Mandla Msimang, a seasoned South African ICT regulatory expert and entrepreneur, has been appointed to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board of directors.
In a statement, minister of communications and digital technologies Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams lauded Msimang’s appointment, saying she joins other global experts to lead ICANN.
ICANN is a global non-profit organisation responsible for co-ordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces of the Internet, ensuring the network's stable and secure operation.
It performs the technical maintenance work of the central Internet address pools and DNS root zone registries for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.
Ndabeni-Abrahams states: “Ms Mandla Msimang’s appointment comes at a time that the department is charged with positioning South Africa as a leader in the fourth industrial revolution, creating an enabling environment for the uptake and usage of the Internet; as well as developing Internet governance protocols that are commensurate to international standards.
“We wish her great success in this new role and have the utmost confidence that her vast experience in ICT policy and regulation will add much credence to the ICANN board.”
Msimang holds a Master of Science degree in regulation and utilities from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University.
Prior to joining Nozala Investments, where she is CEO, she established and ran pan-African ICT policy and advisory firm, Pygma Consulting.
Before that, Msimang served in senior management roles at Cell C and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa. Her roles have included governance, strategy, operations, and policy and regulatory advice.
In 2014, she was appointed to government’s National Broadband Advisory Council.
The new ICANN board member has done consulting work for the World Bank’s Broadband Strategies Toolkit, and worked on projects with the United Nations International Telecommunications Union.
The newly appointed board members will commence their term of office pursuant to the ICANN66 Annual General Meeting to be held from 2 to 7 November, in Montréal, Canada.
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