Agenda

Charles Noir leads CIRA’s Policy & Advocacy and Net Good programs. CIRA’s P&A team is at the forefront of internet governance, advocating for policies that ensure an open, free, secure and reliable internet for Canadians. Net Good
invests millions of dollars each year to bridge the digital divide and address some of Canada’s most pressing internet challenges. The program encompasses all the initiatives funded and led by CIRA that tackle the digital obstacles faced by
communities across the country.

Prior to joining CIRA, Charles spent over 15 years working for various Canadian government departments and agencies where he made significant contributions to policy development related to the internet, international telecommunications,
cybersecurity and technology. He has extensive experience in leading international negotiations and providing policy advice to senior decision-makers.

Charles holds a PhD in Management (Information Systems) from the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, a Master of Science in Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems from the London School of Economics
and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Simon Fraser University.

Veni Markovski is the head of Government and Intergovernmental Organization Engagement for ICANN. Based in New York, he is the vice-president, responsible for the relations of ICANN with the United Nations, the UN Agencies, and the Permanent Missions to the United Nations.

In September 1990 he started his work on the Internet, as a system operator of the first Sofia-based bulletin-board system, part of FidoNet. In 1993 Markovski co-founded and for nine years was the CEO of bol.bg - the first commercial Internet service provider in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The company was sold successfully in 2008 to an international investment fund.

In 1995 he co-founded the Bulgarian Internet Society, a non-profit, of which he serves as President and chairman of the Board. In March 2002 Markovski was appointed as Chairman of the Bulgarian President's IT Advisory Council, a position he held until the President stepped down from office at the end of his second term on January 22, 2012.
In 2005 he was invited to be the senior international projects adviser to the chairman of the governmental Agency for Information Technologies and communications, a position that he held until 2009. He was also adviser to the Bulgarian national cybersecurity coordinator from 2009 till 2013.

Since the beginning of his career, Veni Markovski has been involved in different international organizations and programs on different levels - as project manager, adviser, senior adviser, advocate for policy changes, mediator, board member, etc. He has served on the Boards of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, the global Internet Society, ICANN, among others. He was a member of two experts group to the European Commission – the High-Level Expert Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation and the Expert Group on Tackling Disinformation and Promoting Digital Literacy Through Education and Training.

Markovski has graduated the Law School of St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University.

He has published hundreds of articles in the mainstream and specialized media, and is the author of one book, “Caught in the Net”, published by Sofia University Press in 2018.

Jennifer Chung is the Vice President, Policy for DotAsia Organisation. She is a member of the UN IGF Expert Group (2022) convened to discuss and provide recommendations on strengthening and improving the IGF as a space for ‎global multistakeholder discussion on Internet policy issues. She is an appointed member on the United Nations Internet Governance Forum Multistakeholder Advisory Group (2025, and previously from 2018-2020) which advises the UN Secretary General on the annual global UN IGF agenda. Ms. Chung heads the Secretariat for IGFSA which provides support to the global UN IGF, IGF Secretariat, and grants seed funding to National, Regional and Youth Initiatives. She is a part of the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum organizing team and works closely with APAC regional partners and communities towards strengthening and amplifying Asia Pacific views and contributions on Internet governance. She is committed to youth capacity building in Internet governance and has designed, supported, and have been invited as guest lecturer at various regional Schools of Internet Governance including APSIG, APIGA, and SSIG (GRULAC).

Ms. Chung represents .Asia Registry at Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and is a Generic Names Supporting Organisation (GNSO) councilor, making policies for generic Top-Level Domains. She previously headed the ICG Secretariat that oversaw the transfer of the IANA stewardship from the US government (NTIA) to the global multistakeholder community. Representing DotAsia, she is part of the core Secretariat of the Technical Community Coalition on Multistakeholderism (TCCM), a group of critical Internet infrastructure operators dedicated to strengthening the multistakeholder approach to decisions about the Internet’s future and its governance. 

An avid supporter of innovative technology, Ms. Chung is a member of the ISIF.asia Selection Committee that awards grants for research and implementation of technical solutions that support Internet development in Asia Pacific. She works on Internationalized Domain Names policies, previously as part of the CJK coordination for Label Generation Rules for the Han script, and currently on the ICANN IDN Expedited Policy Development Process (IDN EPDP) which will make policy recommendations on the definition and management of IDN variant Top Level Domains. She supports efforts to achieve Universal Acceptance of domain names, a foundational requirement for a truly multilingual Internet, one in which users around the world can navigate entirely in local languages.

Dr. Chafic Chaya is the Regional Manager for Public Policy and Government Affairs for the Middle East Region at the RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC), the Regional Internet Registry serving Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. With over 25 years of experience in the Internet and telecommunications sector, Dr. Chaya engages with governments, regulators, and regional organisations to advance a scalable, secure and resilient Internet infrastructure, multistakeholder collaboration, and inclusive public policy.

Chafic has been actively involved in Internet governance forums across the Arab region and globally, contributing to capacity-building initiatives, Internet infrastructure development and public policy. He leads the RIPE NCC’s outreach and capacity development in the Arab region, including support for IPv6 deployment, routing security, local Internet ecosystems such as IXPs, and public policy related to Internet issues. He is also responsible for driving regional academic and professional training programmes to empower the next generation of Internet professionals.

Dr. Chaya holds a Doctorate in Business Administration with a focus on Internet governance, as well as an MBA and a degree in Telecommunications Engineering. He actively contributes to global and regional Internet governance processes, including the Arab IGF, the Lebanese IGF, ITU meetings, and League of Arab States meetings, as well as the WSIS process and GDC discussions, promoting multistakeholder dialogue and cross-sector collaboration in support of the WSIS action lines and the SDGs.

Alishah Shariff is Policy and Public Affairs Lead at Nominet, the .UK registry. Here she leads Nominet's work on a number of public policy issues including internet governance, and provides a Secretariat for the UK Internet Governance Forum. Previous to working at Nominet, Alishah spent 9 years in the UK Civil Service working across a range of domestic and international policy roles, most recently as Head of Digital National Security at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. Alishah holds a degree in Modern and Medieval Languages from the University of Cambridge. 

Desiree is a Policy Advisor at Identity Digital, Name.com. She chairs the RIPE Cooperation Working Group and serves on the Council of the Generic Names Support Organization at ICANN. With over two decades of close and productive interactions with regulators, intergovernmental leaders, academics, artists, and community activists worldwide, she brings a unique set of resources to the complex, cross-sectoral challenges of Internet technical coordination and governance. Previously, she was a Special Advisor to the Chair of the UN Internet Governance Forum Advisory Group and served as a Board Member of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, a Trustee of the Board of the Internet Society. Currently, Desiree is the Director of the Internet Society UK England Chapter and is active in the ISOC Belgrade Chapter, where she leads the DESCON IoT Ecology Hackathon activities. She is a co-author of The Global Initiative for Empowering Digital Citizens Report - GIDE.