Caribbean candidates vie for posts in ARIN elections
Three Caribbean candidates—Peter Harrison, Kerrie-Ann Richards and Alicia Trotman—have been named among the final candidates to contest elections for leadership roles at the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) in October.
ARIN is one of five Internet registries worldwide that coordinate the distribution and administration of number resources. The registry serves the United States, Canada and several territories in the Caribbean.
Richards and Trotman will vie for posts on the ARIN Advisory Council. In 2017, Jamaican-born Richards and Barbadian-born Trotman made history, becoming the first Caribbean members of the ARIN advisory council since the registry was founded on April 18, 1997.
“I am running again because there is still much work to be done,” Trotman said.
“The Caribbean voice matters at this level because policy decided here will affect the growth of the Internet in the region,” said Richards, chairperson of education non-profit Vision for Jamaica.
“We are the only ones shortlisted from outside North America. I feel that we bring valuable perspectives to the table and add diverse insight from our Caribbean experience,” she added.
Jamaican-born Harrison will contest for a seat on the ARIN Board of Trustees. Harrison is the chief technical officer and co-founder of Silicon Valley-based colocation services provider Colovore. He is also the founder of the Palisadoes Foundation, a registered non-profit that coordinates student internships in software development for Jamaican residents.
“My work with Palisadoes has many parallels with the ARIN fellowship program and I believe my broad experience would be of benefit to the ARIN and to the Caribbean,” said Harrison, who has worked with hyperscale companies like Google, Netflix and eBay, as well as smaller ones in the Caribbean.
In an August 9 post, ARIN announced that Regenie Fräser, the former Secretary General of a regional trade association, had been selected to a special appointment to serve on its Board of Trustees for a one-year term "so as to provide more diversity in the Board's composition." Fräser became the first non-white and Caribbean person appointed as a trustee.
The final 2018 candidate slate for the ARIN Advisory Council also includes Brad Gorman (Verisign), Kathleen Hunter (Comcast), Rob Seastrom (ByteGrid) and Amy Potter. The final slate for the ARIN Board of Trustees includes Anna Valsami (Telstra), Cathy Chen-Rennie (Capriole Consulting) and Paul Andersen (EGATE Networks).
In the same elections, Haitian-born Michel Arbrouet has been named among two final candidates who will vie for one seat on the Number Resource Organisation Number Council, an elected body that serves as the advisory council for the Address Supporting Organisation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). That elected body oversees recommendations on Internet protocol address policy and appoints members to the ICANN Board of Directors. The other candidate is Louie Lee (Google Fibre).
On October 4, during ARIN’s public policy meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, candidates will have the opportunity to address ARIN members. More information on each candidate is available on the ARIN website.
Online voting opens on October 4 at 6 pm EDT and closes on October 12 at 6 pm. All terms will begin on January 1, 2019