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About the GAC

The GAC constitutes the voice of Governments and Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) in ICANN's multi-stakeholder structure. Created under the ICANN Bylaws, the GAC is an advisory committee to the ICANN Board. The GAC's key role is to provide advice to ICANN on issues of public policy, and especially where there may be an interaction between ICANN's activities or policies and national laws or international agreements.

GAC Leadership & Support
GAC Leadership

The GAC is an advisory committee to ICANN, created under the ICANN ByLaws. It provides advice to ICANN on public policy aspects of ICANN's responsibilities with regard to the Internet Domain Name System ("DNS").

The GAC is not a decision-making body. It advises ICANN on issues that are within ICANN's scope.

GAC advice has a particular status under the ICANN ByLaws. Its advice must be duly taken into account by the ICANN Board, and where the Board proposes actions inconsistent with GAC advice it must give reasons for doing so and attempt to reach a mutually acceptable solution.

The GAC appoints a non-voting liaison to the ICANN Board. This is normally the GAC Chair.

Leadership of the GAC and associated groups as agreed by the GAC.

Strategic liaison with ICANN; other ICANN advisory committees and supporting organisations; and with other relevant stakeholders.

Prioritising the work of ICANN staff in support of GAC activities.

Current Officers
GAC CHAIR
Nicolas Caballero (Paraguay)
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GAC CHAIR
Nicolas Caballero (Paraguay)

Mr. Nicolas G. Caballero is a Data Analyst, ERP Software and DNS expert; he is an ICT Advisor at MITIC (Paraguay ICT Ministry) and is currently also the President of CEILAC DNS Center in Asuncion. He studied English at Pittsburgh State University in Kansas, USA; Computer Science at Universidad Autonoma de Asuncion in Paraguay; E-Government at Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea; and electric car technologies at Delft University of Technology, Netherlands. He was a direct ICT Advisor for the office of the President of the Republic, and as such coordinated the demonopolization of internet service in Paraguay; the establishment of the Digital TV Standard (ISDB-Tb); the creation of the ICT Ministry, SENATICS; and coordinated the team that drafted the first Paraguayan civil satellite program, which in turn led to the establishment of the Paraguayan space agency (AEP).

He was the founder of Internet Society Paraguay Chapter and served as its 1st President. He was also the 1st Paraguayan GAC Representative; in parallel he served as the Internet Governance Forum "RIR" (Regional Initiative Representative) in the country, where he organized the first IGF meeting in 2014. Nico Caballero was further responsible for the extensive capacity building work carried out by the ICT Ministry, in particular the MOU with ICANN in 2016/17 when he coordinated the establishment of the "CEILAC DNS Center", as a cooperation agreement between SENATICS, LACTLD and ICANN, which remained operative within the structure of MITIC.

Nico was also responsible for organizing key IT events in Paraguay: the ICANN "DNS Roadshow", ISOC Chapter events & Chapter projects aimed at developing connectivity in rural areas, providing digital training and IT infrastructure to high schools, and providing internet connection, Ecommerce tools and digital training for Native Indigenous people in remote areas. In 2017 he went to the private sector, and in 2022 resumed his role as Paraguay GAC Representative at ICANN-74 in The Hague, Netherlands. Right afterwards, at ICANN-76 in Kuala Lumpur, he was elected GAC Chair, the first time a Latin American representative holds the position. He is fluent in three Languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese; and also speaks French and Italian. He loves rugby, plays classical guitar, and is also a 4th Degree Black Belt in Taekwon-Do ITF.

Term
Mar 2023 – Mar 2025
GAC Vice Chair
Ola Bergström (Sweden)
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GAC Vice Chair
Ola Bergström (Sweden)

Mr. Ola Bergström is the Director for International Affairs at the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority and serves as Swedish Representative (alternate) of the Governmental Advisory Committee to ICANN.

