Tom Thorley is head of T&S at Github and was the Director of Technology at the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) and delivers cross-platform technical solutions for GIFCT members.

He worked for over a decade at the British government’s signals intelligence agency, GCHQ, where Tom specialized in issues at the nexus of technology and human behavior. Tom spent five years working in the US Government, Military and Intelligence agencies to coordinate intergovernmental relationships and providing expert consultancy on cyber issues, disinformation, technology strategy and operational planning. Prior to his deployment to the US, Tom built and operationalized Data Science teams to inform operations and discover threats, particularly focused on counter-terrorism.

As a passionate advocate for responsible technology, Tom is a mentor with All Tech Is Human and Coding It Forward and also volunteers with America On Tech and DataKind.

Tom is a graduate of the University of Liverpool (BA) and the University of Bath (PgC)

I am Yup’ik Eskimo and Indigenous person from Alaska.  I have grown up in Alaska all my many years of life.  I have a 20 year old daughter and 9 year old son.  I was involved in finance and accounting with a local CPA firm for 7 years before starting a nonprofit organization with two other Indigenous Alaskans.   I am excited to learn and help bring the internet to connect our communities.  I hope to continue to use my education, knowledge and experience with the Internet Society and people in a team who are different from me to build internet policy, data, and infrastructure to bridge the digital divide and bring resilience in resolving challenges that become opportunities to build friendships, communities, and bridges for our youth and elders to shape the future of the internet that keeps humanity informed with truth and facts, from reliable data, and connected with the people we care about.  I believe in the mission of the Internet Society and look forward to connecting in the space that’s always been.

Michael Snell, Board Member & President – Mike Snell spent 12 years in various IT responsibilities at Cisco Systems, largely managing teams delivering a variety of global IT services. Before changing to an IT career, Mike worked for Compaq, Tandem Computers and Digital Equipment Corporation in various facilities and corporate real estate management responsibilities (including data center and lab construction). He also ran his own facilities management consulting firm for several years, specializing in IT-related facilities design and construction projects. Mike took advantage of Cisco’s Enhanced Early Retirement Program because it was, well… pretty enhanced– and it gave him time to devote to interesting and worthwhile volunteer work (like this). Mike also serves as the President of the InterPlanetary Networking Chapter of the Internet Society. He agrees with Jim Ausman that the Internet is like magic.

Susannah is a strategic communications expert, content creator, social media manager and project coordinator with a background in Internet governance and multi-stakeholder, community-driven communication and PR. She firmly believes that the Internet can empower individuals and communities to change their circumstances through open innovation and access to information and collaborates with organisations working to make the world a better place on – and off – line. She has spent the last 15 years promoting and protecting the concept of an open, inclusive and sustainable Internet as part of the Internet technical community and has a deep understanding of the Internet ecosystem, and the issues affecting the Internet’s end users. Susannah has worked for organizations including ICANN, the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), the Seed Alliance and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to name a few. In 1999 Susannah moved from the UK to the Netherlands where she lived for 15 years before making the move to California in 2014, a decision in which the weather factored more than it probably should have. Having been away from her homeland for almost half her life, she considers herself to be a global citizen and has traveled extensively around the world for both business and adventure and has no intention of stopping any time soon. She served as President of the SF Bay Area ISOC Chapter from 2016 – 2018 and as Vice President in 2015. In 2019, she was elected to the Internet Society Chapter Advisory Council Steering Committee for a one year term. She also served as Board Advisor from 2019 – May 2020 and as the Chapter’s ICANN NARALO Representative from 2015 – 2020.

Misako Manca, Board Secretary, brings over 15 years of experience in the Telecommunications and Internet services industry to the Board and was most recently part of the Enterprise Sales group at IBM/SoftLayer. Prior to SoftLayer, she held various positions in sales management and in sales with Ajilon Consulting, Equinix and NTT/Verio (now NTT America). She has lived in Japan, Australia and various cities within the US.

Misako has been supporting and contributing to the Networking Engineering community (North American Network Operators Group – NANOG) until recently as a Board member and as Chair of the Development Committee. She has been involved with NANOG since 2009 in various capacities through the NewNOG transition. She helped jumpstart the NOGLab (formerly named the Vendor Collaboration Room) working closely with vendors who are able to demonstrate their product capabilities in relation to IPv6 deployment. Through her work in the Development Committee, she has helped create sponsorship programs that help to financially support the NANOG meetings and hopes further contribute to the association for years to come since this is the community of engineers that manage and maintain the Internet.

As a SF Bay ISOC Board Member, Misako hopes to help promote inclusiveness by volunteering time and resources to bring more light to the challenges that surround some global communities and helping to devise programs to help those that do not currently have consistent access to the Internet to improve their lives and circumstances.

Leah Symekher is a business development professional with extensive experience managing global clients, building strategic relationships and partnerships, identifying customer needs and aligning appropriate solutions, stakeholder management, and project management.

