Sophia Bekele

Blog:	http://sophiabekele.com/writing/
LinkedIn:	Sophia Bekele
Twitter:	@sophiabekele

Ms. Sophia Bekele is a business and corporate executive, an International entrepreneur, corporate governance & risk management specialist, international policy advisor on ICT, internet and development issues, and ICT & governance activist and a philanthropist. She has maintained a successful career track record spanning over a decade of constant professional activity working for Fortune 500 Companies and transnational business ownership/operation. Bekele has founded and run various International start-ups amongst them CBS International and DotConnectAfrica and implemented successful projects as well as launched companies into new markets.

Bekele was elected and served as a member of the ICANN Council of the GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization), advising on global internet policy and the policy development work on new generic Top Level Domain name. During her term at ICANN, she has championed the IDN Policy Dialog for the international community. Concurrently, Bekele initiated the first African-run Registry for a .africa TLD, under DotConnectAfrica Trust, and run a successful 6-year “Yes2dotAfrica” global awareness campaign.

Bekele is of Ethiopian descent but studied in the USA for her Bachelor's Degree in Business Analysis and Information Systems at San Francisco State University and earned her Master of Business Administration (MBA) in management Information Systems from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, California. She is also a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA, Certified Control Specialist (CCS), and Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT). Bekele travels globally for her work and shuttles regularly between her residences in Walnut Creek, California and Africa, where she has a firm based in business and family.

In 2013, Bekele was named Top “50 Trailblazers – A future made in Africa”, by the influential UK’s NewAfrican Magazine, an IC Publications group, “Collector’s Edition” which coincides with the continent’s 50th-anniversary celebrations of the African Union, and featured individuals “who are realizing significant achievements in their specific field of endeavor” and who are “breaking ground, making Africa proud and propelling it into a future of great hope.” Bekele was also named as one of the “two leading ladies in Africa’s ICT sector” by “Bloomberg TV” and enumerated in “African Women to Watch” a prime TV program, that “celebrates the most fearless, competitive and visionary African women of our time” , and explores “the women working hard to close the gender gap and shaping the continent’s social, political and economic landscape”. The CIO East Africa in 2017 named her "Industry Trailblazer" and "Internet Governance Pioneer", recognizing her significant contribution in the ICT and DNS industry as well as in the Internet Governance terrain, where she has accomplished impactful work on internet policy and governance.

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 to serve and hold a seat on the GNSO. During her tenure, Sophia worked and participated in the development of policy over the New gTLD programme for ICANN that which is now approved for implementation and saw the application of 1930 new gTLDs at ICANN . Sophia was instrumental in initiating policy dialogue over IDNs as well as the formation of an IDN working group. Ms. Bekele initiated the formation of the AfriICANN grouping within ICANN

"I am most interested in the issues of emerging economies and the use of ICT and the growth of the Internet or lack thereof over these environments. Therefore, the policies developed by ICANN over issues governing the global Internet particularly domain names could determine the gap in the digital divide within these economies...I have also initiated and pursuing the efforts for a successful launch of the '.Africa' continental domain name project within ICANN and the global African community” Sophia Bekele, Statement of Interest ICANN, 2005-2007

Championing the International Domain Name (IDN) Policy

As a GNSO adviser to ICANN Bekele participated actively in policy development for IDNs and campaigned for the efforts to introduce IDNs in the ICANN policy dialog. She was later credited for championing the inclusion of the global IDN community within this policy dialogue and nominated to chair ICANN's IDN Working Group. She was one of the co-authors of ICANN's IDN policy guidelines.

Bekele successfully made the case at ICANN on behalf of the global IDN community. In a written Testimonial, the various leaders of the IDN group gave her the following citations:

"Bekele was very influential in drafting the IDN policy guidelines as well as developing a framework for leading a language group. This required contentious and controversial matters with complicated political and commercial implications and interests. Ms Bekele strongly advocated and further went on to aggressively bring the voices of the global public of early adapters of IDN businesses and countries who implemented IDNs to the policy of ICANN" -Mr. Yoav Karen, the then Member of the ICANN's President IDN Advisory Committee, Current ICANN gNSO Council member and Executive member of the IDRU.

"..Ms. Bekele, as a former GNSO advisor to ICANN, you have worked hard and long to champion Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). You have made the case within ICANN for a policy development process that will see IDNs in service of the world community. And you have done so successfully." - David Allen Executive Director 05 December 2010, Internationalized Domain Resolution Union.