Mr. Bergström represents Sweden at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) as well as EuroDIG and is responsible for the work in the Telecommunications Union (ITU), under the assignment from the Swedish Government, in particular engaging in internet and cybersecurity related issues.

Mr. Bergström is further responsible for the extensive capacity building work carried out by the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority, in particular the cooperation since 2016 with a large number of telecom regulators in subSaharan Africa on various ICT and technology related issues.

Mr. Bergström is very active in the policy debate in the European Union on various ICT and technology related issues, at the moment on issues relating to the European Commission Digital Strategy such as DSA.

In 2020 the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority chaired the organization for telecom regulators in the European Union, Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), where Mr. Bergström has been actively engaged in the cooperation between BEREC and other regulatory networks and regulatory authorities globally.

Mr. Bergström is currently assigned as expert to the Governmental Committee for a European Union Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online

Mr. Bergström has prior to his current position at the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority worked on ICT and technology issues in different capacities, for the Swedish Govern and for the Swedish Competition Authority.

Term
Mar 2022 – Mar 2023
Mar 2023 – Mar 2024
GAC Vice Chair
Francis Olivier Cubahiro (Burundi)
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GAC Vice Chair
Francis Olivier Cubahiro (Burundi)

Mr. Francis Olivier CUBAHIRO is currently Director of ICT Infrastructures at Ministry of Communication, Information Technologies and Medias serves as Burundi Governmental Advisory Committee Representative to ICANN.

Mr. Francis serves as well, as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Burundi Focal point, and currently, Mr. Francis is the Associate rapporteur of the Q6/2 (ITU-T SG2:) regarding telecoms/ICT Management architecture and security with a new work item initiated by Mr. Francis related to "requirements for management of application services over cloud and broadband ecosystems (M.rmacbe)"

Mr. Francis follows major meetings related to internet Governance on behalf of the Ministry at the Africa level and International level in coordination with the National Telecom/ICT regulatory Authority.

Among his duties, Mr. Francis:

  • is responsible for formulating policies that aim to ensure universal internet access and internet Governance (such as the current National broadband strategy).
  • is Working and coordinating with key telecoms/ICT stakeholders to formulate ICT infrastructures sharing policies and universal internet access and the National personal data protection law

Mr. Francis is a member of the National team currently working on connectivity technologies dedicated to improving internet access to remote and underserved areas.

Mr. Francis is coordinating at the national level the Initiative aims to Enhancing Digital - Internet Ecosystem and Digital-Internet Skills for the economic empowerment of women with International institutions, with the finality of formulating a gender-responsive policy and regulations in ICT.

Term
Mar 2022 – Mar 2023
Mar 2023 – Mar 2024
GAC Vice Chair
Zeina Bou Harb (Lebanon)
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GAC Vice Chair
Zeina Bou Harb (Lebanon)

Zeina is the Head of International Cooperation at OGERO Telecom, the incumbent operator in Lebanon.

With a BA in Business Administration focused on Marketing and Management, she has 25 years of experience in Marcom, Regulatory Affairs, and International Cooperation.

Zeina is the focal point with ITU and leading OGERO's activities related to "Girl's in ICT" and Women Empowerment as well as Child Online Protection. She is Vice Chair for the ITU's Advisory Board of the Network of Women representing the Arab Region.

On Internet Governance, Zeina served as Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) member for 3 years, representing the Public sector in Lebanon and the Arab Region. She is Member of the Arab MAG and of the Technical Cooperation Working Group, nominated by the League of Arab States and ESCWA, to work on the enhancement of the Arab Internet Governance Forum.

Currently, Zeina is heading the General Secretariat of the Lebanese IGF and its coordinator, and the representative of this initiative in the United Nations IGF NRIs and Global Digital Compact.

Zeina is also member of the national committee for Children Online Safety within the Higher Council for Childhood and the Scientific Communication Coordinator for the Super Computer (High Performance Computing for Lebanon).

