Keynote Speakers
Vint Cerf
Chief Internet Evangelist for Google
Vinton G. Cerf is vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He contributes to global policy development and continued spread of the Internet. Widely known as one of the "Fathers of the Internet," Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. He has served in executive positions at MCI, the Corporation for National Research Initiatives and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and on the faculty of Stanford University.
Vint Cerf served as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from 2000-2007 and has been a Visiting Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 1998. Cerf served as founding president of the Internet Society (ISOC) from 1992-1995. Cerf is a Foreign Member of the British Royal Society and Swedish Academy of Engineering, and Fellow of IEEE, ACM, and American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Engineering Consortium, the Computer History Museum, the British Computer Society, the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, the Worshipful Company of Stationers and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He currently serves as Past President of the Association for Computing Machinery, chairman of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) and completed a term as Chairman of the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology for the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. President Obama appointed him to the National Science Board in 2012.
Cerf is a recipient of numerous awards and commendations in connection with his work on the Internet, including the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, US National Medal of Technology, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the Prince of Asturias Award, the Tunisian National Medal of Science, the Japan Prize, the Charles Stark Draper award, the ACM Turing Award, Officer of the Legion d’Honneur and 29 honorary degrees. In December 1994, People magazine identified Cerf as one of that year's "25 Most Intriguing People."
His personal interests include fine wine, gourmet cooking and science fiction. Cerf and his wife, Sigrid, were married in 1966 and have two sons, David and Bennett.
Maureen Ohlhausen
Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission
Maureen K. Ohlhausen was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission on April 4, 2012, to a term that expires in September 2018.
Prior to joining the Commission, Ohlhausen was a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, where she focused on FTC issues, including privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity.
Ohlhausen previously served at the Commission for 11 years, most recently as Director of the Office of Policy Planning from 2004 to 2008, where she led the FTC's Internet Access Task Force. She was also Deputy Director of that office. From 1998 to 2001, Ohlhausen was an attorney advisor for former FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle, advising him on competition and consumer protection matters. She started at the FTC General Counsel’s Office in 1997.
Before coming to the FTC, Ohlhausen spent five years at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, serving as a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle and as a staff attorney. Ohlhausen also clerked for Judge Robert Yock of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims from 1991 to 1992.
Ohlhausen graduated with distinction from George Mason University School of Law in 1991 and graduated with honors from the University of Virginia in 1984.
Ohlhausen was on the adjunct faculty at George Mason University School of Law, where she taught privacy law and unfair trade practices. She served as a Senior Editor of the Antitrust Law Journal and a member of the American Bar Association Task Force on Competition and Public Policy. She has authored a variety of articles on competition law, privacy, and technology matters.
Ohlhausen lives in Virginia with her husband, Peter. They have four children.
Craig Newmark
Founder of Craigslist and the Craig Newmark Foundation
Craig Newmark is a Web pioneer, philanthropist, and a leading advocate on behalf of trustworthy journalism, veterans and military families, and other civic and social justice causes. In 2017 he became a founding funder and executive committee member of the News Integrity Initiative, administered by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which seeks to advance news literacy and increase trust in journalism.
In 2016 he created the Craig Newmark Foundation to promote investment in organizations that effectively serve their communities and drive broad civic engagement at the grassroots level. Amid growing concerns about the proliferation of “fake news” in the context of the presidential campaign, one of the foundation’s first donations went to the Poynter Institute to create the Craig Newmark Chair in Journalism Ethics. Newmark is widely credited for his leadership in promoting “news we can trust.”
Craig serves on the board of directors of a range of nonprofits including Blue Star Families, Center for Public Integrity, Consumers Union/Consumer Reports, Girls Who Code, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Poynter Foundation, Sunlight Foundation, VetsInTech, and Women in Public Service Project. He also serves on the Board of Overseers of the Columbia Journalism Review. He serves on the advisory board of nearly twenty other nonprofit organizations including Donors Choose, EFF, New America Foundation, Voto Latino, Wikimedia Foundation, Women Who Tech, and many others.
In 1995 Craig started curating list of San Francisco arts and technology events he personally emailed to friends and colleagues. People were soon calling it "Craig's List,” and when Craig turned it into a company he monetized minimally, opting for a business model that prioritized "doing well by doing good." Today more than 5 billion ads have been posted on the site, the vast majority for free. While Craig remains chairman of craigslist, he has not been involved in management since 2000.
In 2015 craigslist received an award from the FBI in recognition of its undisclosed cooperation with the bureau in combatting human trafficking. Craig was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2013 he was named “Nerd-in-Residence” by the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Innovation.
Born in Morristown, New Jersey in 1952, Craig earned degrees in computer science from Case Western Reserve University. He lives in San Francisco and enjoys bird- and squirrel-watching, science fiction, TV, and Dad jokes.
Craig communicates regularly through his own blog at craigconnects.org and through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium, and HuffPost. He also travels the country speaking about issues and appearing on behalf of organizations he supports.
Sally Shipman Wentworth
VP of Global Policy Development, The Internet Society
Sally Shipman Wentworth joined the Internet Society in May 2009 and is currently the Vice President of Global Policy Development. She will lead the organization’s public policy activities, guiding the development of public policies that support the global, open Internet and the principles that underpin it.
Prior to joining the Internet Society, Sally Shipman Wentworth was the Assistant Director for Telecommunications and Information Policy in the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House from 2007-2009. There, she was responsible for government-wide coordination and implementation of policies related to Internet governance; cybersecurity; telecommunications policy; digital television transition; intellectual property and patent reform; privacy; broadband deployment; spectrum auctions; and other information technology policies.
From 1999 – 2007, Sally was the principal policy advisor on Internet policy issues at the U.S. Department of State. She organized U.S. negotiations for several United Nations treaty conferences, Phases I and II of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Organization of American States (OAS), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In addition, she was instrumental in building coalitions among developed and developing countries and Internet stakeholders on Internet public policy issues to promote a multi-stakeholder approach to ICT for development. Sally joined the State Department in 1999 as a Presidential Management Fellow.
Sally holds an M.A. in International Political Economy from the Claremont Graduate University (Claremont, California) and a B.A. in Political Science from Westmont College (Santa Barbara, California).