For the last 15 years, Leah has worked for and contributed to multiple technology companies, specifically those dealing with Internet network infrastructure, DNS, security, SaaS and datacenter services. These organizations include: ICANN, ISOC, Internet Systems Corporation (ISC), Skybox Security, Equinix-Palo Alto Internet Exchange (PAIX) and Microsoft. Her portfolio of customers cuts across various industries including ccTLDS, RIRs, gTLDs, technology, telecommunications, cable service providers, finance and government. Leah’s understanding of Internet infrastructure and of the Internet ecosystem making the Internet operational, open, accessible and secure fuels her passion to support issues facing the Internet end-user community.

Leah has been actively involved with the San Francisco Bay Area ISOC Chapter (SF Bay Area ISOC) since 2012. She initially worked closely with the founders of the Chapter to facilitate membership growth, stakeholder engagement and capacity building. In January 2014, Leah was elected Chapter President & Chair after serving on the Board as Vice Chair. During her three-year leadership term Leah achieved the following: growth of the SFBay Area Chapter membership to over 2000, diversification of Board membership and leadership team, positive financial budget, initiation of funding sponsorship program, developed regional partnerships with leading organizations (LinkedIn, Google, Cloudflare, EFF, USAID, CSU-Chico, Valley Vision, Mozilla, Silicon Valley AgTech etc.), strengthened relationships with global ISOC and other ISOC Chapters, implemented communication strategies through social media channels and monthly newsletters, developed a new Chapter website and held quarterly regional events that included the IoT conference.

After completing her three-year term as President & Chair in December 2016, Leah was appointed as Chapter Board Advisor and Project Manager (PM) in December 2016 to provide continuity and support for the leadership team and to manage Chapter projects. Leah also continued in her role as the primary representative for ICANN’s North America Regional At-Large Organization (NARALO) for the Chapter. As project manager and Board Advisor Leah successfully applied for funding and grants that supported the Chapter’s largest and most successful project that highlighted the digital divide in California. The results of this project were presented at the annual Silicon Valley IoT AgTech Conference in 2018 and continue to contribute significantly to broadband policy discussions affecting rural regions in the U.S.

As ICANN NARALO Primary Representative, Leah was nominated to the ICANN Nominating Committee (NomCom) in 2017, an independent body mandated to recruit and appoint ICANN Board Members. She participated in 11 sub-committees and chaired the Outreach Sub-committee leading a global team. Responsibilities included collaborating with ICANN staff to develop educational videos, stakeholder engagement and developing new partnerships for executive recruitment for the ICANN Board with a focus on diversity, engagement and transparency. She served on the NomCom from 2017-2019 which appointed 18 ICANN Board members (NomCom 2018 and NomCom 2019). Leah is currently (2019-2020) a member of the NomCom Review Implementation Working Group (NomComRIWG) which is implementing ICANN community proposed changes to the NomCom.

Leah was born in Kenya, East Africa, and worked for several years in Japan as an International Liaison. After Japan, she pursued academic studies at the University of Washington in the U.S where she studied International Studies & Business and Japanese Language. Leah is project manager certified through the University of California, Berkeley. Leah is a true global citizen with many multicultural experiences, linguistic skills and has travelled extensively internationally for both business and pleasure.

Janet Vong, Manager of Membership Communications & Engagement, is a project coordinator, content policy expert, and mindfulness community organizer. She holds experience from YouTube and Facebook, and has a huge passion for educating young people and developing communities about Internet safety and security. Janet is a 3-year honors graduate from UC Santa Barbara, and received her bachelor’s degree in Linguistics in 2012. Having studied 7+ languages, she strives to learn a new language every other year as a way to become exposed to more diverse cultures. Janet is a bay area native, and during her childhood, she remembers becoming curious about Internet trends after questioning why she was receiving a ton of spammy chain letters via email from her older cousin. As Manager of Membership Communications & Engagement, she promises to not send chain letters to the members. When she’s not on the Internet, she can be found playing music, scuba diving, and enjoying nature with friends and family.

Konstantin Kalaitzidis, Vice Chair & Board Secretary – Konstantin’s expertise is in the areas of Aerospace engineering, Internet engineering, technical program management, project management, and architecture. He has led strategic, enterprise-level, technology and infrastructure programs, build integrated architecture frameworks, and worked on research, design, analysis, and test projects. He has also managed global teams that included direct-report, dotted-line, virtual, and contractor staff. Konstantin has held positions in the Aerospace and Networking industry in several roles including Engineer, Project Manager, Release Manager, Program Manager, and IT Manager. He has led global and regional teams, and partnered with technical and business groups to establish strategic frameworks that enabled delivery of enterprise level services. In addition, he supported University Relations recruiting events, and established partnerships with campus professional organizations. Konstantin developed his entrepreneurial and internet skills by founding CoastsideNet Internet Services, Inc., an Internet Service Provider for coastside communities south of San Francisco. Prior to CoastsideNet, he gained extensive experience in aerospace engineering at Lockheed, in the areas of engineering research, design, analysis and test of space systems. Konstantin is a member of the Internet Society, San Francisco Bay Area chapter (SFBay-ISOC). He represents the SFBay-ISOC community as the Primary Contact for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) North America Regional At-Large Organization (NARALO), and leads activities related to developing Digital Divide solutions. He is also a volunteer at the Foothill College KFJC radio station, focusing on his proposed contribution to include “Science Updates” as part of regular programming. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University, in Aerospace Engineering.

