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Sophia Bekele

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Sophia Bekele
Sophia at the ICANN's 28th Intl Public Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, March 2007.
Born
Sophia Bekele Eshete

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Occupation(s)Business Person, Corporate Executive, Consultant
Years active1990–present

Sophia Bekele Eshete (Amharic: ሶፍያ በቀለ; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) is a woman of Ethiopian ancestry. She is a business and corporate executive, an entrepreneur,ICT activist, an international policy adviser on ICT/Internet to public and private enterprise and a writer.

Bekele is presently the Executive Director and Founder of DotConnectAfrica(DCA) Trust and CEO of DCA Registry Systems. Bekele is also the founder and CEO of CBS International and SbCommunications Network (SbCnet). In 2002 SbCNet was known for being successfully awarded a highly contentious bid for a government contract to build an integrated information network infrastructure for the Ethiopian Parliament.[1]

Bekele has served on United Nations-sponsored committees and initiatives, such as the UNECA-sponsored African Information Society Initiative (AISI), UNGAID, and UNPAN, where she represents the private sector in discussions about the economic development of Africa [2] [3] She was elected member of the ICANN Council of the GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization), a group that advises on global internet policy at ICANN, and the policy development work on new generic Top Level Domain names.[4] During her term at ICANN, she has championed the IDN Policy Dialog for the international community.[5][6][7] Concurrently, Bekele initiated the first African-run Registry for a .africa TLD, under DotConnectAfrica Trust, and run a successful 6-year “Yes2dotAfrica” global awareness campaign.[8] Bekele is also a co-founder and Executive Board Member of Internet Society Chapter (ISOC) San Francisco Bay [9] and was elected to serve two terms on the Alumni Board member of Golden Gate University [10] and is also a Rotary Paul Harris Fellow. [11]

In 2013, Bekele was named Top “50 Trailblazers – A future made in Africa”, by the influential UK’s NewAfrican Magazine, an IC Publications group, “Collector’s Edition” which coincides with the continent’s 50th anniversary celebrations of the African Union, as those “who are realizing significant achievements in their specific field of endeavor” and features individuals who are “breaking ground, making Africa proud and propelling it into a future of great hope.” [12] [13] Also in 2013, Bekele was named as one of the “two leading ladies in Africa’s ICT sector” by “Bloomberg TV [14] [15] and enumerated in “African Women to Watch” a prime TV program, that “celebrates the most fearless, competitive and visionary African women of our time”, and explores “the women working hard to close the gender gap and shaping the continent’s social, political and economic landscape”.

Early life and Family

Bekele is the daughter of Ato Bekele Eshete Wolde Michael a founder and former Board Director of United Bank,S.C and United Insurance,S.C in Ethiopia and Sister Mulualem Beyene Engida, a medical nurse. She attended a private Catholic high school, then traveled to America to acquire her higher education.

Higher Education

Bekele has a Bachelor's Degree in Business Analysis and Information Systems from San Francisco State University and a Master of Business Administration from Golden Gate University. Bekele is also a certified CISA, CCS and CGEIT

Career

Bekele was recruited out of college by Bank of America and later held managerial positions with UnionBanCal Corporation and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Her initial field of expertise was Information Systems and Security Audit.

CBS International

In 2000, Ms. Bekele focused on international technology issues and Third-World technological development using Africa as a base model. Most of Ms. Bekele's work in these years has been associated with CBS International, a company she founded and serves as President and Chief Executive Officer. CBS International is a California based consulting company with focus on, technology transfer to emerging markets. As an affiliate, Bekele started an Ethiopian company SbCommunications Network, plc, (SbCnet) specializing in systems integration, technology integration and support services.Through her companies, she has won international contracts for large scale projects such as the information technology infrastructure for the African Union Secretariat [16][17] and an integrated data networking infrastructure for the Ethiopian parliament. The Parliament project received significant local media coverage as a controversial project because of Bekele’s challenge to what she considered an unfair procurement process, a challenge she ultimately won. Sophia believes her stand helped promote transparency and accountability in the government contracting process at the time. She later on repositioned CBS International to advise US based Clients in public/private markets, primarily in Corporate Governance and Risk Management areas, including Sarbanes-Oxley ACT, and corporate relations/communications programs. Her Client's in the US included OnScreen Technologies, (OTC), Genetech, Intel Corp. (Nasdaq), BDO Sieldman LLP and the like.[18]

Sophia in Kigali Rwanda 2007

.africa

In 2006 Bekele turned her focus to .africa– a new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) for the Africa geographic name that she championed during her appointment at ICANN. The project has been introduced and will be delegated for operation under ICANN’s new gTLD programme.

