Agenda

Through 20 years of hard work in the field of information technology and e-government, AL-Hammadi was distinguished by a high level of knowledge and comprehensive knowledge of information technology strategies , business, local culture, technical trends, and change in the organizational structure.
 
Al-Hammadi graduated from the Qatar Leadership Program in 2015, and HEC- CTO Program in 2019, she has master degree in Executive Business Administration and a Bachelor in Computer Science from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Studies, and currently affiliated with a PhD.
 
During her career, she held various leadership positions in information technology departments in various government agencies and accomplished several strategic projects in the country, including Ministry of Civil Service and Housing, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, and Ministry of Economy and Trade.
 
 
She has participated as an active Board member QNBN, and in several high level committees, such as: the e-government steering committee, in addition to membership of a number of other internal committees at the level of ministries in which she worked.

Yamaguchi Norifumi has been the Director for Technical Cooperation at the International Policy Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) of Japan since August 2019. 
 
Mr. Yamaguchi’s career began when he took a position as a wireless communication engineer and regulator at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Mr. Yamaguchi has more than 15 years of executive and management experience in ICT. Prior to his  current role, he was a research professor at the Center for Trustworthy IoT Infrastructure at the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST). Mr. Yamaguchi has had several positions at MIC, including spectrum management/preparation for WRC-15, promotion of the transition to digital TV, and roles which covered the Internet of Things (IoT), and green ICT technologies. The launch of the Connect2Recover Initiative, a joint project with the ITU to enable people to continue working and learning remotely, is one of his most recent achievements.

Furthermore, outside of the MIC Mr. Yamaguchi has been a councillor for the Radiocommunication Bureau at the ITU, a manager at the National Institute of Information and Communication Technology (NICT) for designing the next generation testbed the Japan Gigabit Network (JGN), and has been engaged in economic cooperation for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Maike Luiken, PhD, SMIEEE, IEEE-HKN, is 2021 IEEE Vice President – Member & Geographic Activities. She served as President of IEEE Canada in 2018 - 2019 and, in 2018, as Chair, Policy Track, IEEE Internet Initiative.  Currently Adjunct Research Professor at Western University, she was the founding Director of the Bluewater Technology Access Centre (now called Lambton Manufacturing Innovation Centre) following eight years as Dean at Lambton College with a number of portfolios: School of Technology and Applied Sciences, Business Development, Sustainable Development and Applied Research. Her strategic leadership in the development of the applied research & innovation capacity and portfolio led to Lambton College becoming one of the top Research Colleges in Canada.

Her areas of interest and expertise span diverse technical areas from ICT, energy and water to advanced manufacturing and nanotechnologies as well as technology design principles, ethics in design and policy associated with their implementation. She has particular interest in how progress in one area, e.g. in ICT, enables advances in other disciplines and in how deployment of various technologies contributes – or not - to achieving sustainable development.

Maike Luiken has experience in the public and private sectors in Canada and has worked in the USA and Germany. She owns a technology consulting practice and is a co-owner of a start-up company.

Dr. Luo, chairman of ITU-T Study Group 16 since 2016 who also holds many other positions in technical and standardization strategies and polices related organizations.

Dr. Luo is VP in standards and industry development area for Huawei Technologies, Co.,Ltd. He is currently based in Switzerland.  Dr.Luo used to lead Huawei’s European standards teams as a senior director based in the UK. Afterwards, he began to manage Huawei’s global standards affairs in 2019. He has made significant contributions to the continuous growth of Huawei’s influence in international SDOs, especially those in Europe.

Dr.Luo, as ITU-T SG16’s chairman and one of the most active standards experts, has been working in the fields of advanced video technical standards, video and contents services, smart visual systems and services, immersive audio-visual technologies/AR/VR/XR, AI and multimedia, AI and digital health, ,  DLT/block chain and multimedia, vehicular multimedia, UAV communications & management, and digital culture.