Denise Lai – Director of Membership Management – Denise is a serial adopter of new internet technologies and greatly appreciates all who create the magic that is the internet.  She believes strongly in technologies that serve us in meaningful ways in RL (Real Life).  She is a facilitator: from free-schooling her daughter to connecting people with information, structured data, and/or tools at work, to helping start-ups better meet the needs of customers, improve direct and social marketing communications, and optimize growth strategies (see LinkedIn here).  She is keen to help eradicate the Digital Divide, to expand access and information-sharing worldwide so that more decisions more often will recognize interdependence, take greater responsibility for, and effectively reduce, inequalities and/or negative externalities that cause suffering, scarcity, and disease.

is a member of the SF Bay Area ISOC chapter and, as its “global ambassador”, he reports monthly to its Board on Internet trends and challenges worldwide. Currently a member of the NetMundial Initiative Coordination Council (NMI-CC), and of the NTIA IANA Functions’ Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG). During his service on the ICANN Board (2007-10), was a member of the President’s Strategy Committee, co-authoring “Improving Institutional Confidence” and its recommendations; was first Chair of the Public participation committee; initiated and was an inaugural member of the Global relationships committee. As a member of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) in ICANN (2010-14), launched the Future Challenges Working Group, co-authoring “Making ICANN Relevant, Responsive and Respected (R3)”. Has a keen interest in Internet governance.  Subrenat is a retired French diplomat (1972-2005) and Ambassador (1995-2005). Former Chair of the advisory board, Institut Pierre Werner (Luxembourg), former special advisor to the board of Neumunster cultural centre (CCRN, Luxembourg) and, in that capacity, served on the board of the European Union national institutes of culture (EUNIC).

Leah Symekher is a business development professional with extensive experience managing global clients, building strategic relationships and partnerships, identifying customer needs and aligning appropriate solutions, stakeholder management, and project management.

For the last 15 years, Leah has worked for and contributed to multiple technology companies, specifically those dealing with Internet network infrastructure, DNS, security, SaaS and datacenter services. These organizations include: ICANN, ISOC, Internet Systems Corporation (ISC), Skybox Security, Equinix-Palo Alto Internet Exchange (PAIX) and Microsoft. Her portfolio of customers cuts across various industries including ccTLDS, RIRs, gTLDs, technology, telecommunications, cable service providers, finance and government. Leah’s understanding of Internet infrastructure and of the Internet ecosystem making the Internet operational, open, accessible and secure fuels her passion to support issues facing the Internet end-user community.

Leah has been actively involved with the San Francisco Bay Area ISOC Chapter (SF Bay Area ISOC) since 2012. She initially worked closely with the founders of the Chapter to facilitate membership growth, stakeholder engagement and capacity building. In 2013, Leah was elected Chapter President & Chair in after serving on the Board as Vice Chair. During her three-year leadership term Leah achieved the following: growth of the SFBay Area Chapter membership to over 2000, diversification of Board membership and leadership team, positive financial budget, initiation of funding sponsorship program, developed regional partnerships with leading organizations (LinkedIn, Google, Cloudflare, EFF, USAID, CSU-Chico, Valley Vision, Mozilla, Silicon Valley AgTech etc.), strengthened relationships with global ISOC and other ISOC Chapters, implemented communication strategies through social media channels and monthly newsletters, developed a new Chapter website and held quarterly regional events that included the IoT conference.

After completing her three-year term as President & Chair, Leah was appointed as Chapter Board Advisor and Project Manager (PM) in December 2016 to provide continuity and support for the leadership team and to manage Chapter projects. Leah also continued in her role as the primary representative for ICANN’s North America Regional At-Large Organization (NARALO) for the Chapter. As project manager and Board Advisor Leah successfully applied for funding and grants that supported the Chapter’s largest and most successful project that highlighted the digital divide in California. The results of this project were presented at the Silicon Valley AgTech Conference in 2018 and continue to contribute significantly to broadband policy discussions affecting rural regions in the U.S.

As ICANN NARALO Primary Representative, Leah was nominated to the ICANN Nominating Committee (NomCom) in 2017, an independent body mandated to recruit and appoint ICANN Board Members. She participated in 11 sub-committees and chaired the Outreach Sub-committee leading a global team. Responsibilities included collaborating with ICANN staff to develop educational videos, stakeholder engagement and developing new partnerships for executive recruitment for the ICANN Board with a focus on diversity, engagement and transparency. She served on the NomCom from 2017-2019 which appointed 18 ICANN Board members. Leah is currently (2019-2020) a member of the NomCom Review Implementation Working Group (NomComRIWG) which is implementing ICANN community proposed changes to the NomCom.

Leah was born in Kenya, East Africa, and worked for several years in Japan as an International Liaison. After Japan, she pursued academic studies at the University of Washington in the U.S where she studied International Studies & Business and Japanese Language. Leah is project manager certified through the University of California, Berkeley. Leah is a true global citizen with many multicultural experiences, linguistic skills and has travelled extensively internationally for both business and pleasure.