"The call for such Pan-African brand was largely initiated by Sophia Bekele who is no newcomer to spearheading new ways of thinking at ICANN. Years ago, her heroic efforts during her tenure as a newbie GNSO advisor to ICANN, in reversing the disastrous and misguided course that IDN policy took within ICANN at that time is now well documented and clearly attested to by the opposite direction in which the IDN portion of the new GTLD process at ICANN has since gone as bespeaks a true visionary, while she never been shy of controversy, under her stewardship DCA for the past 5 years continued with unflagging effort to promote the cause and need for .africa gtld. The Tireless campaign for .Africa has earned DCA respects in the ranks of internet technology movers and shakers" - Dr. Subbiah, Chairman iDNS.net Intl, Ex Stanford University, Co Inventor of IDN.

"During my acquaintance with Sophia, she was championing IDNs which I had previously implemented in March 1998...., Sophia pushed very hard for a policy dialog through the GNSO Board and finally through the ICANN Board, where we now have IDN policy formally ......I found Sophia to be a quick learner on new issues, persistent and courageous. She is a team player with integrity." - Dr. Tin Wee Tan, Associate Professor, Dept of Biochemistry, National University of Singapore, INTERNET HALL of FAMER

Championing the .africa (dotAfrica) gTLD Project

Following her important experiences gained from her work as gNSO advisor to ICANN and successful achievement of IDN work for ICANN and for the global internet community, Bekele started the DotAfrica initiative. Bekele made a clear case for a DotAfrica (.africa) gTLD for Africa within ICANN and also the global Internet Community on behalf of the global African and Pan-African constituency., ,,. She soon led the .africa initiative. under a successful venture DotConnectAfrica organization, a non-profit, non-partisan self start-up, and traveled throughout the various African countries and globally speaking and advocating the benefit of adapting to a .AFRICA Top Level Domain name (TLD) for the African Continent. Her most significant accomplishment so far for the .africa gTLD project is undertaking and sustaining a successful global campaign, under a “Yes2dotafrica” theme, energizing it and giving it global momentum and raising its Pan-African and International profile to a position of relevance, and introducing it to the Pan-African inter-governmental organizations – the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Union Commission (AUC) and getting them to endorse it. , . Bekele's presentations, speeches and publications used for this global campaign and promotional work to create awareness of the .africa TLD are chronicled by the international and local media and the internet widely and captured on the Organization's website.

Bekele, therefore, was recognized and credited for her global campaign efforts by the global internet community as well as various leading African and international media. As such, was credited by the Economist as "leading the .africa initiative". The Diplomat East Africa named her "Brains Behind .africa" . Enterprise Technology Magazine called her "Sophia Bekele: Ethiopian Champion of .africa initiative" The New African Uk, named her one of 50 African Trailblazers under 50, noting her successful six-year Yes2dotAfrica global awareness campaign for the Africa Top Level Domain Name. CIO East Africa calling her views "controversial" on who should run gTLDs, saying "Sophia Bekele has been in the news if not for promoting DotConnectAfrica’s bid for the DotAfrica geographical gTLD for the past three years, then in a controversial statement about the same":

".. Governments have a role to play, especially regarding the establishment of an enabling and supportive environment for ICT initiatives to thrive. However, there is a role for everybody, and global Internet governance is currently based on a multi-stakeholder modeled by ICANN. Governments already have their two-code country-level top-level domains (cc TLDs), but they also have a role to endorse geographical gTLDs. The problem is that this power to endorse is often interpreted and extended to include overall sovereignty over the new gTLD. We believe this should not be the case since it is monopolistic and anti-competitive coupled with problems of lack of transparency and accountability...-Sophia Bekele, in an interview on 09 March 2012, for the main story of CIO East Africa, ."

Bekele currently oversees the .africa new gTLD initiative of DotConnectAfrica Trust. As Executive Director of DCA Trust & CEO of DotConnectAfrica Registry Services Limited, she has led a multi-national team of experts to prepare and submit an application for the DotAfrica (.AFRICA) generic Top-Level Domain. DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust) has already submitted an application in May 2012 for the .AFRICA (pronounced as ‘DotAfrica’) geographic name string to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a U.S.-based non-profit organization that is overseeing the global Internet expansion project to introduce new generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs) under the new gTLD Program.

During ICANN's new gTLDs initial evaluation of applications, Sophia Bekele’s organization DotConnectAfrica’s application passed all the evaluation criteria including Financial, Technical and Operational Capability Evaluation Panels, however, the application was stopped due to the governmental objections effected at the ICANN Beijing meeting.

