Special event: Digital Cooperation in the Decade of Action

H.E. Mr. Andrejs Pildegovičs took up the position of Ambassador, Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York in September 2018. Andrejs Pildegovičs entered diplomatic and consular service in 1994 as Senior Desk Officer at the CIS Division. He later took the posts of Head of the Middle East and Africa Division, Assistant to the State Secretary, and Press Secretary. From 2000 to 2006, Andrejs Pildegovičs was Advisor on Foreign Affairs to the President and from 2006 to 2007, Chief of Staff at the President’s Chancery. From 2007 to 2012, Andrejs Pildegovičs was posted as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Latvia to the United States of America and non-resident Ambassador to the United Mexican States. In July 2012, he was appointed Under Secretary of State, Political Director. Since May 2013, Andrejs Pildegovičs has been serving as State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

H.E. Mr. Amandeep Gill is the Project Director/CEO of the International Digital Health & AI Research Collaborative (I-DAIR), a Geneva-based global platform for enabling inclusive, impactful, and responsible research into digital health and AI for health. He is the former Executive Director and co-Lead of the Secretariat of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation. He previously served as India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and chaired the Group of Governmental Experts of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapon systems from 2017-2018. 

Ms. Nnenna Nwakanma is Chief Web Advocate at the World Wide Web Foundation. She describes  herself as "Nnenna from the Internet" and globally shares her passion for connecting the unconnected, especially women. Recognized as one of the World's 100 Most Influential Persons on Digital Governance, Nnenna  lives and breathes digital equality, gender equality, open data, open government and women technology leadership. With over 20 years of experience across international organizations, she daily invests her energy towards meaningful connectivity, digital cooperation and social justice. Nnenna is a respected voice and a renowned speaker and mentor in the global technology scene. 

Ms. Anriette Esterhuysen is currently the Chair of the Multistakeholder Advisory Committee of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum. She was the executive director of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) - the largest ICT-focused civil society network in the world - from 2000 to 2017. She continues to work with APC as a consultant and convenes the African School on Internet Governance (AfriSIG), a joint initiative of APC, the African Union Commission and Research ICT Africa. She was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame as a Global Connecter in 2013. Ms. Esterhuysen currently serves as a Commissioner on the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace and as a member of the board of directors of the .ZA (South Africa) domain name authority, ZADNA.

Mr. John Frank became Microsoft’s Vice President, United Nations Affairs in March 2020, focused on deepening Microsoft’s engagements on environment, skills training, human rights, and security. Previously he was Vice President, EU Affairs based in Brussels and Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Chief of Staff for Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond Washington. Mr. Frank joined Microsoft based in Paris, overseeing the legal and regulatory issues in launching the Microsoft Network (MSN) in Europe. From 1996 to 2002, he led Microsoft’s Legal and Corporate Affairs group for Europe, Middle East, and Africa, focusing on privacy, security, consumer protection and antitrust matters. John joined the International Gender Champions in March 2021. Before Microsoft, he practiced law in San Francisco with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. 

Since September 2019, Mr. Dominik Boesl has been Professor for Digital Sciences, Automation and Leadership at the Hochschule der Bayerischen Wirtschaft (HDBW). From January 2019 to December 2020, Dominik lead FESTO AG & Co. KG‘s robotics business unit as Vice President & Head of Robotics. Before, he was responsible for Innovation and Technology Management at KUKA since he first joined KUKA Laboratories as Head of Corporate Strategy and Member of the Board in 2011. Since 2012, he acted as (Principal/Senior) Corporate Innovation Manager, from January 2017 to end of December 2018 as Vice President Consumer Driven Robotics  at KUKA AG. Mr. Boesl started his career 1999 at Siemens, switching to Microsoft in 2005 where he held various leadership positions including national responsibility in developer evangelism. In order to foster the interdisciplinary discourse about the impact of robotics and automation on society and humankind, Mr. Boesl is driving the idea of „Robotic & AI Governance“, trying to establish a framework for voluntary self-regulation regarding the use of disruptive technologies. He is an internationally recognized expert in Ethics for Robotics and AI and currently acting as ambassador for the global IEEE TechEthics initiative.