InternetNZ announces election results; awards Fellowships

InternetNZ (Internet New Zealand Inc) is pleased to announce results of this year's InternetNZ Council elections and the appointment of three new InternetNZ Fellows.

Election results were announced at InternetNZ’s Annual General Meeting last night. There were six nominations for four vacancies on Council. Results are as follows:

Nat Torkington, Dave Moskovitz, Donald Clark and Michael Wallmannsberger have been re-elected to their Councillor positions. All will serve a three-year term.

InternetNZ President Frank March says an excellent group of people were nominated this year, and warmly congratulates all of the successful candidates. “They have strong Internet-related track records and a passion for the goals and objectives of InternetNZ. I look forward to continuing to work and deliberate with them on Council,” he says.

The Annual General Meeting also saw three new InternetNZ Fellows appointed – Keith Davidson, David Farrar and Simon Riley.

InternetNZ Fellowships recognise members of the Internet industry who have made an outstanding contribution to the development of the Internet in New Zealand or the Society.

March extends his congratulations to Keith, Simon and David, noting their record of long and distinguished service to the New Zealand Internet.

“Keith has a long period of distinguished service to the Internet, not only in New Zealand but also in the Pacific. For many years he has been deeply involved in international bodies the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Asia Pacific Top level Domain Organisation (APTLD) and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

“Keith was elected to the Council of InternetNZ in 1998, became President in 2001 and then Executive Director in 2005. As Executive Director, Keith organised the highly-successful ICANN Wellington meeting in 2006. He tirelessly pushes a sane, Internet-based agenda and is totally unafraid of standing up to vested interests.

“David has a long history of distinguished service to InternetNZ. He was elected to the Council in 1998, and served as Vice President from 2003 to 2007. He was one of the principal architects of the current governance framework for .nz and was particularly successful in negotiating the sale of Domainz to Melbourne IT in 2003. He served for many successful years on the NZRS board and presently serves on the DNCL board.

“David has been crucial in much of the policy and advocacy work of InternetNZ and is Chair of the Policy Advisory Group. His seemingly boundless energy is used to lobby consistently for the Internet in New Zealand. In addition he is arguably New Zealand’s most widely read and quoted political blogger.

“Simon has made an enormous contribution across a wide range of fields over many years. He has a long history of IT and Internet activism, especially in Wellington. He was one of the primary movers behind Fran Wilde's Digital City strategy for Wellington. He was one of the people behind the creation of CityLink and establishment of the E-Vision Centre in Wellington. He influenced the commissioning of the Zwimpfer Report that lead to the formation of New Zealand’s Advanced Research and Education Network (REANNZ) and was a founder of the 2020 Communications Trust. At present, he is a major motivating force within the New Zealand IPv6 Task Force.

“Simon was a very active member of the InternetNZ Council from 2001 to 2007 and was responsible for many other initiatives that have come out of InternetNZ, including the Cyberlaw Fellowship in partnership with Victoria University of Wellington.”