Lanre Ajayi named member ICANN Expert Working Group on gTLD

Lanre Ajayi, MD PiNet Informatics, member EWG

Nigerian Managing Director of Pinet Informatics, one of the first Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country, and incumbent chairman of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr. Lanre Ajayi, has been named member of the Expert Working Group (EWG) on the generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) Directory Services.

Confirming this to DigitalSENSE Business News, Director of Global Media Relations at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Mr. Brad White, disclosed that the emergence of Ajayi and other members of the EWG scaled many hurdles.

He also revealed that over 70 highly qualified experts from across the Internet ecosystem were considered and in selecting the EWG, each candidates' operational knowledge and experience with registrant data or directory services as well as analogous systems, were considered, alongside consensus-building skills, aptitude to innovate, geographic diversity among others.

As said by him, after extensive evaluation of each candidate, some of them emerged including Mr. Lanre Ajayi and 12 others, while Mr. Jean-Francois Baril, will act as Lead Facilitator of the EWG.

DigitalSENSE Business News recalls that on December 13, 2012, ICANN's President and CEO, Mr. Fadi Chehadé, had announced the creation of an Expert Working Group on gTLD Directory Services (EWG) and invited volunteers to submit applications to indicate their interest in serving on it. 

The EWG, Chehade noted is the first step in fulfilling the ICANN Board's directive to help redefine the purpose and provision of gTLD registration data, thus a project designed to provide a foundation for the creation of a new global policy for gTLD directory services, and requisite contract negotiations, as appropriate.

Mr. Ajayi who served as the Vice-Chairman of the Internet Service providers Association of Nigeria (ISPAN) and Africa ISP Association (AfrISPA), is a founding member of AfriNIC, was a member of the National Cybercrime Working Group (NCWG) in Nigeria. 

Currently serving as a Generic Name Supporting Organisation (GNSO) Council member appointed by the NomCom, Ajayi who is based in Nigeria was listed in the EWG alongside Pekka Ala-Pietilä, Scott Hollenbeck, Jin Jian, Susan Kawaguchi, Nora Nanayakkara, Michele Neylon, Michael Niebel, Rod Rasmussen, Carlton Samuels, Faisal Shah, Fabricio Vayra, and Stephanie Perrin as at the time of filing this report.

Remmy Nigeria/DSBNews
 
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