[council] Updated Statement of Interest - GNSO

["Sophia B" <sophiabekele@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sophia Bekele - Nominating Committee appointee to the GNSO Council

I represent a California based, privately held company, CBS Enterprise
Group, which is engaged in international business. As part of its portfolio
of services, the company provides systems integration services through CBS
International, which delivers domain registration, web hosting and email
services to end users via a reseller, agreement with registrars. Less than
10% of CBS's business is derived from these services.



ICANN is a critical organization for the proper governance of the Internet
and its stability and security.  Given current growing environment of the
Internet, there are many challenges ahead for ICANN.   I am most interested
in issues of emerging economies and the use of ICT and the growth of
Internet or lack thereof over these environments.  Therefore, the policies
developed by ICANN over issues governing the global Internet particularly
domain names could determine the gap in the digital divide within these
economies.  As such, I am actively involved in the policy development
process of the International Domain Names (IDNs) and generic Top Level
Domain names (gTLDs) that are of concern.  I have also initiated and
pursuing the efforts for a successful launch of the  '.Africa' continental
domain name project within ICANN and the African community.  Towards this
end, I will be continuing my interest in these areas.



In my personal capacity, I do not have any of my moneys, invested in
companies that are in the registrar businesses. I do not believe that any
activities of the Council or ICANN could have a material effect on the work
I do at CBS International.