Bekele started the DotAfrica initiative following the important experiences gained from her work as gNSO advisor to ICANN.[19] Bekele made a clear case for a DotAfrica (.africa) gTLD for Africa within ICANN and also the global Internet Community on behalf of the global African and Pan-African constituency. She soon led the .africa initiative with DotConnectAfrica introducing it to the Pan-African inter-governmental organizations – the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the African Union Commission (AUC) and received endorsement for DCA.

Enterprise Technology Magazine called her "Sophia Bekele: Champion of .africa initiative" [20] CIO East Africa calling her views "controversial" on who should run gTLDs, saying "Sophia Bekele has been in the news if not for promoting DotConnectAfrica’s bid for the DotAfrica geographical gTLD for the past three years, then in a controversial statement about the same":

Governments have a role to play, especially regarding the establishment of an enabling and supportive environment for ICT initiatives to thrive. However, there is a role for everybody, and global Internet governance is currently based on a multi-stakeholder modeled by ICANN. Governments already have their two-code country-level top-level domains (cc TLDs), but they also have a role to endorse geographical gTLDs. The problem is that this power to endorse is often interpreted and extended to include overall sovereignty over the new gTLD. We believe this should not be the case since it is monopolistic and anti-competitive coupled with problems of lack of transparency and accountability...

-Sophia Bekele, in an interview on 09 March 2012, for the main story of CIO East Africa,[21]

Ms. Bekele currently oversees the .africa new gTLD initiative of DotConnectAfrica Trust. As Executive Director of DCA Trust & CEO of DotConnectAfrica Registry Services Limited, she has led a multi-national team of experts to prepare and submit an application for the DotAfrica (.AFRICA) generic Top-Level Domain. DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust) has already submitted an application in May 2012 for the .dotafrica (pronounced as ‘DotAfrica’) geographic name string to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a U.S.-based non-profit organization that is overseeing the global Internet expansion project to introduce new generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs) under the new gTLD Program.[22]

References

  1. ^ Mary-Jane Wagle; Betel Bekele (August 2012). "Ethiopian Women Unleashed: Sophia Bekele Eshete". Profile. Retrieved 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Ethiopian Women Unleashed
  3. ^ Connecting Africa to the World Web
  4. ^ Sophia Bekele ICANN GNSO
  5. ^ Sophia Bekele Ethiopian Champion of the dotafrica initiative
  6. ^ An Ethiopian woman fighting for .africa, a new generic Top-Level Domain
  7. ^ Bekele ICANN Wiki
  8. ^ Ethiopian Women Unleashed
  9. ^ Founding Members ISOC San Francisco Bay
  10. ^ Ethiopian Women Unleashed
  11. ^ Connecting Africa to the World Web
  12. ^ "Sophia Bekele & Barrack Obama Named Top "50 African Trailblazers" By UK's NewAfrican Magazine url=http://techmoran.com/juliana-rotich-jason-njoku-alex-okosi-sophia-bekele-barrack-obama-named-top-50-african-trailblazers-by-uks-newafrican-magazine/". 11 July 2013. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help); Missing pipe in: |title= (help)
  13. ^ Africa: DotConnectAfrica's Sophia Bekele Named One of 50 African Trailblazers by NewAfrican Magazine
  14. ^ "African Women to Watch" - Sophia Bekele on Bloomberg TV
  15. ^ "African Women to Watch" - Sophia Bekele on Bloomberg TV
  16. ^ IPSOS Synovate (2013-08-23). "DCA's Sophia Bekele named among"50 African Trailblazers" by NewAfrican Magazine" (PDF). Business Journal. Retrieved 2013-10-23.
  17. ^ nation.co.ke (May 27, 20103). "Uniting Africa through IT". Business Journal. Retrieved 2013-10-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ Mary-Jane Wagle; Betel Bekele (August 2012). "Ethiopian Women Unleashed: Sophia Bekele Eshete". Profile. Retrieved 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ "An Ethiopian woman fighting for .africa, a new generic Top-Level Domain url=https://thereporterethiopia.com/index.php/living-and-the-arts/lifestyle/item/324-an-ethiopian-woman-fighting-for-africa-a-new-generic-top-level-domain". 6 April 2013. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help); Missing pipe in: |title= (help)
  20. ^ Joyce Tonda (2011-11-30). "Sophia Bekele, Ethiopian champion of the dot africa \initiative". Enterprise Technology. Retrieved 2012-06-02.
  21. ^ CIO East Africa Staff Writer (2012-09-12). [http: http://www.cio.co.ke/news/main-stories/Governments-have-no-role-in-managing-gTLDs "Governments have no roles in gTLDs"]. CIO East Africa. Retrieved 2012-06-02. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help); line feed character in |url= at position 6 (help)
  22. ^ DCA (2012-06-13). "ICANN New gTLDs - Application Details". ICANN. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
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