Sally is based in Reston, United States
Shane Tews
Co-Chair of the IGF-USA
Shane Tews is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI’s) Center for Internet, Communications, and Technology Policy, where she works primarily on cybersecurity and Internet governance issues. She is also the chief policy officer at 463 Communications, a firm that advises high-tech organizations on Internet policies. Tews dealt with Internet security and domain issues as vice president of global policy for Verisign Inc. She is currently vice-chair of the board of directors of the Internet Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote a decentralized global Internet. She began her career on Capitol Hill as a legislative director for a member of Congress and worked in the George H. W. Bush White House, in the Office of Cabinet Affairs and at the US Department of Transportation. Tews studied communications at Arizona State University and at American University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in general studies with an emphasis on communications and political science.
Moderators
Dan Caprio
The Providence Group
Dan Caprio, Co-founder and Executive Chairman, is an internationally recognized expert on privacy and cybersecurity. He has served as the Chief Privacy Officer and Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Commerce Department, a transatlantic subject matter expert for the European Commission’s Internet of Things formal expert group, a Chief of Staff for a Federal Trade Commission Commissioner and a member of the Department of Homeland Security Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. In 2002, Dan was a representative for the United States delegation revising the OECD Security Guidelines that formed the basis for the first White House Strategy to Secure Cyberspace.
Shuli Hallak
Executive Director, ISOC-NY
Shuli Hallak is the Executive Director of the Internet Society, NY Chapter, where she is in charge of programming and events. Her focus is on helping end users understand digital privacy and making sure that the Internet remains a beneficial resource for those who use it as well as those who build on top of it. As ED, Shuli has been working closely with leading technology companies on Digital Preservation and ensuring that the data we create today remains accessible to us in the future.
Michael R. Nelson
Public Policy, Cloudflare
Michael R. Nelson works on Internet-related global public policy issues for Cloudflare, a startup that has improved the performance and security of more than 6.5 million Web sites. Prior to joining Cloudflare in early 2015, he was a Principal Technology Policy Strategist in Microsoft’s Technology Policy Group and prior to that was a Senior Technology and Telecommunications Analyst with Bloomberg Government. In addition, since January, 2009, Michael Nelson has been teaching courses and doing research on the future of the Internet, cyber-policy, technology policy, innovation policy, and e-government in the CCT Program at Georgetown University.
Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty, Dr. Nelson worked for IBM's Internet Technology Team, at the Federal Communications Commission, in the Clinton White House, and for the Senate Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee, which was chaired by Senator Al Gore. He has a B.S. from Caltech and a Ph.D. from MIT.
Dr. Brandie Nonnecke
CITRIS and the Banatao Institute / SF-Bay Area ISOC Chapter
Dr. Brandie Nonnecke is the Research & Development Manager for CITRIS, UC Berkeley and Program Director for CITRIS, UC Davis. Brandie researches the dynamic interconnections between law, policy, and emerging technologies. She studies the influence of non-binding, multi-stakeholder policy networks on stakeholder participation in internet governance and information and communication technology (ICT) policymaking. Her current research and publications can be found at nonnecke.com
She investigates how ICTs can be used as tools to support civic participation, to improve governance and accountability, and to foster economic and social development. In this capacity, she designs and deploys participatory evaluation platforms that utilize statistical models and collaborative filtering to tap into collective intelligence and reveal novel insights (See Projects), including the California Report Card launched in collaboration with the Office of California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and the DevCAFE system launched in Mexico, Uganda, and the Philippines to enable participatory evaluation of the effectiveness of development interventions.
Brandie received her Ph.D. in Mass Communications from The Pennsylvania State University. She is a Fellow at the World Economic Forum where she serves on the Council on the Future of the Digital Economy and Society and is chair of the Internet Society SF Chapter Working Group on Internet Governance.
Robert Pepper
Head of Global Connectivity Policy & Planning, Facebook
Robert Pepper helps lead Facebook’s connectivity and technology policy activities focusing on new technology development, deployment and adoption. Pepper previously was Cisco’s Vice President for Global Technology Policy for more than a decade working with governments across the world helping them develop their digital strategies and address areas such as ICT and development, broadband plans, IP enabled services, wireless and spectrum policy, the Internet of Things, security, privacy and Internet governance.
Pepper was Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Policy Development at the FCC for 16 years beginning in 1989 where he led teams designing and implementing the first U.S. spectrum auctions, developing policies promoting the development of the Internet, implementing telecommunications legislation, and planning for the transition to digital television. Before joining the FCC, Pepper was Director of the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy. His government service also included Acting Associate Administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and initiating a program on Computers, Communications and Information Policy at the National Science Foundation. His academic appointments included faculty positions at the Universities of Iowa, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, and as a research affiliate at Harvard University. He chairs the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy and has served on the board of the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee and the UK’s OFCOM Spectrum Advisory Board. Pepper received his BA. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dana Priest
The Washington Post
Dana Priest is an American journalist, writer and teacher. She has worked for nearly 30 years for The Washington Post and became the third John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism in 2014. Before becoming a full-time investigative reporter at the Post, Priest specialized in intelligence reporting and wrote many articles on the U.S. "War on terror" and was the newspaper's Pentagon correspondent. In 2006 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting citing "her persistent, painstaking reports on secret "black site" prisons and other controversial features of the government's counter-terrorism campaign."
In February 2006, Priest was awarded the George Polk Award for National Reporting for her November 2005 article on secret CIA detention facilities in foreign countries. Priest also revealed the existence of the Counterterrorist Intelligence Centers (CTIC) in a November 17, 2005, front page article, which are counter-terrorist operations centers run jointly by the CIA and foreign intelligence services. The Alliance Base in Paris, involving the DGSE and other foreign intelligence agencies, is one of the most important CTIC.
Evan Swarztrauber
TechFreedom
Evan Swarztrauber is Director of Public Affairs at TechFreedom, where he leads communications and outreach and hosts the Tech Policy Podcast, publishing over 180 episodes since its launch in January of 2016. Prior to his work at TechFreedom, he served as a communications staffer for a New York State Assembly member and worked on a variety of New York City political campaigns. He attended George Washington University where he earned his B.A. in Political Communication and minored in Journalism.
