Jak Boumans BA, MDiv. is principal consultant with Electronic Media Reporting in Utrecht, which is specialized in content strategy. He worked previously for TNO Centre for Technology and Policy Studies and the publishers Wegener, VNU and Kluwer. He brought the first European daily newsletter for the computer industry online on behalf of VNU BPL in London in 1984. He was part of the team which produced the first commercial legal CD-ROM for Wolters Kluwer and other primers of Dutch CD-ROMs.

As consultant he is involved in strategy studies for government and institutes, is part of research teams in studying the market and organizes wconferences and workshops.
Mr. Boumans has been an evaluator, reviewer and rapporteur with the EC. In 2002 he became a WP leader in the ACTeN project (accompanying measure). In 2003 he was involved in the X-Melina project, a cross-media project, and in 2004 in INYOP, a project for interactive movies; both projects are partly funded by the EC Media program.

He is General Secretary of the European Academy of Digital Media (EADiM), a network organization of EUROPRIX jurors and nominees with 125 members in 28 European countries. EADiM has recently founded the Instructors’ Network, a network for multimedia instructors in Europe with 90 members in 20 countries. He is author of several books and many articles for national and international trade magazines. Presently he is editor of the Content Market Monitor monthly newsletter (www.acten.net).

Anya Sverdlov is the Managing Director of Actis Wunderman, Russia's top digital agency, member of the Wunderman network and part of the WPP family. Prior to joining the Actis team, Ms. Sverdlov's professional experience included three years on Wall Street at Kemper Securities, Inc. and more than three years in strategy management consulting with A.T. Kearney (working in the US, Russia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Denmark), where she managed large projects in the financial services and consumer goods sectors.

Ms. Sverdlov holds a BA degree in Economics and Political Science (magna cum laude) from Yale University and an MBA degree in Finance and Multinational Management (with Distinction) from Wharton Business School.

Suleman Bakhsh, a young, experienced and active engineer, holds a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) and a Bachelor degree of Electronic Engineering. He works for the UAE Telecommunication Regulatory Authority as a Senior Information and Communication Technologies Analyst.

As project manager and technology analyst, he supervises and manages many projects including policy development, comparative analysis and benchmarking. He is also heavily involved in internet technologies, telecom market advancements, cyber security, and internet governance.

He has been representing UAE in various International Telecommunication Union Meetings and Conferences such as IPv6 working group and WSIS Annual conferences. He coordinates the work of the UAE National World Summit of Information Society Committee, and is an active member in many other groups and committees.

Mr. Nawaf Abdulrahman
Chief, Information Technology
Ministry of Housing

Nawaf M. Abdulrahman is Chief, Information Technology, Ministry of Housing, Bahrain, Vice President of Bahrain Internet Society and Head of the Jury & Technical Committee in Bahrain eContent Award Nawaf oasts 12 years of experience in the IT field with proven ability to manage large scale projects through the entire lifecycle.

Nawaf has an MBA with concentration in Finance & Bachelor in Information Technology; he is also CISA, ITIL & MCSE. He worked in many project through Bahrain Internet Society such as IT Future Leaders pr the eCitizens which aims to train the citizen in basic computing. Furthermore, he worked in many projects through his professional career such as a unique unified communications solution which is considered the first of its kind in the Middle East.

Nawaf conducted several courses, workshops and lectures in IT related topics such as "Users Awareness in Information Technology", "How Information Technology Empowering People" and "The Information Technology and The Youth Opportunities".

Mr. Alexander Felsenberg
CEO
Alexander Felsenberg Consulting

Since 1980 different Jobs in film production, production management for TV, later director for Corporate Videos and TV-Commercials. Freelance writer and editor for TV-Programmes.

• 1990-Director and later producer at Pütz und Partner GmbH Düsseldorf.
• 1993-Corporatedeveloper and Manager of the first Multimedia Department at MEDOX Medien GmbH.
  
• 1995-Research Scientist at Germans largest media research program conducted by the German Research Society (DFG) at the University of Siegen on Interactive Media. Assistant Professor at the University of Siegen in the media faculty; later he was the Founder and Managing Director of the German Multimedia Association.
  
• 1999-Managing Director dmmv-service GmbHa Group Marketing and service development company for the Internet Service Companies.
  
• 2005-Appointed as Conference Director of the ICT Africa and the 3rd African PrepCom for the UN-WSIS.
  
