MANAMA: Bahrain Internet Society (BIS) announced the appointment of Ali Al Meshal, BIS board member and director of strategic alliances, as vice chair of the Asian, Australasian and Pacific Islands’ regional at-large organization (APRALO) leadership team (AP-LT) to serve for two year term expires in November 2016.
APRALO stems from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and is one of the five Regional At-Large Organisations (RALOs), each composed of the members of the At-Large community located in that geographic region.
Organisational members are known as At-Large Structures (ALSes) and unaffiliated individual Internet users in APRALO participate in regional activities too. APRALO meets telephonically every month; these meetings are open to all, full details from past meetings are posted, just as for the annual APRALO General Assembly.
Recent consensus on the support for the names of the proposed APRALO Leadership Team (AP-LT) members, including Ali Al Meshal, were gained during APRALO monthly teleconference meeting, which took place last May and was further confirmed and supported by a full regional consensus (on-line and mailing list consensus call) whose results were approved on 23rd June, 2014.
Al Meshal was selected for his active role in APRALO and appointed as its Vice Chair to serve in the APRALO Leadership Team (AP-LT) as from June 2014. A formal induction into the members’ leadership roles that went into full capacity was held during the APRALO General Assembly in London at the ICANN’s 50th meeting on 25th June, 2014, where all selected members took their seats fully in each Leadership Team role.
In addition to being an active member of APRALO, Al Meshal plays a dynamic role in ICANN and has been involved in most of its related essential meetings and activities since 2012, mainly as member of the “Middle East Strategy Working Group” that was established by ICANN to study the region’s needs and find means to actively involve the Arab and Middle Eastern countries in the discussion, dissemination and development of internet related topics and areas of interest with emphasis on a unified internet strategy and governance.
“I am very pleased and honoured to be selected for this high profile appointment by regional consensus, which shows a clear recognition of my effective role in ICANN and APRALO,” On the occasion of his new high profile appointment in APRALO, Al Meshal, said.
“I thank APRALO for their trust and opportunity to work further, but on a higher capacity with the APRALO Leadership Team.”
Al Meshal was also selected as member of the Advisory Committee of the Arab Internet Governance Forum (IGF) at the beginning of this year. He was informed by the Secretariat of the Arab IGF about his official appointment last January 2014.
Al Meshal’s selection came in recognition of his continuous efforts and active participation to support Arab (IGF) work in the past and currently.