Evan has written articles and conducted interviews on a wide range of policy issues, including encryption, the sharing economy, and Internet taxes. His work has been published in Forbes, CapX, Watchdog, and other outlets. Recently, he participated in a television debate on Al Jazeera's The Stream, and organized and moderated a panel at the SXSW festival in Austin. Apart from tech policy, Evan can be found listening to classical music and cheering for the New York Rangers and Arsenal FC.
Jonathan Zuck
Innovators Network Foundation
Jonathan Zuck is the Executive Director of the Innovators Network Foundation (www.InnovatorsNetwork.org) a 501c(3) focused on issues surrounding global unemployment and workforce development. Prior to that Jonathan was the President of ACT|The App Association (wwwACTonline.org), representing app makers to policy makers. A popular speaker, Jonathan has been asked to speak on technology policy issues at conferences and before legislatures around the world, particularly on intellectual property and internet governance. A former software developer, Jonathan brings a unique perspective on the intersection of technology and government. Finally, Jonathan is an award winning photographer and filmmaker whose work can be found here.
Panelists
Adiel A. Akplogan
Vice President for Technical Engagement at ICANN
With more than 25 years experience in the ICT industry (15 specifically on the Internet Technology area), Adiel has previously worked as CEO for AFRINIC (The African Network Information Centre), IT Director for Symbol Technology/Motorola in France (2001-2003) and Director of New Technology at CAFÉ Informatique in Togo (1994-2000). Recognized as one of the Internet Technology pioneers in Africa, he has contributed to technical capacity building and actual deployment of some of the first private ISPs in Africa from 1996-1999.
During his career, Adiel has served as volunteer in Boards or Advisory Committees of many global & international organizations such as the UN Internet Governance Forum Multistakeholder Advisory Group (IGF-MAG from 2006-2009), the Technical Advisory Committee of the United Nation Economic Commission for Africa (ATAC/UNECA from 2005-2006), the Executive Council of the Number Resource Organization (NRO – 2005-2015 as Chair, Secretary and Treasurer), the High Level ICANN's Strategic Panel on its role in the Internet Governance ecosystem (2013-2014), the Africa Union's AXIS program Steering Committee (2012-2015), the Africa Network Operators Group and the Africa Internet Summit's Administration and Program committee (AFNOG/AIS – 2000-2015) and the OIF's (Organisation International de la Francophonie) Expert Group on Internet Governance (since 1999).
With a strong passion for Internet technology and its impact on human development, he has also actively contributed to the setup of several technical coordination bodies in Africa such as the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG), The Africa Network Information Centre (AFRINIC) which he has lead for the past 10 years, the African ccTLD Managers Association (AfTLD), AfricaCERT, Afria Internet Summit (AIS), etc ...
Adiel Akplogan is an Electrical Engineer and holds a Masters in E-Business and New Technology Management from Paris Graduate School of Management. He leaves and works from Montreal (Canada).
Thomas Bascom
Internet Names for Discovery and Interoperability
Thomas Bascom is President of Internet Names for Discovery and Interoperability (INDI.NGO). INDI.NGO is developing a new naming system for internet resources that supports discovery and interoperability. Over 30 years’ experience leading multi-disciplinary technology and product development teams in enterprise software, telecommunications, civilian space, and defense industries. He is-well-versed in emerging technology markets and intellectual property matters.
Yochai Benkler
Harvard Law School
Yochai Benkler is the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, and faculty co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Since the 1990s he has played a role in characterizing the role of information commons and decentralized collaboration to innovation, information production, and freedom in the networked economy and society. His books include The Wealth of Networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom (Yale University Press 2006), which won academic awards from the American Political Science Association, the American Sociological Association, and the McGannon award for social and ethical relevance in communications. In 2012 he received a lifetime achievement award from Oxford University in recognition of his contribution to the study and public understanding of the Internet and information goods. His work is socially engaged, winning him the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award in 2011, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award for 2007, and the Public Knowledge IP3 Award in 2006. It is also anchored in the realities of markets, cited as “perhaps the best work yet about the fast moving, enthusiast-driven Internet” by the Financial Times and named best business book about the future in 2006 by Strategy and Business. Benkler has advised governments and international organizations on innovation policy and telecommunications, and serves on the boards or advisory boards of several nonprofits engaged in working towards an open society. His work can be freely accessed at benkler.org.
Dr. Vanu Bose
President and CEO of Vanu, Inc.
Dr. Bose is CEO of Vanu, Inc. Founded in 1998, Vanu, Inc. pioneered the commercialization of software-defined radio and was the first company to receive FCC certification of a software-defined radio in 2004. The company has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Software-Defined Radio Forum Achievement Award, IEEE Spectrum Magazine’s Wireless Winner, and the GSM Association Technology Award for Most Innovative Infrastructure Product. Dr. Bose has been granted the personal distinctions of being named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and a ComputerWorld Honors Program Laureate. Dr. Bose is currently serving as a Commissioner to the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development, as a member of the Army Science Board, and as a member of the Bernard M. Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program Industry Advisory Board. Dr. Bose was a technical expert for the President’s Council of Advisors (PCAST) report: Realizing the full potential of government-held spectrum to spur economic growth. Dr. Bose received his B.S, M.S. and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT.
Greta Byrum
New America
As director of the Resilient Communities program at New America, Greta Byrum reimagines the way we design, build, and manage local systems to support local residents as leaders, organizers, and preparedness experts. Her collaborative projects build from the urban planning, design, emergency preparedness, tech, policy, organizing, and media fields to create and support flexible, resilient communications infrastructure.
Byrum currently leads Resilient Networks for RISE : NYC, a project funded by New York City's Economic Development Corporation. Resilient Networks provides training, tools, and equipment to community organizations in six Sandy-impacted New York City neighborhoods so they can build storm-hardened local WiFi. The project is based on Byrum's earlier field research in New York, the Gulf Coast, and the Silicon Valley region showing that in disaster and emergency situations, local residents and community media organizations are often the most critical first responders.
Previously, Byrum provided leadership for the field team at New America’s Open Technology Institute, co-developing and co-piloting the “Digital Stewardship” approach to community technology with partners in Detroit and Brooklyn. While at OTI, Byrum also produced a suite of recommendations for community-led broadband planning, developed an impact evaluation plan for the nationwide public-private partnership EveryoneOn, and contributed to evaluations of other broadband programs including Federal stimulus projects in Detroit and Philadelphia.
