Name: Andrew Kenningale Alston Organisation: Liquid Telecommunications Position/Role: Group Head of IP Strategy Physical Address: 3 Othaya Villas, Othaya Road, Lavington, Nairobi Country: Kenya Nominated by: David Behr, CEO - Zimbabwe Online
	Region: Independent

Statement

Andrew has had a long and active association with the AFRINIC community, and has over time been involved in both the design and proposal of policy. Andrew has significant management experience gained through his role as both the Chief Technology Officer for the South African Academic Network (TENET), and his role as head of IP Strategy for Liquid Telecommunications. In addition, Andrew has a long history of participating in the advancement of IPv6 across the continent.

Andrew strongly believes that a strong body regulating and controlling the distribution of IP address space across the continent is critical to the on going growth of the Internet industry across the continent, and believes he could be an asset within the board structures of AFRINIC, as the organisation continues to grow and mature.

Andrew believes in a strong focus on good corporate governance and transparency in the organisation that is, by its very nature, controlled and owned by its members, and would continue to promote such at a board level. With experience working in multiple areas of the continent, there also exists a good understanding of the challenges faced in an organisation that spans such a large geographic area encompassing so many countries, and this he believes would serve him in the region independent seat. 

The following questions were posed to each candidate by the Nominations Committee and for the candidates that answered, the responses have been published below for the community's information:

Question 1

If you are elected, what do you hope to personally accomplish ?

Answer:

If elected I hope to work with the board to strengthen the corporate governance of the organization, aiming in particular for greater levels of transparency and communication with the membership base.  In addition to this, having studied the demographics of the community served by AfriNIC, I would work with the board to ensure that AfriNIC communications are sent out in additional languages (namely Arabic and Portuguese) to ensure the entire continental area has sufficient representation.

I would also like to work closely with the board to ensure that the policies and procedures as mandated by the policy working group are correctly implemented and followed, and also ensure strict adherence to the bylaws as agreed to by the membership base.

I have always believed that AfriNIC is a ground up organization, and believe the board should always act in accordance with this.

Question 2

What business management and leadership skills will you bring to AfriNIC ?

Answer:

In the course of my career, I served as a chief technology officer for the South African academic network for a period of six years. During this time I regularly consulted to both the CEO and to the board on matters related to both the business and the technical aspects of the organization.

In my current position with Liquid Telecommunications, as head of IP Strategy, every strategy implemented is analyzed from both a business and a technical perspective.   I feel both of these positions have equipped me, and indeed demonstrated, that I have the necessary business skills to serve the AfriNIC community in this position.

In addition to this, I have consulted widely on IPv6 deployments around the world, from both a technical and a business perspective, and considering AfriNIC¹s mandate in regards to IPv6, I believe this would also serve as an additional asset to the board.

Click here to read Candidate's CV