DCA Trust then filed for an independent review of its application at the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (“ICDR”), the international arm of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) of its application in October 2013 disagreeing with ICANN Board decision which was called “unfair, discriminatory, and lacked appropriate due diligence and care” as well as “anti-competitive” to their application and organizational aspirations.

DCA Trust won Round one in its case against ICANN for the ".africa" domain on May 12 2014 when the panel declared ICANN must immediately refrain from any further processing of any application for .africa.

On 14 August 2014, the panel also issued a precedence setting ruling to accept DCA Trust's position on the procedural framework of the IRP proceedings and also terming its Declaration and the future Declaration on the Merits of the case are binding on ICANN.

Independent Panel ruled in favor of DCA Trust

On July 9 2015 the IRP independent review panel made its final ruling which declared that both actions and inactions of the Board with respect to the application of DCA Trust relating to the .AFRICA gTLD was inconsistent with the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws of ICANN and thus declared DCA Trust as the prevailing party of the DCA Trust Vs ICANN IRP. Further declared that ICANN is to bear, pursuant to Article IV, Section 3, paragraph 18 of the Bylaws, Article 11 of Supplementary Procedures and Article 31 of the ICDR Rules, the totality of the costs of this IRP and the totality of the costs of the IRP Provider.

Controversies

In October 2012, DCA published a press release saying that their Wikipedia sites willfully sabotaged. Entries on Wikipedia sites containing DotConnectAfrica, .africa, and Sophia Bekele ,were modified. According to the press release, some information that had been unmodified for over five years was removed from Wikipedia and replaced by new versions where DCA's involvement with .africa, DCA's working history, and Bekele's credentials were downplayed. The Press Release states this was done by DotConnectAfrica's opponents on .africa controversies.

The information from Wikipedia was captured by the biography of her personal website

CBS International

Ms. Bekele founded CBS International, a private corporation with the goal of technology transfer to emerging economies. The company also consults on Systems Integration, Internet solutions, Business Process Engineering, implementation of Corporate Strategy & Governance, Sarbane Oxley compliance initiatives, public policy on ICT/telecom. It is based near Silicon Valley, California.

CBS International also set up SbCommunications Network, an Ethiopian IT company. In 2002 SbCNet was known for being successfully awarded a highly controversial bid for a government contract to build an integrated information network infrastructure for the Ethiopian Parliament.

Ms. Bekele and her company CBS International have also assisted various U.S. Clients in the public/private markets, primarily in corporate governance and risk management areas, including the recent Sarbanes-Oxley ACT, GAAP & PCAOB. In these areas, her selected clients have included OnScreen Technologies, Inc. (OTC), Intel Corp. (Nasdaq) BDO Sieldman LLP, Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLB), Genentech Corp (Gene).

DotConnectAfrica (DCA)

Bekele’s recent venture is the establishment of the DotConnectAfrica Trust and DotConnectAfrica Registry Services Limited, which is well-known for its successful six-year Yes2dotAfrica global awareness campaign for the .Africa Top Level Domain Name. Bekele made a clear case for a DotAfrica (.africa) gTLD for Africa within ICANN and introduced it to the PanAfrican organizations in Africa such as UNECA and African Union and the global publics. She then received endorsements from both organizations in 2008 and 2009 respectively, and the global IDN working group for her DotAfrica Initiative. Currently, Bekele's focus is on the .africa – a new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) for the Africa geographic name that she initiated during her appointment at ICANN. The project will be introduced and delegated for operation under ICANN’s new gTLD programme.

To successfully drive this vision and strategy, DCA has assembled a high-profile Global Strategic Advisory Team comprised of technology analysts and visionaries, Internet domain industry experts, entrepreneurs, business executives and leaders in various sectors and walks of life, to provide strategic guidance and input to the work of DCA on a regular basis. To learn more on DCA's work, its organizational structure, partnerships and locations, please refer to DotConnectAfrica

Speakings and Writings

Sophia is regularly invited to speak on international fora to present her work in technology transfer and has been credited for bringing powerful advanced information technology to the developing world, with long-standing initiatives to bring the internet to Africa. She spoke as one Africa Diaspora Leader panelist at the GES-Global Tech Entrepreneurship Summit in Silicon Valley, USA organized by USAID and White house State Dpartment , delivered a trending Keynote at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business , delivered a keynote address at the City University of New York (CUNY) 2014 Young African Leadership Symposium; spoke on Digital Innovation in Africa and moderated a high-level panel on US-Africa Relations in Gabon; presented a keynote remark for the ITU International Girls day in 2014 in Addis Ababa; spoke at the Yale University on 'Africa: Economic Development Through Technology'; spoke as member of a high-level panel on ICT at the United Nations General Assembly in New York; spoke at ITU “ConnectAfrica” Heads of State submit in Kigali Rwanda; panelist at " I don't know how to CEO" at Stanford University California alongside founders and executives of Pandora, YouTube, Gmail, and Yahoo featuring people that have made great impact!; speaker at "Rebranding Africa" with African Leadership Retreat in South Africa; Panelist on "How to build a Top Level Domain Community" in Munich, Germany; and a KeyNote address at the "Launch of the DotAfrica East African campaign" during the annual AITEC East Africa Summit"