She is elected Vice Chair of ISOC Gender Group and recently chosen by "Missions Publiques" for their global fellowship program.

Her journey with ICANN started when she was selected ICANN 72 and ICANN 75 fellow. In 2022, she was then nominated Alternate Representative of Lebanon to GAC, and lately Vice-Chair of the GAC.

Term
Mar 2023 – Mar 2024
GAC Vice Chair
Nigel Hickson (United Kingdom)
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GAC Vice Chair
Nigel Hickson (United Kingdom)

Nigel Hickson is currently working on Internet Governance policy at the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, where, among other roles, he is the UK representative on the Government Advisory Committee at ICANN. Joining the UK Civil Service in 1982, Nigel has worked on a number of policy issues including secondment to the UK Confederation of British Industry (CB)I and working for the Minister for Telecommunications in Bermuda for three years. From 2012 he worked for ICANN in Brussels and Geneva before returning to the UK government in 2012 to work on data protection issues.

Term
Mar 2023 – Mar 2024
GAC Vice Chair
Wang Lang (China)
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GAC Vice Chair
Wang Lang (China)

Mr. WANG Lang works in China Internet Network Information Center ( and serves as the Head of the International Affairs Department. H e has a solid technological background. He got his Master degree of Engineering in C omputer Application in Beijing Normal University and has devoted himself in domain name industry for 20 years . Familiar with Domain Name System (DNS), Shared Registry System (SRS), and Registration Data Directory Services RDDS, or WHOIS) technologies, he organized and participated in the design, development, testing and verification of EPP (Version 0.4/1.0) SRS and RDDS systems of ". CN " ccTLD.

Lang has accumulated rich experience in project management. He own ed PMP and Scrum Master Certifications and focus ed on process and system construction. He ever took part in building quality assurance system for R&D pr ocess of CNNIC and passed the CMMI assessment successfully. He was also engaged in several key projects, such as the National Engineering Laboratory of Internet Domain Name Management and China Next Generation Infrastructure (CNGI) China Domain Name Syst em IPv6 Upgrade and Transformation.

Although his expertise lies on technology h e has an international outlook in Internet governance and other international exchanges. H e has close ties with ICANN community and proactively engage s himself in IG relevant communities, such as IGF, ITU and IETF, etc. He is familiar with ICANN's policies, processes and mechanisms. He leads his team to track global Internet governance trends and conduct s research es on Internet governance issues. He also presided and organized discussions among experts in Internet governance forums based on World Internet Conference (WIC) Wuzhen Summit ), China Internet Infrastructure Resources Conference (CNIRC) and so on.

Term
Mar 2023 – Mar 2024
ICANN Support

GAC members and leadership receive support from ICANN GAC staff team that provides a range of services to all GAC leaders, members and observers, including support for organizing meetings, providing substantive issue briefings, management of the GAC website and email administration, liaison with ICANN Org and other ICANN structures and coordination of a host of operational matters including membership management, working group facilitation support and the coordination of community travel support. Some of the specific support tasks include:

  • Maintaining the GAC mailing list and membership records
  • Managing incoming and outgoing correspondence for the GAC Chair
  • Administration of the GAC website
  • Arranging the translation of GAC documents
  • Co-ordinating the arrangements for formal GAC meetings including room bookings, liaison with hosts and technical support
  • Making arrangements for inter-sessional GAC meetings including call set-up and administration
  • Continuously reviewing and improving the way GAC operates
  • Providing support and assistance to new GAC members
  • Publishing the GAC Communiqué
ICANN Support Staff
Robert Hoggarth
VP Policy Development And GAC Relations
Julia Charvolen
GAC Advice And Policy Support Manager
Fabien Betremieux
GAC Advice And Policy Support Senior Advisor
Gulten Tepe Oksuzoglu
Policy Operations Analyst
Benedetta Rossi
GAC Advice And Policy Support Senior Manager