Dr. U.B. Pavanaja is an experienced IT professional and was a scientist at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai for 15 years. He is currently CEO of Vishva Kannada Softech. He has to his credit many firsts, including the first Indian language (Kannada) website and online magazine, first Kannada website to receive a Golden Web Award, first Kannada editor for Palm OS, first Kannada editor for WinCE device (HP Jornado 720), and first Kannada language version of universally popular Logo (programming language for children) software, etc. Further, he has consulted for Microsoft India and Microsoft Research Labs India. He is a member of various committees set up by the Government of Karnataka in the area of Kannada and Information Technology. He is also a contributor to ICANN as a member of the NeoBrahmi Generation Panel, which is working towards standardization and implementation of Indic scripts in Internationalized Domain Names. U.B. Pavanaja is based in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

Anil Kumar Jain is the CEO and longtime board member of National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI). Having spent 36 years in various telecommunication roles, he is an expert in Internet, broadband and telecom sectors. Throughout his career, he has been associated with BSNL, MTNL and the Department of Telecommunications, India, and also serves as Chair of India’s Internet Governance Forum, Chairman of India’s Multilingual Committee and as a member of India’s Internet Resilience Committee.

Internationally, Anil is Vice Chair of the IDNccPDP4 Working Group of Country Code Names Supporting Organization (ccNSO) and Chair of the IDN ccPDP4 Working Group. He is also Chair of a working group formed to design strategies for the Asia Pacific Top-Level Domain Association (APTLD). Finally, he is member of the IDN EPDP Variant Working Group of Generic Names Supporting Organization (GSNO) and also serves as liaison officer between ccNSO and GNSO.

Versatile and accomplished technology leader with expertise and success across the breadth of the computer and software industries. Excellent at building trust and bridging gaps when creating technical relationships between companies and teams. Equally adept coordinating engineering and business efforts. Unique ability to see the entire end to end experience, then find and fix problems “between the cracks”.

Maria Kolesnikova lives in Russia and has worked for the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ as Head of Marketing, External Relations and Projects since 2007. Maria has a wide range of experience in information technologies, working in IT for 20 years. She is also an individual member of EURALO.

In 2007, Maria was involved in the IDN Program as an administrator of Cyrillic IDN wiki page “пример.испытание”. During 2008-2009, she participated in the Fast Track Process for delegation of the Cyrillic IDN ccTLD .РФ (Russian Federation). From 2012-2013 during the first round of New gTLD Program, she worked on applications for several gTLDs, including IDN gTLDs.

Since 2007, Maria has been involved with the ccNSO, CENTR, UASG, and local working groups, and has served in organizing and program committees of global and regional meetings hosted by ICANN, CENTR, APTLD, and IGF. She has also organized regional and local Internet industry and Internet governance events in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Anawin Pongsaboripat is the Assistant Director at the Thai Network Information Center (THNIC) Foundation, which serves as a center to develop, promote and facilitate Internet usage in Thailand, especially the use of the .th (dot Th) and .ไทย (dot Thai) country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Since 2021, Anawin has contributed to UA projects, and actively worked to promote UA awareness and readiness to the public and technical community. Anawin received degrees in Computer Engineering and has experience in various Information Technology (IT) fields.

Nabil Benamar is a professor of computer sciences. His main research topics are IPv6, vehicular networks, DTNs, IoT, and IDNs. He is the author of several journal papers and IETF Standard documents. He is an Associate Editor of the “IEEE Access” and the “Wireless Communications and Mobile computing” journals. He also serves as a reviewer for several IEEE, Elsevier, Wiley and Springer journals. Nabil is a TPC member of different IEEE Flagship conferences (Globecom, ICC, PIMRC, WCNC, etc.), as well as a member of the Organizing Committee of IEEE WCNC 2019. Furthermore, Nabil is an IPv6 expert (he.net certified) and IPv6 trainer with many international organizations (RIPE/MENOG, AFRINIC, and Agence Universitaire de Francophonie). He became an expert in Internet governance after completion of the ISOC next generation e-learning programme and has been an ISOC Ambassador to the IGF (2012 and 2013), a Google panelist at the first Arab-IGF, an ISOC fellow to the IETF multiple times, and an ICANN fellow. Among his current commitments, he is serving as chair of the Task Force for Arabic IDNs, a team of devoted people working on making the DNS speak Arabic.

Satish Babu is the Chair of the Asian, Australasian and Pacific Islands Regional At-Large Organization (APRALO) of ICANN At-Large and has been an Internet user since 1993. He has been actively involved in ICANN’s IDN program since 2015, and has served two terms on the ICANN Nominating Committee. He continues to participate in organizational and policy work as part of ICANN At-Large.