She has been involved in public affairs commentary and continues to write articles on technology for development, Internet Governance, Cybersecurity, regional economic integration, good governance, business and politics; that have been published in different newspapers, journals and Internet websites

Other Endeavors and Leadership Positions

With registered successes in ICT project delivery, Bekele has been elected and served on a number of United Nations initiatives, such as the UN-ICT Taskforce and UNECA-sponsored African Information Society Initiative (AISI) and East African Representative to the African Regional Network (ARN), UNGAID, and UNPAN, where she represents the private sector in discussions about the economic development of Africa. The African Information Society Initiative (AISI) advised the UN Under-Secretary General of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa on building a new information society for Africa. The ATAC formulated policy and provided policy guidance and direction especially on how to reduce the digital divide between the developed countries of the West and Africa. During this period of her appointment to the African Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC) by H.E. K.Y. Amoako, then Executive Secretary of the UNECA, Bekele co-authored the 'Common Position for Africa's Digital Inclusion', which was developed in response to the ECA Conference of Minister's Resolution 812 (XXXI). The 'Common Position' was a blueprint that reflected Africa's ICT position communicated to various global forums such as the G8 DOT Force, ECOSOC, the UN Task Force, World Economic Forum, NEPAD initiatives, etc. She has since continued to use this identifying framework for future ICT projects and activities that are geared towards building a 21st-century e-enabled society in Africa.

Bekele is also a co-founder and Executive Board Member of Internet Society Chapter (ISOC) San Francisco Bay and was elected and served for two tenures as Alumni Board member of Golden Gate University. Bekele was a former Board Member of ISACA (Information Systems and Control Association), and a steering committee member to the World Affairs Council, Contra Costa. Bekele has also served as an Ambassador to various Rotary Clubs, where she has earned the recognition of a Paul Harris Fellow for her contributions.

Domain Industry Advocacy

Bekele's early advocacy work on New gTLDs and the Domain Industry, in general, can be attested through the tireless presentations, speeches and publications used as part of the global campaign and promotional work to create awareness of the .africa TLD; and are chronicled by the international and local media and the internet widely, and captured on the Organization's website

Watch Sophia Bekele, discuss the domain industry during the African development Bank (ADB) annual meeting at Abidjan capital of Ivory Coast for the Movers & Shakers of Africa hosted by Jeff Koinange, former CNN Africa host and now at K24 a Leading TV station in Kenya.

