InternetNZ farewells Council members

InternetNZ farewells Council members

InternetNZ (The Internet Society of New Zealand) farewells several of its long-serving Council members this month.

President Colin Jackson, Vice President David Farrar and Councillor Simon Riley are amongst a group who are standing down from their governance roles at InternetNZ at this years Annual General Meeting on 27 July.

InternetNZ executive director Keith Davidson acknowledges the valuable contribution made to the organisation by all the outgoing members, particularly Jackson, Farrar and Riley who are on InternetNZ's executive committee.

“The hard work and dedication of the executive governance members has resulted in a range of tangible outcomes over the past couple of years, including the significant reduction of wholesale prices in DSL services, anti-spam legislation and the massive telecommunications regulatory reforms. This group has also had significant input into the Copyright Amendment Bill, which is currently before Parliament's Commerce Committee.”

This group have also made significant contributions to the internal structural review of InternetNZ, which sees a number of recommendations going forward to members for consideration at this years AGM, Davidson says.

The outgoing Council members have all had longstanding associations with InternetNZ.

Jackson has served as InternetNZ president and councillor since 2005 and was treasurer from 1995 to 1998. He was a councillor from 1995 to 1999 and has been a member of the .nz Oversight Committee since 2003. He has resigned to allow time to pursue private interests.

Farrar has been InternetNZ vice president since 2003 and was secretary from 2001 to 2003. He has served as a councillor since 1998. Farrar remains a director of the InternetNZ subsidiary company that runs the registry for the .nz domain name. Farrar has concluded his second term as Vice President, and as officers are term limited to 2 successive terms, is ineligible to re-stand.

Riley has been an InternetNZ councillor since 2001, and on the Executive Committee since 2003. Riley has worked tirelessly to bring new initiatives and thought leadership to the governance group. The establishment of the advanced research network KAREN last year was the realisation of conceptual work on Riley’s Next Generation Internet initiative.

Also retiring are Councillors' Mark Harris, Jennifer Northover and Michael Sutton.

Harris has been a councillor since 2005 and earlier served as councillor from 1996 to 2001. Northover has been a councillor since 1998. Recently Harris contributed significant time to trialing software for blocking child pornography, as part of a test group from DIA, Netsafe and InternetNZ.

Northover has held numerous roles in InternetNZ, including formerly chairing the social impact committee, and is InternetNZ’s longest serving councilor.

Sutton was a key driver for ENUM as a concept and contributed significantly to the creation of a strawman model for ENUM for New Zealand.

"The governance roles at InternetNZ are primarily voluntary, and the outstanding contribution made by the outgoing President, Vice President and Councillors is warmly acknowledged by myself and the InternetNZ staff," Davidson states.

"There will be a gap left by the departure of this group, but the list of candidates to fill the vacancies sees a contest for the positions of President and Vice President, and 11 nominations for 6 vacancies on Council, with some truly outstanding candidates coming forward," Davidson added.

ends

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