Sophia Bekele

Website:	[sophiabekele.com Sophia's Blog sophiabekele.com Sophia's Blog]
LinkedIn:	[Sophia Bekele Sophia Bekele]
Twitter:	@sophiabekele

Ms. Sophia Bekele is a businesswoman, entrepreneur, executive, an activist, and international policy adviser. She is the founder and CEO of CBS International and DotConnectAfrica

ICANN Work

Ms. Bekele was nominated to serve on ICANN's GNSO policy board from 2005-2007, under the Chairmanship of Dr. Vinton Cerf.

Elected by the NomCom, Sophia was the first African woman to serve and hold a seat on this powerful policy board that advises the ICANN Board on ICANN's gTLD policy. In this position, Ms. Bekele contributed to global public policies that guide the development of the Internet, including the new gTLD policy and processes affecting .asia, .com, .net, .org etc...

During her tenure, Sophia was instrumental in initiating policy dialogue over IDNs as well as the formation of a IDN working group to focus on IDNs within ICANN. She was later credited for championing the inclusion of the global IDN community within this policy dialogue. As a result, Ms. Bekele was also nominated to chair ICANN's IDN Working Group. She was one of the co-authors of ICANN's IDN policy guidelines.

Sophia has also initiated the .africa TLD within ICANN and is currently championing it across Africa under DotConnectAfrica. Her organization has been endorsed by various prominent Pan-African organizations and African governments.

Corporate Experience

Sophia began her career working with fortune 500 companies including large banking institutions, such as: Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, the Union Bank of California and PriceWaterhouseCoopers consulting. Her corporate career involved consultant work with multinational firms, technology risk assessment, computer quality assurance, and project management.

CBS International

Ms. Bekele founded CBS International; a private Corporation with the goal of supporting technology in organizations working in emerging markets. Their self-described mission is to: "Utilize our experience in consulting services in sales, software training , and provide our clients with a total systems solutions to help lower their cost and maximize efficiency in the delivery of quality products and services". It is based near Silicon Valley, California.

Other Endeavors

Additionally, Ms. Bekele has initiated the formation of the African grouping within ICANN; as well as starting and leading the .Africa project through her creation of a non-profit,public private partnership organization,DotConnectAfrica.

She is a board member of the Golden Gate University,the The Internet Society of San Francisco Bay, an advisory member to various United Nation initiatives, including the UNECA (Economic commission for Africa, a former board member of Information Systems and Control Association (ISACA-SF) and advisory member to the World Affairs Council of Contra Costa County.

Education

Ms. Bekele holds an MBA in Management Information Systems (MIS) from Golden Gate University, San Francisco and a Bachelor of Science in Computer and Information Systems from San Francisco State University. She is also a Certified Information Systems Auditor CISA, Certified Control Specialist CCS,and Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT CGEIT.

External Links

• ISOC, appointment to a founding member & board of directors of Internet Society, San Francisco (ISOC-SF), San Francisco, Ca, March 2009
  
• GGU, Internet Governance and the policy divide, San Francisco, Ca, March 2009
  
• IP Justice, New Domain Names (gtlds), Sao Paulo Brazil, Dec 2006
  
• Andrew Mack, Andy's Global View: In a world of .com and .org, why not .Africa?, Sept 2007
  
• Del Rey Studios "A New Hope" the idea of 'ICANN The Movie' was born! Mar 2007
  
• TWiNic, NomComm announcement - Sophia Bekele, Nov 2005
  
• JPNic,NomComm announcement -Sophia Bekele, Nov 2005