November 8th, 2016
UK citizen elected vice-chair of ICANN’s GAC
LONDON, 8 NOVEMBER 2016 – Mark Carvell, the head of global Internet governance policy for the UK Government has been elected as one of the vice-chairs of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN).
“I am delighted that the GAC representatives have put their trust in me and I look forward to working closely with them in managing the important public policy issues which the GAC needs to address and in generally enhancing the Committee’s effectiveness in the multi-stakeholder ICANN model,” said Mr Carvell shortly after the announcement of his election.
The GAC vice-chairs are elected for a one-year period. At the end of that period the vice-chairs are eligible to nominate for a second one-year period. Up to five vice-chairs can be elected, and votes are taken by secret ballot.
“I am extremely delighted to see another Commonwealth citizen take an important role on the global ICT agenda, just after Ugandan citizen Patrick Masambu was elected director-general of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization. I think this is another major success for the CTO. Mark has been very supportive of the coordination efforts of the CTO in Internet governance, including at ICANN and the IGF, and the CTO looks forward to working with him to strengthen Commonwealth engagement in the GAC,” said Shola Taylor, the secretary-general of the CTO.
Top GAC officials are now as follows:
Chair: Thomas Schneider (Switzerland)
Vice-Chairs:
- Manal Ismail (Egypt)
- Milagros Castanon Seoane (Peru)
- Ghislain De Salins (France)
- Mark Carvell (United Kingdom)
- Guo Feng (China)
Mr Carvell is responsible for Internet governance policy at the UK Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). He represents the UK Government at the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and is a member of the IGF’s Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group. He is the UK representative on ICANN’s GAC and on the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Media and the Information Society.
Mr Carvell also represents the UK in other multilateral fora on public policy issues relating to Internet governance including the International Telecommunication Union.
For more information please contact The Communications Team, communications@cto.int or +44 (0) 20 8600 3820.
About the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation
The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) is the oldest and largest Commonwealth intergovernmental organisation in the field of information and communication technologies. With a diverse membership spanning developed and least developed countries, small island developing states, and more recently also the private sector and civil society, the CTO aims to become a trusted partner for sustainable development for all through ICTs. More information about us here