Byrum's public speaking includes a keynote for the 2013 American Planning Association annual conference and talks at Moogfest 2016, the Meeting of the Minds Detroit 2014, SXSW 2015 and 2016, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, World Town Planning, Columbia University, the Personal Democracy Forum, and the long-running online urban planning course “Technicity.” Her writing on resilience and community technology has been featured in the Atlantic, Slate, and Real Clear Policy.
Byrum’s other activities include micro-radio broadcasting, poetry, and art. As co-creator of the curatorial team dBfoundation, she has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, and around the world. She holds an MS in urban planning from Columbia University and an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Greta is also a 2017 Loeb fellow with the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she will focus on democratizing communication systems for communities negatively affected by climate change and systemic inequity.
Daniel Castro
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Daniel Castro is vice president at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) and director of ITIF's Center for Data Innovation.
Castro writes and speaks on a variety of issues related to information technology and internet policy, including privacy, security, intellectual property, Internet governance, e-government, and accessibility for people with disabilities. His work has been quoted and cited in numerous media outlets, including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, USA Today, Bloomberg News, and Bloomberg Businessweek. In 2013, Castro was named to FedScoop’s list of the “top 25 most influential people under 40 in government and tech.” In 2015, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker appointed Castro to the Commerce Data Advisory Council.
Castro previously worked as an IT analyst at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) where he audited IT security and management controls at various government agencies. He contributed to GAO reports on the state of information security at a variety of federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. In addition, Castro was a visiting scientist at the Software Engineering Institute in Pittsburgh, PA, where he developed virtual training simulations to provide clients with hands-on training of the latest information security tools.
He has a B.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University and an M.S. in information security technology and management from Carnegie Mellon University.
Anupam Chander
University of California, Davis
Anupam Chander is Director of the California International Law Center and Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis. A graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, he has been a visiting professor at Yale, Chicago, Stanford, and Cornell. The author of The Electronic Silk Road (Yale University Press), he has published widely in the nation’s leading law journals, including the Yale Law Journal, the NYU Law Review, and the California Law Review. He practiced law in New York and Hong Kong with Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. He served on the executive council of the American Society of International Law and serves as a judge for the Stanford Junior International Faculty Forum. The recipient of Google Research Awards and an Andrew Mellon grant on the topic of surveillance, he is a member of the ICTSD/World Economic Forum E15 expert group on the digital economy and the World Economic Forum expert group on Internet fragmentation.
Jane Coffin
Director of Development Strategy at the Internet Society
Ms. Coffin is the Director of Development strategy at the Internet Society (ISOC) (www.internetsociety.org). Her work focuses on coordination of collaborative strategies for expanding Internet infrastructure, access, and related capacities in emerging economies. She manages a global Internet exchange point (IXP) project and is responsible for scaling ISOC’s global community networking activities. She works closely with ISOC’s chapters, regional, public policy, and technical teams, academic, technical, and Internet community partners.
Nigel Cory
Trade Policy Analyst, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Nigel Cory is a trade policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
He previously worked as a researcher at the Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Prior to that, he worked for eight years in Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which included positions working on G20 global economic and trade issues and the Doha Development Round. Cory also had diplomatic postings to Malaysia, where he worked on bilateral and regional trade, economic, and security issues, and Afghanistan, where he was the deputy director of a joint U.S.-Australia provincial reconstruction team.
Cory holds a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in international business and commerce from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.
Michelle De Mooy
Director of the Privacy & Data Project, CDT
Michelle De Mooy is Director of the Privacy & Data Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology. She advocates for data privacy rights and protections in legislation and regulation, works closely with industry and other stakeholders to implement good data practices and controls, and research emerging technology that impacts personal privacy. She leads CDT’s health privacy work, chairing the Health Privacy Working Group and focusing on the intersection between individual privacy, health information and technology. Michelle’s current research is focused on ethics and algorithms in commercial health and the growing market for genetic data. She has testified before Congress and the Federal Trade Commission, provided commentary for publications like the New York Times, Vice, and the Guardian, and appeared on The Today Show, Voice of America, and Government Matters TV programs.
Before CDT, Michelle worked as a political campaign consultant for M+R Strategic Services, as a development and communications director at a capacity building organization aimed at nonprofits, and in the tech sector in product management and software engineering.
Glenn Deen
Comcast NBC Universal
Glenn Deen is a Comcast Distinguished Engineer and NBCUniversal Sr. Director of Networking and Distribution Technology. He’s active in the IETF, ICANN, IGF, M3AAWG, CTA, and cybersecurity communities. His current passion is advancing the state of the art of Internet Video especially video's use of IPv6. He’s based at NBCUniversal's studios in Los Angeles.
Steve DelBianco
NetChoice
As executive director of NetChoice, Steve DelBianco helps members to define and execute the tech agenda. Steve is an expert on Internet governance, online consumer protection, and Internet taxation, and has given testimony in 25 Congressional hearings and in more than one hundred state legislative hearings.
Steve is frequently quoted on technology issues in the media, including a segment on "60 Minutes" exposing barriers to innovation in residential real estate. Steve debated online taxes on CNN Situation Room, CNBC Larry Kudlow, PBS Nightly Business Report, CBS This Morning, and Marketplace Radio.
Steve is the elected policy chair for the ICANN Business Constituency. He’s participated in all meetings of the UN’s Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and is a lead organizer at the IGF-USA.
Before NetChoice, Steve was founder and president of Financial Dynamics, an IT consulting firm that he built to over $20 million in revenue by 1997, when it was acquired by a national firm. Steve holds degrees in Engineering and in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the Wharton School.
Laura DeNardis
Professor, American University
Laura DeNardis, M.Eng, Ph.D., is a Professor of Internet architecture and governance and Faculty Director of the Internet Governance Lab at American University in Washington, D.C. With a background in information engineering and a doctorate in Science and Technology Studies, her five books include The Global War for Internet Governance (Yale University Press 2014). Dr. DeNardis served as the Director of Research for the Global Commission on Internet Governance and is an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She previously served as the Executive Director of the Yale Information Society Project from 2008-2011. Her expertise and scholarship have been featured in Science Magazine, The Economist, National Public Radio, New York Times, ABC news, Bloomberg, Time Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, Slate, Reuters, Forbes, The Atlantic, the Globe and Mail, and the Wall Street Journal. Dr. DeNardis holds an AB in Engineering Science from Dartmouth College, a Master of Engineering degree from Cornell University, a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech, and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.