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External Links

1. The Africa MIGworks event Addis ‐ Ababa, , The development of the DNS industry and business in Africa, 6 ‐8 March 2013
2. Open letter to Congress, Sophia Bekele wrote an open letter to congress to defend status quo of internet governance, July 13, 2012
3. Application to ICANN, , DCA Trust has applied to ICANN for the ".Africa" Geographic name, June 05, 2012
4. Defending Multi Stakeholder model, , Bekele writing on Internet Governance:, April 5, 2012
5. DotConnectAfrica Welcome 2012 - The Year for new gTLDs,Welcome 2012 - The Year for new gTLDs - Yes2dotAfrica Campaign, Jan 14, 2011
6. DotConnectAfrica to ICANN, DCA's Executive Briefing Note following, Executive Briefing Note at the ICANN-42 Public Forum Meeting at Dakar, Senegal, Oct 23, 2011
7. Champion of .africa, Sophia Bekele named as Champion of the .africa initiative,, June, 21, 2011
8. Thank you Note, Bekele thankful for support and encouragement of the .africa initiative , June 11, 2011
9. Open letter to NTIA-US Department of Commerce, Sophia Bekele sent an open letter to the NTIA making a preliminary case for the .africa gTLD, Jan 20, 2011
10. DotConnectAfrica, spoke on way-forward on the contribution of the ".africa" name to an ICT enabled environment, and launched its "Yes to a .africa Campaign", at the AITEC ICT summit held in Nairobi, Kenya.html, Sep 11, 2010
11. Bekele, Ms.Sophia Bekele, provided a Keynote address for AITEC Summit during the opening panel discussions.html, Sep 11,2010
12. DotConnectAfrica, DotConnectAfrica registered maximum success in East Africa as the voice was echoed globally.html, April 06, 2010
13. Policy Development,Statement of Interest (SOI) Members of the Vertical Integration Policy Development Process Working Group, April, 01, 2010
14. Public Forum announcement, African Union endorsment of ".Africa" and urging for ICANN to expedite process for TLDs,Nairobi, March,11,2010
15. DotConnectAfrica, African Union endorsed the domain name ".Africa" to DotConnectAfrica org, Addis Ababa, February 18, 2010
16. Policy Development,Statement of Interest (SOI) for the Policy Development Process Steering Committee-Policy Development Team, March 19, 2009
17. Internet Governance, Internet Governanace & Policy Divide, San Francisco, March 10, 2009
18. Public Forum announcement, Continuing interest in the work of ICANN, IDNs and DotAfrica, Paris, June 25, 2008
19. Farewells, ICANN Meeting...and had a lot of respect for, Cary Karp from registries, Mawaki Chango, noncommercial, Ross Rader, registrar, and Sophia Bekele, the NomCom appointee..., ICANN Public Forum, Part 2 Thursday, 1 November 2007
20. DotAfrica, [http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/jpacomments2007/jpacomment_069.pdf DotAfrica�s position on JPA -National Telecommunications and Information Administration], NITA, Los Angeles, California, Feb 2008
    
21. AfriICANN-discuss, A debate on dot.africa, Nov 2007
    
22. AfrICANN-discuss, DotConnectAfrica's initiation of DotAfrica), Nov 2007
    
23. Aftld-Discuss [AfriICANN-discuss], Who is DotAfrica?, Nov 2007
    
24. ICANN IDN, GNSO Final report, Oct 2007
    
25. AfriICANN-Discuss, [http://lists.aftld.org/pipermail/aftld-discuss/2007-October/000183.html Dot Africa�s position on fast tracking of IDN ccTLD], Oct 2007
    
26. GNSO IDN, Comments in Response to the ccNSO-GAC Issues report on IDN Issues, Aug 2007
    
27. GNSO IDN, Outcome Report of the GNSO IDN Working group, Mar 2007
    
28. At-Large policy, Policy matters for conference call agenda, Mar 2007
    
29. AfriIcann, Going forward with ICANN- The African Region Perspective, Mar 2007
    
30. AfriICANN, ICANN - GNSo Policy update - presentation to African Group by Sophia Bekele, Lisbon, Mar 2007
    
31. GNSO IDN, Outcome Report of the GNSO IDN WG, Mar 2007
    
32. GNSO IDN Regarding IDN Working Group membership issues, Mar 2007
    
33. ICANN IDN, IDN Working Group, Jan 2007
    
34. GNSO-IDN-Working Group, IDN Chair Nomination, Oct 2006
    
35. ICANNwiki, ICANNWiki Caricature, Wellington New Zealand, Mar 2006
    
36. DotConnectAfrica's Website,dotconnectafrica.org - African's Map on Digital Inclusion, Mar 2006
    
37. GNSO IDN On IDN dialog - a debate with John C. Klensin, On IDN dialog - a debate with John C. Klensin, Mar 2006
    
38. ICANN, Nominating Committee | Biographical Information on the ..., Nov 2005
    
39. ICANN NomComm ICANN | Nominating Committee Announces Final Selections for Key leadership positions..., Vancouver, Canada Nov 2005
    
40. ICANN, Sophia Bekele, Statement of Interest, Nov 2005
    
41. ISOC, appointment to a founding member & board of directors of Internet Society, San Francisco (ISOC-SF), San Francisco, Ca, March 2009
    
42. GGU, Internet Governance and the policy divide, San Francisco, Ca, March 2009
    
43. IP Justice, New Domain Names (gtlds), Sao Paulo Brazil, Dec 2006
    
44. Andrew Mack, Andy's Global View: In a world of .com and .org, why not .Africa?, Sept 2007
    
45. Del Rey Studios "A New Hope" the idea of 'ICANN The Movie' was born! Mar 2007
    
46. TWiNic, NomComm announcement - Sophia Bekele, Nov 2005
    
47. JPNic,NomComm announcement -Sophia Bekele, Nov 2005

Generic Names Supporting Organization. Develops and recommends to the Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains and other responsibilities set forth in the Bylaws (ICANN Bylaws).

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