Faculty

Anriette Esterhuysen

Director of global policy and strategy for the Association for Progressive Communications (APC)

Anriette is the Director of global policy and strategy of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), an international network of organizations working with Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) to support social justice and development. She was previously the executive director of this same organisation for seventeen years, until March 2017. Prior to joining APC, Anriette was executive director of South African APC member SANGONeT, an internet service provider and training institution for civil society, labour and community organizations. Since January 2014, Ms. Esterhuysen has been on the Global Commission on Internet Governance. She sits on the 1NET steering committee, a non-governmental multistakeholder platform to discuss and explore improvement areas for the current global internet governance and technical coordination framework. Anriette has published extensively on ICTs for development and social justice.

Towela Nyirenda-Jere

Dr. Towela Nyirenda Jere holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering (Networking and Telecommunications) from the University of Kansas, an ACCA Diploma in Financial Management and is a qualified Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute (USA). She is currently the Programmes Manager with the NEPAD e-Africa Programme at the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NPCA). She currently manages projects in e-skills and Internet Governance and is responsible for identification of new projects and partnerships for the e-Africa Programme. Prior to this appointment she was the Projects Coordinator at the Malawi Polytechnic, University of Malawi.

Avri Doria

Technicalities

avri-doria Avri is a research consultant with a number of contracts with both NGOs and the technical community. She served on the UN Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation I (WGEC) and the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG). She served as a member the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Secretariat and is a member of the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (IGF MAG). As a technologist she has been involved in the development of Internet protocols and architectures for over 30 years; is co-chair of a Research Group on Human Rights Protocol Considerations and a member of the Internet Research Steering Group (IRSG). She has been active in ICANN policy, was chair of the GNSO Council and is a current member of the ICANN Board of Directors. She is serving as the first chair of the Internet Society Chapters Advisory Council Steering Committee. Avri was awarded the ICANN Multistakeholder Ethos award in 2014.

Nnenna Nwakanma

Africa Regional Coordinator, Web Foundation, Cote D’Ivoire

Nnenna works to develop cutting-edge collaborations in Africa. Her work has a particular focus on the Alliance for Affordable Internet project and the Web We Want campaign for human rights on and through the Web. She is an experienced development professional who has worked in the ICT field in Africa for over a decade. As well as leading a highly regarded consultancy platform, Nnenna has in recent years co-founded The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa, and served as a board member of the Open Source Initiative. Her career has allowed her to work closely with many civil society organisations, the African Development Bank, the Digital Solidarity Fund and has seen her involved in many phases of the UN’s Africa Information Society Initiative. She has lived and worked in five African countries and is fluent in English, French and a number of African languages.

Adiel Akplogan

Adiel is one of West Africa’s internet pioneers having in the early 90’s, set up some of the first private and independent Internet Service Providers in the region, CAFENet. He is the current Chief Executive Officer of Africa’s Internet Numbers’ Resource Registry, AfriNIC Ltd. His over 15 years experience in the internet industry include working as a director in the IT service industry and as an Information System Manager. Within internet governance community, Adiel has served as member of the UN Secretary General Internet Governance Forum Advisors Group , in the African Technical Advisory Committee of the United Nation Economic Commission for Africa (ATAC/UNECA ) and in the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie group of expert on Internet Governance.