William J. Drake
University of Zurich
William J. Drake is an International Fellow and Lecturer in the Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich. He is also a member of the Nominating Committee of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN); a member of the inaugural Coordination Committee of the NETmundial Initiative; a faculty member of the European and South schools on Internet governance; and an Affiliated Researcher at the Institute for Tele-Information, Columbia University.
Tim Estell
Solutions Architect at BAE Systems
Tim Estell is a Solutions Architect within the Intelligence & Security sector at BAE Systems, Inc., a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions, IT products and services, as well as intelligence analysis support to the U.S. Government. At BAE Systems, Tim supports current and future programs through the innovative application of technologies such as cloud computing, cyber reasoning calculus, modular open systems architectures, cyber threat remediation, and rapid prototyping. He has more than 30 years of Department of Defense and U.S. Intelligence Community experience in network and computer engineering, computer security, and operational support. His career also includes eight years in the U.S. Air Force, where he served as an officer involved in Ground Launch Cruise Missile crews and flight squadron operations management.
Caroline Greer
European Public Policy for Cloudflare
Caroline Greer leads European Public Policy for Cloudflare, a cybersecurity and web performance company. Based out of Cloudflare's London office, Caroline covers a wide range of policy and regulatory issues related to Cloudflare's mission of helping build a better internet, and is involved in the company's GDPR implementation work.
Prior to joining Cloudflare, Caroline worked for a number of domain name registries and was an active participant in the ICANN community. Caroline also spent 5 years working in Brussels as the Head of Public Policy for ETNO, and commenced her career working for the Irish Government and Irish telecoms regulator.
Caroline holds a LLB (Hons) in Law and Spanish from Queen's University of Belfast, an MBA from the University of Ulster and a Post Graduate Diploma in EC Competition Law from King's College London.
Fanny Hidvegi
European Policy Manager, Access Now
Fanny Hidvegi is Access Now’s European Policy Manager based in Brussels. Previously, Fanny was International Privacy Fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. where she focused on E.U.-U.S. data transfers. For three years Fanny led the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Program of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union where she engaged in strategic litigation with journalists and other NGOs, participated in the fight against the national data retention law in Hungary, and promoted privacy enhancing technologies. There, she gained experience on how to operate as a human rights advocate in a restrictive environment. Fanny also worked as a consumer protection lawyer both in the public and the private sector. She has a law degree from Eötvös Loránd University Budapest and she spent one academic year at the University of Florence with Erasmus Scholarship.
Anne Hobson
R Street Institute
Anne Hobson is an associate fellow of the R Street Institute, specializing in free-market approaches to emerging technologies, including virtual reality, artificial intelligence, the internet of things and the sharing economy. She is a current fellow at the Internet Law & Policy Foundry, a professional organization.
Anne previously served as a policy associate at Facebook’s Washington office. She is an alumna of the Mercatus Center MA Fellowship at George Mason University, where she worked with the technology policy program.
She graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a bachelor’s in international studies and received her master’s degree in applied economics from George Mason University.
Marco Hogewoning
RIPE NCC
Marco Hogewoning is External Relations Officer - Technical Advisor with the RIPE NCC. As part of the External Relations team, he helps lead the RIPE NCC's engagement with membership, the RIPE community, government, law enforcement and other Internet stakeholders.
Marco joined the RIPE NCC in 2011, working for two years in the Training Services team. Prior to joining the RIPE NCC, he worked as a Network Engineer for various Dutch Internet Service Providers. As well as designing and operating the networks, he was also involved in running the Local Internet Registries.
During 2009 and 2010, Marco worked on introducing native IPv6 as a standard service on the XS4ALL DSL network. In November 2010, this project was awarded a Dutch IPv6 award. More recently, he has contributed to the MENOG / RIPE NCC IPv6 Roadshow, a hands-on training initiative in the Middle East.
Marco has been involved with the RIPE community since 2001 and was involved with various policy proposals over that period. In February 2010, he was appointed by the RIPE community as one of the RIPE IPv6 Working Group Co-Chairs.
Julie Kearney
VP of Regulatory Affairs Consumer Technology Association
Julie Kearney is vice president of regulatory affairs for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)TM, the technology trade association representing the $292 billion U.S. consumer technology industry and owner and producer of the world’s most important technology event, the CES®. Kearney represents CTA’s 2,200 member companies before the FCC, FTC, FDA, and other government agencies. Prior to CTA, she held positions in government affairs at NPR, in MCI’s International Affairs group, and as an associate at Haley Bader & Potts (now Garvey Schubert Barer).
Kearney currently serves as President of the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) and is a past chair of the FCBA Foundation and a trustee of the CTA Foundation. She has been recognized as one of Dealerscope Magazine’s “Top 40 under 40.” Kearney recently completed six terms as CTA’s representative on the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer Advisory Committee and she serves on the FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee. She earned her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and a J.D. from Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law with a certificate from its Institute for Communications Law Studies. A trained singer, Julie has sung with many choruses in the Washington, DC area, most recently with the Choral Arts Society of Washington.
Micaela Klein
Senior Advisor for Internet Policy, U.S. Department of State
Micaela Klein is the Senior Advisor for Internet Policy to the U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. Department of State. In this role, Micaela leads the U.S. government's efforts on Internet governance and cyber policy at the International Telecommunication Union and other international fora. She is currently a fellow in the U.S. Senate where she serves as an advisor on technology, telecommunications, and cyber policy to Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI). Prior to the State Department, Micaela worked at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security where she served as the Program Manager for Internet Policy in the Office of Cybersecurity and Communications. Micaela holds a BA from Dartmouth College in Government and Arabic.
Ambassador Karen Kornbluh
Council on Foreign Relations
Ambassador Karen Kornbluh is senior fellow for digital policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. Previously, Kornbluh was executive vice president of Nielsen, responsible for global public policy, privacy strategy, and corporate social responsibility.
Kornbluh served as U.S. ambassador in Paris to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. As the representative of the largest donor, she served on the OECD governing board and audit committee. She spearheaded development of the first global Internet Policymaking Principle and launched both the OECD's Gender Initiative and the Middle East-North Africa Women's Business Forum. In addition, Kornbluh led efforts to expand the OECD's reach to emerging economies and expanded anticorruption and governance efforts. Her work was featured in a New York Times profile and a Washington Post op-ed on "The Foreign Policy of the Internet."