Satish is also an active volunteer of the Internet Society and IEEE, and was the national President of the Computer Society of India. At his day job, he is the founder and President of InApp Infotech, an IT Services company with presence in the U.S., Japan, and India.

For the past eight years, Abhishek Mishra has administered both IPv4 and IPv6 address allocation for the Indian geography at NIXI (National Internet Exchange of India). NIXI manages India’s country code top-level (ccTLD) domain (.IN) and the dotIN registry ensures the operational stability, security, and reliability of the ccTLD. Mishra has over 15 years of experience in the government and corporate sectors. He is actively involved in providing input for the policy development process (PDP) of APNIC, as well as raising IPv6-related awareness among the Indian community. Mishra is a frequent participant at various regional and international conferences and network operator forums, and is an active ICANN community member who strongly believes in working to achieve “a global, open, stable, and secure Internet that serves the entire Internet community.”

Based in Turkey, Cengiz Acarturk conducts research in cognitive science and human factors in cyber security. Acarturk has been involved in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as a user, researcher, and developer. A strong supporter of Universal Acceptance (UA), he aims to contribute as an Ambassador by identifying and providing solutions that can help overcome societal and technological challenges related to UA. He also aims to run applied research on various states of UA readiness.

Delhi based, Harish has been an active advocate for Universal Acceptance within India and more globally through his participation in the IETF and the IGFs. His ‘day job’ as a technology analyst with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) – Delhi for Ministry of Electronics & IT, Internet Governance Structured Implementation Module (IGSIM), Government of India, puts him in a good position to advocate Universal Acceptance in one of the UASG’s target geographies.

Aman Masjide currently leads the Anti-Abuse and Universal Acceptance (UA) efforts at Radix in India, and has 14 years of experience in the anti-abuse field of the domain name industry. Prior to joining Radix, Masjide led the abuse mitigation and compliance efforts for LogicBoxes, a domain registrar automation platform and consulting business, which was later acquired by Endurance International Group. He has also contributed his expertise in anti-abuse mitigation at Resellerclub and BigRock.

At Radix, Masjide has been leading an internal project testing UA readiness of website signup and contact forms. The objective is to ensure that a user of new TLD should have the same experience across various online portals and services as they would experience using any other legacy TLD.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the founder and CEO of One97 Communications and its consumer brand Paytm. He has played a critical role in developing the mobile payments and commerce ecosystem in India. His goal is to build India’s biggest payments, commerce, and financial services conglomerate and the country’s first 100 billion dollar company. A strong believer in emerging technologies, Vijay continues to oversee the company’s key strategic efforts including engineering, design, and marketing. He also launched the Paytm Payments Bank and brought a new business model to the world of banking.

In 2017, Vijay was included in Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” list and was named Entrepreneur of the Year at The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence in 2016.

He has a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications from the Delhi College of Engineering.

Luis Sergio Valle is currently President of the Foundation for the Development of Information and Communication Technologies in Bolivia – (FUNDETIC-BOLIVIA). He is also a member of numerous industry organizations including the Ibero-American Association of Research Centers and Telecommunications Companies (ASIET), RELAIS International, ICANN At-large, Latin American Federation of Internet Users (FLUI), Information Systems and Technology Group, and the Spanish Society of Informatics and Health – (SEIS).

Valle studied systems engineering and has diplomas in electronic government, open government, and information systems management. He also claims three master’s degrees in planning and projects, defense security and national development, and digital business. Valle has written numerous articles on a wide range of topics related to the Internet including electronic governance and information technology.

Based in Guangzhou, China, Xiucheng Wu serves as vice president of Coremail – the largest provider of email systems in China with nearly one billion terminal registered customers. It was also the first provider to support EAI (since 2012). Wu is a proponent of utilizing EAI to promote Chinese domain name emails and has successfully sent more than 4,500 EAI work emails.

After the APEC TEL 48 workshop in 2013, Wu worked to accelerate the cooperation between Coremail and the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) to establish and maintain the first Chinese domain name mailbox registration platform in the world. He also helped organize the UASG EAI workshop at the APEC EAI forum in 2014 and 2018, and has promoted the use of EAI at multiple events including ICANN55, IGF 2016, and the EAI Workshop of Thailand. Wu has assisted THNIC and SGNIC in building EAI test systems, and in 2019, was awarded the title of “Outstanding Contribution Person of the Year in Chinese Domain Name Industry.”