Prof. Wolfgang Kleinwachter

Wolfgang Kleinwaechter is a Professor for International Communication Policy and Regulation at the Department for Media and Information Studies of the University of Aarhus in Denmark. He was a member of the UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) from 2003 – 2005, a Special Adviser to the chair of the Internet Governance Forum from 2005 to 2010 and a member of the UNCSTD IGF Improvement Working Grou from 2010 to 2012. He is involved in ICANN since 1998 where he chaired, inter alia, the Nominating Committee (NomCom) and from 2011-2013 he was a member of the GNSO Council. He has since become a member of the ICANN Board of Directors. He is also a member of the “Panel of High Level Advisers” of the “Global Alliance for ICT and Development” (GAID), a co-founder of the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EURODIG) and chair of the ICANN Studienkreis. In 2009 the Council of Europe appointed him to chair the COE Cross Border Internet Expert Group. He is chair of the IOT Governance Sub-Group of the EU Tasks Force on the Internet of Things and worked as evaluator in the EUs Safer Internet Action Program (SIAP). In the academic world, Wolfgang Kleinwächter is an elected member of the International Council of the “International Association for Media and Communication Research” (IAMCR) and a partner in the EU FP 7 project “Next Generation Internet/EURO-NF” where he is a member of the Steering Board and leads a special research project on “Governance and Privacy Implications of the Internet of Things”. He is the founder and chair of the “European Summer School on Internet Governance” (EURO-SSIG), and has published and edited more than 200 articles and 12 books.

Grace Githaiga

Co-convener of the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) a multi-stakeholder forum for people and institutions interested in ICT policy and regulation.She is also an advisory board member of the Global Partners Digital cyber capacity building program, which is tasked with helping to guide the development of a training curriculum for civil society.

Alex Comninos

Policy researcher who has published research on freedom of association and peaceful assembly online, cybersecurity, intermediary liability, mobile banking and African political economy.

Dr. Bill Drake

International Fellow and Lecturer in the Media Change & Innovation Division of the Department of Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich. His work in Internet Governance as an academic and practitioner includes being advisor to the World Economic Forum’s System Initiative on Shaping the Future ofDigital Economy and Society , three terms asChair of the NonCommercial Users Constituency and seven terms on the Board of Directors of the European At Large Organization. He is a core faculty member of the European and South schools on Internet governance.

Joy Liddicoat

Association for Progressive Communications (APC) coordinator of the internet rights and human rights. Joy joined APC in April 2011 and was previously a lawyer with her own practice and a Commissioner with the New Zealand Human Rights Commission from 2002 and 2010. Her expertise is in human rights issues in the Asia and Pacific regions, women’s rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, and human rights and the Internet.

Gbenga Sesan

Originally trained as an Electronic & Electrical Engineer at Obafemi Awolowo University, Gbenga completed Executive Education programs at Lagos Business School, New York Group for Technology Transfer, Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Santa Clara University and University of the Pacific. His consulting experience includes assignments completed for numerous institutions, including Microsoft, Harvard University and United Nations agencies, among others, in over 30 countries. A Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year (2014) and former member of the United Nations Committee of eLeaders on Youth and ICT. He is a CyberStewards Fellow, Crans Montana Forum Fellow, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow, Ashoka Fellow, Our Common Future Fellow and Cordes Fellow. ‘Gbenga served as a member of the Presidential committees on Harmonization of Information Technology, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Sectors (2006) and Roadmap for the Achievement of Accelerated Universal Broadband Infrastructure and Services Provision (2013), and was listed by CNN as one of the Top 10 African Tech Voices on Twitter and by Ventures Africa as one of 40 African Legends Under 40. Gbenga is married to Temilade Sesan, PhD, an expert on Energy Poverty and Development issues in sub-Saharan Africa.

Timothy McGinnis

McGinnis is currently an independent examiner for ICANN’ s name and numbers. In the past, Tim consulted for African ISPs on IP resource issues, gave trainings and lectures on DNSSEC, Internet Governance, and Internet infrastructure development. He was also the .pharmacy Registry Administrator for the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. He was also previously a hostmaster and trainer at RIPE NCC, as well as the PDWG Co-Chiar for AFRINIC and the Training Manager for ISC.

Resource persons

Mike Jensen – Independent ICT Consultant, South Africa
Emilar Vushe – Association for Progressive Communications, South Africa
Glenn McKnight – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Noncommercial Users Contituency
Pierre Dandjinou – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
Calvin Browne – Uniforum
Desiree Milosevic – Afilias
Titi Akinsamni – Google
Dr. Edmund Katiti – NEPAD
Ellen Strickland – Internet NZ