Previously, Kornbluh served as policy director for then-Senator Obama. She served in the Clinton administration as deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Treasury Department, and as director of the Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at the Federal Communications Commission.
Prior to her government service, Kornbluh was a management consultant at Telesis and Townsend-Greenspan & Co. Kornbluh has written extensively on economic, technology, and family policy in publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly, and Harvard Journal of Law and Technology. She founded the New America Foundation's Work and Family Program.
Naomi Lefkovitz
Senior Privacy Policy Advisor, NIST
Naomi Lefkovitz is the Senior Privacy Policy Advisor in the Information Technology Lab at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce. She leads the privacy engineering program, which focuses on integrating privacy risk management processes and technical solutions with other information technologies, including digital identity services, cybersecurity, IoT, smart cities, big data, mobile, and artificial intelligence.
FierceGovernmentIT named Ms. Lefkovitz on their 2013 “Fierce15” list of the most forward-thinking people working within government information technology, and she is a 2014 Federal 100 Awards winner.
Before joining NIST, she was the Director for Privacy and Civil Liberties in the Cybersecurity Directorate of the National Security Council in the Executive Office of the President. Her portfolio included the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace as well as addressing the privacy and civil liberties impact of the Obama Administration’s cybersecurity initiatives and programs.
Prior to her tenure in the Obama Administration, Ms. Lefkovitz was a senior attorney with the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection at the Federal Trade Commission. Her responsibilities focused primarily on policy matters, including legislation, rulemakings, and business and consumer education in the areas of identity theft, data security and privacy.
At the outset of her career, she was Assistant General Counsel at CDnow, Inc., an early online music retailer.
Ms. Lefkovitz holds a B.A. with honors in French Literature from Bryn Mawr College and a J.D. with honors from Temple University School of Law.
Craig Newmark
Founder of Craigslist and the Craig Newmark Foundation
Craig Newmark is a Web pioneer, philanthropist, and a leading advocate on behalf of trustworthy journalism, veterans and military families, and other civic and social justice causes. In 2017 he became a founding funder and executive committee member of the News Integrity Initiative, administered by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which seeks to advance news literacy and increase trust in journalism.
In 2016 he created the Craig Newmark Foundation to promote investment in organizations that effectively serve their communities and drive broad civic engagement at the grassroots level. Amid growing concerns about the proliferation of “fake news” in the context of the presidential campaign, one of the foundation’s first donations went to the Poynter Institute to create the Craig Newmark Chair in Journalism Ethics. Newmark is widely credited for his leadership in promoting “news we can trust.”
Craig serves on the board of directors of a range of nonprofits including Blue Star Families, Center for Public Integrity, Consumers Union/Consumer Reports, Girls Who Code, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Poynter Foundation, Sunlight Foundation, VetsInTech, and Women in Public Service Project. He also serves on the Board of Overseers of the Columbia Journalism Review. He serves on the advisory board of nearly twenty other nonprofit organizations including Donors Choose, EFF, New America Foundation, Voto Latino, Wikimedia Foundation, Women Who Tech, and many others.
In 1995 Craig started curating list of San Francisco arts and technology events he personally emailed to friends and colleagues. People were soon calling it "Craig's List,” and when Craig turned it into a company he monetized minimally, opting for a business model that prioritized "doing well by doing good." Today more than 5 billion ads have been posted on the site, the vast majority for free. While Craig remains chairman of craigslist, he has not been involved in management since 2000.
In 2015 craigslist received an award from the FBI in recognition of its undisclosed cooperation with the bureau in combatting human trafficking. Craig was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2013 he was named “Nerd-in-Residence” by the Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Innovation.
Born in Morristown, New Jersey in 1952, Craig earned degrees in computer science from Case Western Reserve University. He lives in San Francisco and enjoys bird- and squirrel-watching, science fiction, TV, and Dad jokes.
Craig communicates regularly through his own blog at craigconnects.org and through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium, and HuffPost. He also travels the country speaking about issues and appearing on behalf of organizations he supports.
Deji Olukotun
Access Now
As a member of the advocacy team, Deji Bryce Olukotun (email: [email protected]) manages Access Now's global campaigns on fighting internet shutdowns, the open internet, cybersecurity, and ensuring that our fundamental rights are respected online. He came from the literary and human rights organization PEN American Center, where he founded PEN's digital freedom program and managed its capacity-building work in Myanmar, South Africa, Haiti, and Nigeria. He holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School, a BA from Yale University, and dual masters degrees in Creative Writing and Justice & Transformation from the University of Cape Town, where he was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. He has also worked as corporate counsel for a small technology startup. An avid writer, Deji is the author of the novel Nigerians in Space (Unnamed Press) and After the Flare (forthcoming, 2017). His work has been featured in The Atlantic, NPR, The New York Times, and Vice.
Robert Pepper
Head of Global Connectivity Policy and Planning, Facebook
Robert Pepper helps lead Facebook’s connectivity and technology policy activities focusing on new technology development, deployment and adoption. Pepper previously was Cisco’s Vice President for Global Technology Policy for more than a decade working with governments across the world helping them develop their digital strategies and address areas such as ICT and development, broadband plans, IP enabled services, wireless and spectrum policy, the Internet of Things, security, privacy and Internet governance.
Pepper was Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Policy Development at the FCC for 16 years beginning in 1989 where he led teams designing and implementing the first U.S. spectrum auctions, developing policies promoting the development of the Internet, implementing telecommunications legislation, and planning for the transition to digital television. Before joining the FCC, Pepper was Director of the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy. His government service also included Acting Associate Administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and initiating a program on Computers, Communications and Information Policy at the National Science Foundation. His academic appointments included faculty positions at the Universities of Iowa, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, and as a research affiliate at Harvard University. He chairs the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy and has served on the board of the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee and the UK’s OFCOM Spectrum Advisory Board. Pepper received his BA. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Evelyn Remaley
NTIA's Office of Policy Analysis and Development (OPAD)
Since she landed her first job after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, Evelyn Remaley has worked on issues that explore the intersection of the Internet and society. In addition to helping to manage the office's activities and staff, Remaley has been tasked with leading NTIA's cybersecurity efforts, which will likely include reaching out to stakeholders on the best way to help them address cybersecurity challenges.