Dr. Nsabimana Ernest is the Director General of the Rwanda  Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) since December 2020. RURA regulates all utilities including Telecommunications, Transport, Energy, Water and Sanitation services, among others. He also serves as Rwanda’s Counselor to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
 
Prior to joining RURA, Dr. Ernest worked as the Vice Mayor in charge of Urbanization and Infrastructure, City of Kigali; Principal of IPRC Karongi, one of the colleges of Rwanda Polytechnic (RP); Research advisor at African Railway Center of Excellence at Addis Ababa Institute of Technology in Ethiopia; Senior lecturer of Civil Engineering at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (Nairobi); Senior researcher at KRRI (Korea Railway Research Institute) and lecturer in Civil Engineering at Kyung Hee University and as Director of Academics/Quality Assurance, Integrated Polytechnic Region Center (IPRC Kigali) in Kigali.
 
He holds a BSc in Civil Engineering from the former National University of Rwanda, a Master’s and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Kyung Hee University in the Republic of Korea.
 
Dr. Ernest’s areas of specialization and research are in Urban planning, building construction technology, smart transportation infrastructure, urban planning of utilities and smart and digital cities projects.
 
He serves in the City Council Meeting in charge of the Infrastructure and Urbanization Commission.
 
 

Thomas Schneider is Ambassador and Director of International Affairs at the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) in the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC). He is a long-standing expert in digital governance and in the governance of the information and knowledge society and artificial intelligence. He is leading the Swiss delegation in various key international fora in these fields. He has been coordinating the Swiss activities with regard to the implementation and follow-up of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) since 2003. He is currently chairing the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI) (since 2018) and he is the president of the EuroDIG Support Association (since 2012). From 2014-2017, he chaired ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and he has been responsible for organizing the 2017 UN Internet Governance Forum in Geneva, on behalf of the Swiss government. He has been participating in the meetings of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, as personal advisor of former Swiss president, Ms. Doris Leuthard (2018-2019).

Mr. Schneider is acting as head of the Swiss delegation in a number of international fora such as ITU, UNESCO, UPU, UN Internet Governance Forum and other UN bodies as well as at the OECD, the Council of Europe, etc.

From July 2018 to June 2019, he has been participating in the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, as advisor of panel member and former Swiss President, Ms. Doris Leuthard, 2018-2019.

In December 2017, he was elected as the chairman of the Council of Europe's Steering Committee on Media and the Information Society (CDMSI) and thus led the CDMSI’s work on the impact of AI on media, human rights and democracy. Before that, he had been a CDMSI bureau member since 2011 and vice-chair in 2014. He was a member of the Council of Europe (CoE) expert groups on Internet intermediaries (2016-2017), on cross-border flow of Internet traffic and Internet freedom (2014-2015). He was vice-chair of the CoE’s expert group on rights of internet users (2012-2013) and chair of the CoE's expert groups on new media (2009-2011) and on human rights in the information society (2006-2009).

He is responsible for the cooperation with ITU for the AI For Good Summit 2020, on behalf of Switzerland as the host of the event. He also represents Switzerland in the OECD’s Committee on Digital Economy Policy (CDEP), which is leading the OECD’s work on AI, as well as at UNESCO’s Commission V (Information and Communication) and UNESCO’s work on AI.

He is the head of the Swiss delegation at the main conferences and meetings of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), UNESCO’s Commission V and the OECD’s Committee on Digital Economy Policy (CDEP) since 2017. He has represented Switzerland in the ITU Council Working Group on WSIS (since 2005) and co-chaired the ITU Council Working Group on Stakeholder Participation in ITU's activities related to WSIS (2006-2010).

Rinalia Abdul Rahim joined the Internet Society in January 2019 as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Implementation. She is responsible for the coordination of key resources to effect the Internet Society’s strategic goals and objectives.

She has 20 years of global experience in ICT for Development (ICT4D) on issues relating to access, empowerment and governance. She also brings significant experience in the leadership and governance of global institutions with public interest orientation.

