Panelists
Adiel Akplogan
Adiel A. Akplogan is the Chief Executive Officer of AfriNIC, the Internet Numbers' Resource Registry for Africa since 2004. With more than 15 years experience in the Internet Technology environment, he has previously worked as New Technology Director at CAFENet (an IT service company based in Togo and one of the very first private and independent Internet Service Providers in the region - 1994-2000), then as IT Director of Symbol Technologies in France (2001-2003).He is member of the UN Secretary General Internet Governance Forum Multi-stakeholder Advisors Group since 2006 and involved with the setting up of several technical coordination bodies in Africa such as the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) and the African ccTLD Managers Association (AfTLD). Adiel is an Electrical Engineer and holds a M.Sc. in E-Business and New Technology Management.
Sylvia Cadena
Sylvia, a Colombian native, has been supporting different organizations, initiatives, and individuals to take advantage of information and communication technologies and use them strategically for their development objectives since 1993 when she joined the United Nations Volunteers Program. After 18 months working at the Southlinks Project, she served at Colnodo (a non-profit ISP and APC member in Colombia), as a webmaster and special projects coordinator. Sylvia was hired in 2000 as the Information Officer for the Tropical Whitefly IPM Project (a global initiative of the CGIAR centres on integrated pest management) where she developed the information platform for the global team and their on-line research activities. In July 2003, she joined the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas and the International Development Research Centre regional office in Montevideo, Uruguay where she was awarded for her work with the "Annual Award for Young Professionals". From 2004 to early 2008, she worked as a consultant supporting community wireless networking in Latin America, by coordinating an information platform called WiLAC, which supports the development and translation of technical training materials. She was also the coordinator of the regional wireless training and applied research project called TRICALCAR. Sylvia joined ISIF (a joint small grants program from APNIC, IDRC and ISOC) as a program officer in April 2008.
Richard Misech
Mr. Richard L. Misech is the General Manager of Palau National Communications Corporation (PNCC), an autonomous public corporation whose mission is to support the nation's development by providing a full range of telecommunication services to meet Palau's telecommunications needs including universal service through leadership in quality, value and technology for the benefit of the Republic of Palau.
Mr. Misech possesses over 24 years of experience in planning; management and deployment of Network application services; MIS Systems; Radio Communications and Satellite Earth Station Operations, among others and holds various specialized certifications in the field of telecommunications.
Bernadette Lewis
Ms. Bernadette Lewis was appointed to the position of Secretary General of the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) in August 2003. Ms. Lewis is the first woman to hold the position since the CTU was established in 1989. Previously, Ms. Lewis served as the Technical Manager at the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunication Organisations (CANTO), an organisation of Caribbean telecommunications operators. Her experience also includes work at Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd. the incumbent operator at the functional and managerial levels. Ms. Lewis holds a BSc. from The University of the West Indies and a Master's degree in Telecommunications Technology from the University of Aston in the United Kingdom.
George Sadowsky
George Sadowsky has decades of experience working to bring the Internet to developing countries. He is currently the Executive Director of the Global Internet Policy Initiative (GIPI) and an advisor to the Chair of the Internet Governance Forum.
Gaurab Raj Upadhaya
Gaurab Raj Upadhaya is currently employed as Internet Economics Analyst/Staff Engineer at Packet Clearing House, a research non-profit based in Berkeley, California. Gaurab's primary work is in Internet backbone operations, analysing peering relationships between operators and roles of Internet Exchange Points in different parts of Asia. Much of the work involves training ISPs in developing countries about best practices on network operations. He also runs the PCH INOC-DBA hotline phone system for service providers. He initiated the Nepal Internet Exchange (npIX) and currently serves as its voluntary CEO.