After graduating from Catholic University's law school in 2003, Remaley stayed in Washington and went to work for MCI Worldcom where she focused on Internet security and privacy issues.
She then spent nine years at Booz Allen Hamilton as a consultant working with federal agencies such as the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security on cybersecurity issues.
Chris Rezendes
Founder IOT Impact Labs
Chris Rezendes is the Founder of INEX Advisors, INEX IoT Impact LABS and IoT Capital Partners. INEX Advisors serves Fortune 5000 enterprise, industrial and technology companies. Impact LABS is helping IoT startups and small and mid-sized businesses collaborate on IoT through INEX supported field-based pilot research. LABS partners include dozens of the most innovative companies in the world in IoT, led by Analog Devices, Dell and PTC. IoT Capital Partners is an IoT-dedicated early stage investment vehicle under construction with Roger Krakoff. Chris has 24 years’ experience in real-time, mission-critical, embedded and wireless markets as an analyst, advisor, general manager, and now, entrepreneur and investor. Chris and his partners are working with brilliant partners to instrument the physical world with intelligence and intention, for profit and productivity as well as sustainability and impact.
Nilmini Rubin
TetraTech
Nilmini Rubin is a vice president at TetraTech. She leads engineering and consulting projects to increase energy and internet access in developing countries. Previously, Nilmini served as the Senior Advisor for Global Economic Competitiveness at the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee where she directed technology, trade, finance and energy policy. On behalf of Chairman Royce, Nilmini spearheaded passage by the House of Representatives the Digital Global Access Policy Act of 2016 to promote internet access in developing countries. She drove unanimous passage of a law to increase access to electricity in Africa that serves as the framework for the United States’ Power Africa initiative. Prior to this position, she advocated on cybersecurity policy for the Information Technology Industry Council, led international economics policy for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and served as the Director for International Finance at the National Security Council of the White House.
Nilmini’s work has been highlighted in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Politico, Yahoo! and numerous international publications. She was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, a “40 Under 40” Leader in International Development by Devex, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was featured on HGTV’s “Curb Appeal” and appeared briefly on Netflix’s “House of Cards”. Nilmini is the mother of three young girls and co-wrote a book with her oldest daughter entitled “How Carrots Became Orange.”
Masaaki Sakamaki
Executive Vice President and Member of the Board of Directors, Docomo CS Inc., NTT Docomo
Masaaki Sakamaki has had an extensive public service career spanning twenty eight years. He left the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications after serving as the Director General of Chugoku Bureau of Telecommunication. He has held diverse Directorships in the government, which include Director for International Policy, Director for Information and Communications Policy, Special Assistant to the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Counselor for Economic Affairs at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, DC, and other notable posts.
Mr. Sakamaki was also appointed to the United Nations Working Group on Internet Governance as a Member by the UN Secretary General. He serves the Pacific Telecommunications Council as an Advisory Council member and co-chaired the program committee. He is currently a member of the board of directors and executive vice president at Docomo CS Inc., NTT Docomo. He has an MPA from Harvard University.
Christina Sandefur
Goldwater Institute
Christina Sandefur is Executive Vice President at the Goldwater Institute. She also develops policies and litigates cases advancing healthcare freedom, free enterprise, private property rights, free speech, and taxpayer rights.
Christina has won important victories for property rights in Arizona and works nationally to promote the Institute's Private Property Rights Protection Act, a state-level reform that requires government to pay owners when regulations destroy property rights and reduce property values. She is also a co-drafter of the Right to Try initiative, now law in over half of the states, which protects terminally ill patients' right to try safe investigational treatments that have been prescribed by their physician but are not yet FDA approved for market.
Christina is the co-author of the book Cornerstone of Liberty: Private Property Rights in 21st Century America (2016). She is a frequent guest on national television and radio programs, including Fox Business's Stossel, Dick Morris, and The Armstrong & Getty Show. Her litigation and policy work has been featured in National Review, The Washington Post, Human Events, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, among others. She has provided expert legal testimony to various legislative committees and is a frequent speaker at conferences.
Christina is a graduate of Michigan State University College of Law and Hillsdale College.
Craig Spiezle
Founder & Chairman Emeritus, Online Trust Alliance
Craig Spiezle is the founder and managing partner of AgeLight LLC, a professional services firm focused on online and digital services. Craig is a recognized authority on trust and the convergence of privacy and security promoting ethical privacy practices, end-to-end security and the importance on moving from a compliance mindset to stewardship. Craig serves as Charmain emeritus of the Online Trust Alliance, an initiative of the Internet Society and a strategic advisor and industry analyst. Craig frequently briefs international policy makers driving awareness of best practices by both the public and private sectors and importance of internet governance. As the founder of the OTA, Craig championed security best practices to help protect consumers, innovation and the role of meaningful self-regulation. He created IoT Trustworthy Working Group an international coalition focused on security, privacy and sustainability. Prior to OTA, Craig spent over a decade at Microsoft focused on digital marketing, security and privacy enhancing technologies and standards driving the development of brand protection, anti-spam, anti-phishing and privacy enabling technologies. Craig is on the board of the Identity Theft Council, editorial board of SC Magazine and a member of InfraGard, the Internet Society International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and the Anti- Phishing Working Group (APWG). In addition, Craig is a past member of the City of Clyde Hill Utility Commission, served on two terms on the Federal Communications Commission advisory councils pertaining to online security and reliability of critical infrastructure, past board member of MAAWG and participant in multiple NTIA multi-stakeholder working groups including facial recognition, vulnerability disclosure, mobile privacy disclosures and IoT patching and upgradability. Current and past clients include Internet Society, Microsoft, Pfizer, the US Postal Service and other leading organizations.
Amie Stepanovich
Access Now
Amie Stepanovich works to ensure that laws and policies on surveillance and cybersecurity recognize and respect human rights. At Access Now, Amie manages and develops the organization's U.S. policy and leads global projects at the intersection of human rights and government surveillance. Previously, Amie was the Director of the Domestic Surveillance Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, where she testified in hearings in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as in State legislatures. Amie is a board member of the Internet Education Foundation. She was a liaison to the American Bar Association's Cybersecurity Working Group and co-chaired the 2014 Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference. Amie was named as a Privacy Ambassador by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada and was recognized in 2014 as one of Forbes magazine’s 30 under 30 leaders in Law and Policy. She has a J.D. from New York Law School, and a B.S. from the Florida State University.
