Gaetano has a degree in Mathematics and an MBA. He has more than 30 years of experience in telecommunications and information technology, acquired working for different organizations in different countries. At present, he is responsible for application development in an international organization. He is fluent in five European languages.

Roberto Gaetano has served 3 years as non-voting liaison to the ICANN Board by the At-Large Advisory Committee.  

R. Ramaraj, ICANN Board of Directors

Ramaraj, is the Founder and till recently the CEO of Sify Limited, the pioneer and leader in Internet, Networking and eCommerce Services in India.

Sify was the first Indian Internet company to be listed on the Nasdaq National Market in the US (NASDAQ : SIFY), and has a history of firsts both in terms of technologies, service standards and marketing.

Ramaraj was recognized as the ‘Evangelist of the Year’ at the India Internet World Convention in September 2000. In October 2000, Sify was voted the ‘Company of the Year’ at the Silicon India Annual Technology and Entrepreneurship Conference in San Jose, California, USA. And in 2001, in a CNET.com poll in India, Ramaraj was voted the IT Person of the Year 2000. He was invited by the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan to be a member of UN’s Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG).

Ramaraj was also the President of the ISP Association of India for about five years..This is a body that worked with the government and other stakeholders to formulate policies for the growth of the Internet in India.

Ramaraj is a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from the University of Madras and an MBA from the IIM, Calcutta. Beginning his career in Sales and Marketing, Ramaraj went on to pioneer the retail marketing of computers in India by establishing Computer Point in 1984. He was a Founder Director of Microland Ltd before a stint in cellular telephony as Director, Sterling Cellular up to 1996.

Currently Ramaraj is associated on a part time basis, as a Venture partner/mentor at Sequoia Capital and is a member of the global Board of Trustees of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs)

Jon Bing, GNSO Council

Jon Bing (born Tønsberg, Norway 1944), cand jur (Oslo) 1969, dr juris (Oslo) 1982, Professor, Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo. Dr juris hon causae (Stockholm 1997 and Copenhagen 1998), Computer Law Pioneer Award ( San Diego 1993), Visiting Professor, King's College ( London) 1997-2000. Telenor Nordic research prize for information technology and society 2001, Nordic honorary prize for contribution to law (offered every fourth year by the Nordic meeting of lawyers) 2002.

Doctoral thesis on legal information systems and communication processes. Additional areas of research: Data protection, intellectual property law and interlegal law, all related to information technology. Numerous publications, national and international.

Former offices include Council of Europe Committee on Legal Data Processing (chair), Norwegian Film Council (Chair), Norwegian Arts Council (chair) and National Organising Committee World Library and Information Congress 2005 Oslo (chair) and Board of Governors, European Cultural Foundation (member). Current offices include Data Protection Tribunal (chair) and program committee for Social vulnerability and security, Norwegian Research Council (chair).

First fiction 1967 (with Tor Åge Bringsværd), since then published novels, short-stories, essays, translations; plays for stage, radio and television, librettos of operas; edited anthologies, etc. Prizes for best annual juvenile novel (1975), best annual crime fiction (1979), best annual comic strip (1980), NKS educational prize for a television series introducing law (1990), the national honorary Brage award for contribution to literature (2001).

J. Beckwith Burr, ccNSO Council

J. Beckwith ("Becky") Burr is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP. Becky served in the Clinton Administration as an Attorney Advisor at the Federal Trade Commission, and as Associate Administrator and Director of International Affairs at the National Telecommunications & Information Administration. As a member of the Global Electronic Commerce task force, Becky had primary responsibility for development and implementation of Administration policy on Internet governance and privacy and chaired the task force on privatization of the Internet domain name system. Becky has broad experience in e-commerce, information technology, intellectual property licensing, and international regulation of communications and information technology, and was selected by her peers for inclusion in the 2007 edition of The Best Lawyers in America , in the area of information technology law. She currently represents multinational corporations from a variety of industry sectors in developing and implementing enterprise-wide data protection compliance programs, and advises existing and prospective operators of Internet top-level domain Registries.

Alan Greenberg, ALAC (North America)

Alan Greenberg has forty years of experience with computing and networking technologies. For much of his career, he worked for McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Over the years, this included software design and development, education technology support, management and policy development. He played critical roles in building the Internet and its precursors in Canada. He also taught courses in computer architecture and design. He retired from the position of Director of Computing and Telecommunications at McGill in late 1999.

Beginning in 1995, on a volunteer basis, he participated in and then managed workshops which taught personnel from 150 developing countries how to build, support, manage and use the Internet in their countries.

Since his retirement from McGill, he has been an independent consultant focusing on the effective use of technology in developing countries. Recent projects have included: the use of technology in education; how to effectively spread the use of technology to benefit the country and its people; and a study of the linkages between technology and poverty, and how technologies can be effectively used for poverty alleviation.

Throughout his career, a primary focus has been the empowerment of people through the use of technology.

Mr. Greenberg holds a BSc degree in Mathematics and Physics, and an MSc in Computer Science, both from McGill University.

Annette Muehlberg, ALAC (Europe)

Annette works at the headquarters of the United Services Union (ver.di) as head of e-government, new media and public management. She works on conceptualizing public infrastructure in the information society, promoting access for all. She helps employees and managers to build and implement e-government in a democratic way.

Annette attended an international high-school in Wales, was an intern at the UN (UNIFEM) in New York, acquired her master's degree at the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-University, was elected as city councilor of Frankfurt am Main, was co-founder of the German civil society network on WSIS issues, was co-author of the Charter of Civil Rights for a Sustainable Knowledge Society, was on several advisory boards related to e-government and public IT-policies and serves as co-chair of the Network New Media, a non-for-profit advocacy group for digital consumer and civil rights.

Annette is the current chair of the At-Large Advisory Committee, elected by the members of the ALAC in March 2006. She was selected by the ICANN Board as a member of the interim ALAC in March 2005 and has now been nominated by the NomCom to serve a two-year term as a representative of Europe. She is based in Berlin. Annette is very passionate about making ICANN more transparent, end-user oriented, and getting the users involved in the decision-making processes of ICANN.