A4AI is excited to welcome three new representatives to the Alliance’s Advisory Council:

• Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women
• Mike Jensen, Internet Access Specialist, Association for Progressive Communications
• Marília Maciel, Researcher and Coordinator, Center for Technology and Society of the Getulio Vargas Foundation

The A4AI Advisory Council, which provides oversight, strategic direction, and high-level decision making for A4AI, is composed of 12 representatives who have been elected by A4AI’s member organisations. Recently, A4AI held elections for six open seats on the Advisory Council for the 2015-2016 term.

These three newly elected representatives bring with them a broad range of expertise important to achieving our mission of affordable Internet for all — including global advocacy for gender equality and women’s empowerment, ICT research in Latin America, and activism for expanding Internet access to underserved communities — and will add to the existing strength and diversity of our Advisory Council. Current Advisory Council members Robert Cronin from IREX, Robert Pepper from Cisco, and Barbara Baffer from Ericsson were re-elected to another term.

Below is a full list of the newly formed Advisory Council, which will begin its term in January 2015.

Private Sector

• Patrick Ryan, Principal, Strategy and Operations, Google (Deputy: Aparna Sridhar, Counsel, Google)
• Robert Pepper, VP Global Technology Policy, Cisco (Deputy: John Garrity, Manager of Policy Research, Cisco)
• Peter Pitsch, Associate General Counsel and Executive Director of Communications Policy, Intel (Deputy: John Roman, Director of Broadband and Regulatory Policy, Intel)
• Barbara Baffer, VP Corporate Affairs and Communications, Ericsson (Deputy: Shiletsi Makhofane, Head of Government and Industry Relations in Sub-Saharan Africa, Ericsson)

Public Sector and Academia

• Priya Jaisinghani, Mobile Solutions Director, USAID (Deputy: Jonathan Dolan, Senior Advisor on Digital Development, USAID)
• Pippa Ranger, Innovations Advisor, DFID (Deputy: Tim McNeill, Private Sector Development Advisor, DFID)
• Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women (Deputy: Jennifer Breslin, Knowledge, Innovation and Technology for Development Coordinator, UN Women)
• Marília Maciel, Researcher and Coordinator, Center for Technology and Society of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (CTS/FGV) (Deputy: Luiz Fernando Marrey Moncau, Researcher/Vice-coordinator, CTS/FGV)

Civil Society Organisations and Foundations

• Ory Okolloh, Director of Investments, Omidyar Network
• Sascha Meinrath, Vice President and Director, New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute (Deputy: Carolina Rossini, X-Lab Fellow, New America Foundation)
• Robert Cronin, Vice President, IREX (Deputy: Ari Katz, Regional Director, Beyond Access, IREX)
• Mike Jensen, Internet Access Specialist, Association for Progressive Communications (APC)

Current Advisory Council members Tim Unwin, Commonwealth Telecommunications Union, and Sophia Huyer, Women in Global Science and Technology (WISAT), will be stepping down from their seats at the end of 2014. We thank them for their commitment and significant contributions to A4AI’s successes and progress in our first year.