Kara Sutton
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Kara Sutton is senior manager of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Global Regulatory Cooperation, where she oversees the Chamber’s international high-tech and digital policy work, with an emphasis on global data privacy and data transfer policies and best practices. Kara works extensively with companies of all sizes and sectors on efforts to preserve cross-border data flows and fight forced localization. She leads private sector engagement in multiple international fora and works closely with governments worldwide on developing policies that support innovation.
Before to coming to the Chamber, she was policy director at the Trans-Atlantic Business Council where she developed the association’s transatlantic digital policy agenda. Prior that, she was a Congressional liaison working on trade and cybersecurity issues at the Bertelsmann Foundation North America.
Kara completed her undergraduate and master’s degree at the University of Kentucky. She conducted her post-graduate research and dissertation at the London School of Economics.
Mercina Tillemann-Dick
COO of the Global Blockchain Business Council
Mercina Tillemann-Dick currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC). Experienced in strategic planning and communications, Mercina Tillemann-Dick has spent her career translating complex ideas for broad audiences in the public and private sectors. Tillemann-Dick has advised state and national governments on issues involving public health and youth. Whether crafting pandemic plans for the City of Houston, initiating paradigm-shifting public health legislation or introducing and organizing the TED conference at Yale, Tillemann-Dick is used to building things from the ground up. While working with Janssen’s Global Public Health Group, she drafted congressional testimony, authored publications and spearheaded multiple public information initiatives. She has worked in the offices of the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and for the Human Rights Commission of the U.S. Congress. In 2013, Tillemann-Dick co-founded A Curated Dialogue, a consultancy dedicated to sharing and shaping ideas through precise and approachable media. She has a degree in Bioethics, Law and Political Science from Yale University.
Maya Wiley
Senior VP for Social Justice at the New School
Maya Wiley is a nationally renowned expert on racial justice and equity. She has litigated, lobbied the U.S. Congress, and developed programs to transform structural racism in the U.S. and in South Africa. Ms. Wiley is currently the Senior Vice President for Social Justice at the New School and the Henry Cohen Professor of Urban Policy and Management at the New School’s Milano School of International Affairs, Management & Urban Policy, as well as the Chair of the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) – the independent oversight agency for the City’s Police Department.
Prior to her roles with the New School and the CCRB, Ms. Wiley served as Counsel to the Mayor of the City of New York from 2014-2016. As Mayor Bill de Blasio’s chief legal advisor and a member of his Senior Cabinet, Wiley was placed at the helm of the Mayor’s commitment to expanding affordable broadband access across New York City, advancing civil and human rights and gender equity, and increasing the effectiveness of the City's support for Minority/Women Owned Business Enterprises. During her tenure, she also served as the Mayor's liaison to the Mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary.
Before her position with the de Blasio Administration, Ms. Wiley was the Founder andPresident of the Center for Social Inclusion. She has also worked for the Open Society Foundation in the U.S. and in South Africa, the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., the American Civil Liberties Union and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. City and State Magazine named Ms. Wiley one of the 100 most powerful people in New York City in 2014 and in 2015. In 2011, Wiley was named one of "20 Leading Black Women Social Activists Advocating Change" by TheRoot.com and a Moves Power Woman in 2009 by the magazine.
Ms. Wiley holds a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law and a B.A in psychology from Dartmouth College. She resides in Brooklyn with her two daughters and her partner.
Nathan Wineinger
21st Century Wilberforce Initiative
Nathan works to support and guide 21CWI’s policy advocacy agenda, coalitions development and deployment, and student engagement. At this nexus he sees the vital role of technology within 21CWI’s tree part model of Advocacy, Capacity, and Technology for the advancement of global protections for freedom of religion and conscience around the world. His works has supported confirmation of U.S. Ambassadors, writing legislation, requiring human rights provisions within arms sales, and building relationships that support capacities of foreign parliamentarians to use and deploy resources around human rights. He also speaks about the importance of religious freedom and the threats posed to all religious groups around the world to students, on radio, and to other activists.
His background includes both international development capacity building around health and zoonotic disease, and coalitions and capacity building among public media organizations for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Nathan holds a Master’s of Public Policy degree from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in both Economics and Theatre from Washington University in St. Louis.
IGF-USA Co-Chairs
Shane Tews
Co-Chair of the IGF-USA
Shane Tews is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI’s) Center for Internet, Communications, and Technology Policy, where she works primarily on cybersecurity and Internet governance issues. She is also the chief policy officer at 463 Communications, a firm that advises high-tech organizations on Internet policies. Tews dealt with Internet security and domain issues as vice president of global policy for Verisign Inc. She is currently vice-chair of the board of directors of the Internet Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote a decentralized global Internet. She began her career on Capitol Hill as a legislative director for a member of Congress and worked in the George H. W. Bush White House, in the Office of Cabinet Affairs and at the US Department of Transportation. Tews studied communications at Arizona State University and at American University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in general studies with an emphasis on communications and political science.
Davis Vyorst
Co-Chair of the IGF-USA
David Vyorst is the Executive Director of the Washington, DC Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC-DC) and the Co-Chair of the Internet Governance Forum for the United States (IGF-USA). His leadership of ISOC-DC and ISOC-DC's Internet Policy Forum has built that organization into a leading international forum on Internet governance. David’s Internet strategy and social media expertise stems from his experience at RelevantKnowledge (one of the first web ratings companies, now Comscore), Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, and as the Founder of Relay Station Digital Strategies. Over the past 20 years David has worked with leading organizations and companies including Microsoft, Google, The U.S. Department of State, The U.S. Department of Commerce, ICANN, ADP, Allied Bank, The Ford Motor Company, The NBA, The Fetzer Institute, The Internet Society, Verisign, and many others, spanning the corporate, legal, education, and nonprofit sectors. A blogger and critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker (The Internet Exposed, The First Basket, Unusual Pairs), David’s insights and depth of knowledge have earned him recognition as a thought leader in Internet strategy and policy. He holds a Masters degree in Government from the London School of Economics.