Between 2011-2017 she focused on Internet matters at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). After engaging on Internet end user issues, she was elected to the ICANN Board of Directors for a 3-year term by the global community of Internet end users (At-Large). During this period she oversaw the stewardship transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which established ICANN as an independent entity. Concurrently, she led efforts to enhance ICANN’s organizational effectiveness and to include Jawi in the Arabic Script Repertoire for the Root Zone in support of a multilingual Internet.

Between 2001-2008 she was Executive Director of the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) where she positioned GKP as the world’s leading multistakeholder initiative in ICT for Development. She brought diverse stakeholders together to explore collaboration-based solutions to various issues including poverty, education, and the empowerment of women and youth. She also established high impact programs and networks for sharing knowledge, building partnerships and spreading best practices in every region. At the World Summit on the Information Society in 2003, the GKP presented innovations from the multistakeholder collaborations of more than 250 organizations based in 80 countries around the world.

Between 1998-2001 she developed national ICT policies, strategies and programmes for the Malaysian government. Some of these initiatives were highlighted by UN agencies as best practices in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Subsequently the Prime Minister appointed her to Malaysia’s National Information Technology Council. At the same time she served on the Council of Wawasan Open University for 5 years during its startup phase. In 2013 she was elected to the Executive Council of the Internet Society Malaysia Chapter.

She has held various advisory positions with international and regional entities/initiatives such as Mozilla Foundation, Global Action Network, World Economic Forum-UNESCO Partnership for Education initiative, United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UNGAID), International Task Force on Women and ICT, Youth Social Enterprise Initiative, UNDP’s Asia Pacific Development Information Programme, and the World Summit on the Information Society’s ICT for Development Platform.

She holds a Master in Public Policy Degree from Harvard University (USA) and a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from Princeton University (USA). She is certified in Corporate Governance by INSEAD (France).

She is fluent in English, Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia, and is currently learning German.

She grew up in Malaysia and has lived in the USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Germany. She is primarily based in Kuala Lumpur.

Moira de Roche is an independent consultant. She is the Chair of IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) IP3, and a member of the IFIP board. Moira was awarded the IFIP Silver Core in 2016.

Moira is an accomplished speaker and has presented at conferences around the world and in South Africa, on diverse subjects including Technology & Learning, IT Leadership, Professionalism, Trust & the Duty of Care in Digital, as well as people-related issues with Industry 4.0. She has attended and presented at the World Summit for Information Society since 2012.

A Past-President of IITPSA (Institute of IT Professionals South Africa) Moira is a Professional Member and Fellow and serves as a Non-executive Director.  She received the IITPSA Distinguished Service in ICT Award in 2009.

She is also a member of ACM and the South African Institute of Directors.

Michael W. Hodin, Ph.D. is CEO of the Global Coalition on Aging, Managing Partner at High Lantern Group, and a Fellow at Oxford University’s Harris Manchester College. He is also a blogger on Medium.

From 1976-80, Mike was Legislative Assistant to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. During this period he was also a Visiting Scholar at Brookings Institution, on U.S. Foreign Economic Policy. He was a senior executive at Pfizer, Inc. for 30 years, where he created and then led its International Public Affairs and Public Policy operations and served on Management Boards for a number of its businesses.

Mike is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and from 2010-2013, was Adjunct Senior Fellow with a focus on population aging. In 2013, Mike was invited by then-Committee Chairman Bill Nelson (D-FL) to lead a Members’ Roundtable with the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. Mike was also the recipient of the 2012 Fred D. Thompson Award from the American Federation for Aging Research. He sits on the Boards of the Foreign Policy Association, Business Council for International Understanding, NYC Blood Center, American Skin Association, American Federation for Aging Research and Emigrant Savings Bank, where he is Chairman of its compensation committee. Mike was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Ageing. And he sits on the Advisory Board for the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging.

Mike holds a BA, cum laude, Cornell University, M.Sc.in International Relations from The London School of Economics and Political Science, and M.Phil and Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University.