The Nominees

I am interested in serving again on ISOC (Lebanon Chapter) Board and being semi-retired, I will be able to devote the appropriate time to the Board service.
My predominant interests at this phase are the bottom-up multi-stakeholder Internet governance and the empowerment of ISOC chapters as I believe that the chapters have a crucial role to play in the transformation of the Internet Society into a real international bottom-up multistakeholder organization. I’ve been, for a while now, actively involved in these areas at the national, regional and international levels and within special working groups formed by ICANN, ISOC, and WEF.
My professional experience spans from Higher Education and Healthcare in a 501(c) US accredited university, to the establishment of the .lb ccTLD registry and managing it as a pro bono registry operated by volunteers, to the co-founding of ISOC Lebanon Chapter, Beirut Internet Exchange, and the Lebanese Internet Center.
I believe that the Internet is at a critical crossroad and the board of ISOC Lebanon should focus on:
ISOC Lebanon Chapter internal issues such as enlarging, diversifying and engaging its membership base, diversifying its financing mechanisms, improving its marketing and presence;
Local issues such as Internet governance in Lebanon, online regulations, access, infrastructure, quality of service, cybersecurity, online privacy, personal data protection, trust and emerging technologies such IoT, cloud, AI, online transaction, online payments, blockchain and crypto-technologies; and
Regional and global issues such as global Internet governance, fragmentation of the Internet, cyberspace security, access divide, trust, routing stability and security, and conflict resolution, arbitration and remediation mechanisms.
Throughout my carrier, I embraced leadership and administrative responsibilities and transitioned away from strictly technical computing and networking into strategic, governance, regulatory, policy development, lobbying and fundraising space. Accordingly, I believe that I will be able to contribute and add value in driving ISOC Lebanon Chapter in the development and execution of its strategic goals for the betterment of the Internet in Lebanon and globally.
I also declare that I have no potential conflict of interests.
Thank you for your consideration.

Nabil's Biography:

Nabil Bukhalid is an Internet evangelist and Internet Hall of Fame inductee. Nabil is currently consulting in areas including Internet infrastructure and services, economic and social development utilizing technology, open data and the Internet, datacenters and cloud services, higher education networks, project management, Internet governance and an intersection of Internet policy and technology. He has lead technology efforts focused on Internet infrastructure, governance, and socio-economical impact. Nabil has made significant contributions to the introduction and development of the Internet in Lebanon. He has served since 1993 as the.LB Administrator and Registrar. Nabil is also the co-founder of the Lebanese Broadband Manifesto Support Group and Beirut IX. He is also a co-founder and ex-officio president of the Internet Society Lebanon Chapter (ISOC-LB), co-founder and CEO of the Lebanese Internet Center (LINC), advisory board member of the Lebanese Canadian Tech Hub and COO of Northern Investment Partners. He served for thirty years as the director of computing and networking services and chief enterprise architect at the American University of Beirut. Nabil attended AUB, where he earned both his BEE (1981) and EMBA (2006).​

As I am very much involved in the Lebanese start-up ecosystem in Lebanon since 2002, as well as administrating since inception the first Internet eXchange Point in Lebanon from 2007 to 2015, I believe I have particular expertise and interest in developing IXPs & Content Development Networks (CDNs) & IPv6 deployments, as well as entrepreneurship using the digital economy, which constitutes main pillars of ISOC Lebanon mandate, in which I can add value is on the board of ISOC Lebanon.

Nicolas' Biography:

Dr. Nicolas Rouhana is currently the General Manager of IM Capital, funded under USAID MENA Investment Initiative, providing Matching Capital, Equity Guarantee, and Technical Assistance to early-stage businesses and investors in Lebanon. Between 2002 & 2015, Dr. Rouhana was the Executive Director of Berytech Technological Pole, a leading Technology Business Innovation & Incubation Center in Lebanon. He was also the senior technical advisor to Berytech Fund, the first Lebanese Venture Capital fund for start-ups, and Associate Professor at Saint-Joseph University. He is Vice-President of Internet Society-Lebanon Chapter, a board member of Berytech, and the current Chairman of Speed@BDD the first tech accelerator in Lebanon. Nicolas has a Telecommunications Engineering degree from Saint-Joseph University in Beirut, a Ph.D. in Networking Systems from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, and an EDP graduate from INSEAD, France.