• 2006-Appointed CMO for “Systaic”. Further, he was in charge for the Europe’s largest online-marketing exhibition and congress OMD in Düsseldorf.
  
• Since 2008 he works as a media- and marketing strategy-consultant.

Ms. Nibal Idlebi
Chief of ICT Applications Section
UN-ESCWA

Dr. Nibal Idlebi is the chief of the ICT Applications Section at ESCWA working on issues related to the ICT policies and strategies, enabling environment for the Information Society, the development of ICT applications, e-Services and Digital Arabic Content. She is supervising various activities at ESCWA, such as preparation of reports and publications, organization of expert group meetings and workshops, implementation of field projects for the development of Information Society as well as providing advisory services to ESCWA member countries. Ms. Idlebi was recently a Jury member of various e-Content and e-government Awards in the Arab region.

Previous to her work with ESCWA, Dr. Idlebi was Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Communications and Technology (MCT) in Syria for two years, and ICT professor at the Higher Institute of Applied Science & Technology (HIAST) in Damascus for more than 8 years.

Effat El-Shooky is the in Egypt", National Project Director of UNDP-MCIT Project "Empowering and Connecting the Community through ICT", and Director of the GDLC-Egypt (Global Development Learning Center) of the World Bank at RITSEC (Regional Information Technology & Software Engineering Center). Effat El Shooky was awarded by the President of Finland“ Knights Award, First Class “Lion of Finland,” based on her achievements in initiating, activating and coordinating the Finnish-Egyptian partnership initiatives, programs and projects in the area of information and communication technology (ICT), Mrs. Effat El Shooky has been very active and instrumental in the field of Information technology for more than 25 years.

In 2005, she was the Advisor of International Cooperation at ITIDA (Information Technology Industry Development Agency). In 1992, she was the Executive Manager for RITSEC. By mid 80’s she was the Manager of International Coopertaion at IDSC (the Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center), at the Cabinet of Ministers. In the 70’s, she worked for IBM and the Arab League Industrial Development Information Center. During her professional career, Effat El Shooky provided advisory and consultation to a number of UN Agencies as UNDP, UNESCO, UNIDO, ECA, ESCWA, UNCTAD, ILO, UNICEF and the World Bank, DANIDA, JICA, CIDA, EU, WIPO, EFTCA (Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with Africa-Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Arab League, and others. She has been greatly involved in developing regional projects and providing technical assistance in ICT and e-Learning programs for Arab countries as Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia and African countries as Cote D’Ivoire, South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, and Nigeria. She also represented the Government of Egypt in a number of global and regional initiatives for the Groups of G8, G15, G77 and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), NEPAD (New Partnership for the Development of Africa), and the UN ICT Task Force.

Mr. Faouzi Zaghbib
General Manager R2i

Faouzi Zaghbib is expert in information technologies, General Manager of R2i (an IT firm) and Founder of ESPRIT (Tunisian university specialized in engineering & ICT). From 1981, Mr Zaghbib conducted information systems projects and implemented ICT solutions for public services and enterprises in many countries. Mr Zaghbib is an active member of numerous organizations. He is the Chairman of the Tunisian ICT Federation (UTICA-FED-TIC), and member of WITSA (the World IT & Services Alliance), founder member of IJMA3 (the Arab IT Association) and AFICTA (the African IT Association) and several national and regional committees in charge of capacity building, ICT governance, eCommerce, ICT4D, education and research.

Since 2003, he is member of the WSIS organization and follow-up committee. Mr Zaghbib is graduated in economic sciences (Tunis University – 1977), engineer in computer science (Tunis University – 1981), certified in business management (Beyster Institute at the Ready School of San Diego, University of California– 2004) and certified for ICT security auditing (ANSI – 2006).

Ms. Manar Alhashash
General Manager & Secretary General Kuwait e-Award

Manar Alhashash is the Founder and General Manager of Dot Design, a software development company. She has also launched the IT magazine Dot, of which she is the owner and Chief Editor. In 2004, Ms Alhashash launched and managed a local e-Content contest, the Ghiras Electro Contest 2004, which was aimed at youths in Kuwait (14-22 yrs old), competing for best website design, best presentation and best graphic design. She was awarded an IEEE for her outstanding Internet and e-Commerce projects in 2000. Ms Alhashash is in charge of and presents the weekly IT programme Compunet World on the Kuwait Satellite Channel in Arabic and an IT programme on KTV2 in English called Zero Ones. She also writes a weekly IT column for the Al-Watan newspaper.