CANDIDATES FOR THE PICISOC BOARD ELECTIONS
SEPTEMBER 2020
The Board of the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society (PICISOC) wishes to inform members of the upcoming Board election to be opened on the 21st September. As you are all aware 4 members of the PICISOC board are vacating their roles and therefore the election committee is looking for keen and highly motivated volunteers to replace them on the Board whose remaining members are:
- Cherie Lagakali – Fiji
- Kanaan Ngutu – Kiribati
- Gina Naigilevu – Fiji
The Election Committee consists of Maureen Hilyard (Cook Islands) and Kanaan Ngutu (Kiribati)
The candidates standing for the election of the Board of PICISOC in 2020 are:
ANDREW MOLIVURAE – Vanuatu
Andrew Molivurae is a Ni-Vanuatu working full time at the Telecoms and Broadcasting Regulator’s Office as Senior Internet Governance Officer. He has been a member of the Pacific Chapter of the ISOC since 2004, was a Board member from 2007 to 2011 and was Chair and Vice Chair of the PICISOC Board from 2009 to 2011. He has participated in many international ICT meetings like ICANN, APrIGF, Pacific IGFs, IETFs, APTLDs, PICISOC events (PacINET) and some other International ICT events. Andrew has also recently been a fellow at the 13th European Summer School on Internet Governance (EuroSSIG). Having served on the board for over 7 years Andrew is keen to stay on for another term not only to volunteer more time for PICISOC, but also to provide mentoring and advice to the incoming board.
EDWIN LIAVA’A – Tonga
I have a personal philosophy – “I innovate and provide solutions NOT problems”. A hands-on, rolled-up sleeves, resourceful, self-starter with 20+ years career working in the Pacific Islands region providing contextualized solutions and capacity building in information systems and communication technologies. I have worked in the past for Pacific regional and international development organisations such the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) and the Pacific Community (SPC). I bring a wealth of local knowledge from working in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu, and Kiribati. I am also familiar with the people, the cultural challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for the region. My passion is driven by harnessing inter-cultural competencies. These competences go well beyond technical knowledge and leadership because each Pacific Island has a unique local context.An advocate of satellite technology for connecting the underserved communities.
Currently working as a Regional Director – Pacific.
LETICIA MASAEA – Solomon Islands
A current member and one of the founders of Women in IT Solomon Islands (WITSI). With the arrival of the undersea cable to Solomon Islands, Letitia has been instrumental in promoting Cyber Awareness to the younger generation during school visits, careers day and Girls in ICT Day events that occurs annually. Letitia is also heavily involved in promoting Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) careers and opportunities amongst women and girls in the Solomon Islands with the aim to inspire and kindle ICT interest, empowering young girls to choose an ICT career path and to encourage IT women to retain their interests in this field with the aim to help build the ICT network and industry.
As the current data quality officer with the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), Letitia has been involved in conducting trainings for regional fisheries MCS officers on FFA products that have been developed and rolled out to member countries for utilisation. This includes the need for capturing correct, accurate, valid and complete data in a timely manner, mapping and re-engineering business processes and procedures accordingly as technology and the environment changes, all which will greatly assist with decision making in the fight to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
SELUVAIA KAUVAKA – Tonga
Malo e lelei and Greetings, I am Seluvaia (Selu for short) Kauvaka from the friendly islands of Tonga.
I am currently the Chief System Analyst for the Ministry of MEIDECC (Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change, Communications and CERT). I previously worked for 7 years in Digicel Tonga Limited and 3 years for Digicel Samoa Limited as their Senior IP Engineer. I am passionate about learning new technologies and sharing new techniques. I’ve been a member of PICISOC for quite a while now and would like to step up and be part of the Board as I noticed there aren’t any Tongans currently in the Board, I want to push and revive work in Tonga actively through PICISOC.
I am a network engineer by background but one of those ITs who has come a long way from support helpdesk from reformatting, cabling, configuring and routing, you name it. I am a strong advocate for Women in ICT. Ive started an NGO named Tonga Women in ICT (TWICT) that started in 2018, with a mission of “Empowering women and girls to engage with information and communication technologies (ICT’s) in a range of exciting ways and fully participate in the ICT industry. “I am also the current Chairlady of this NGO. I am currently the lead engineer pushing projects NICT (National ICT) and E-Government in the Tongan Government today. Looking forward to the day this is fully deployed and see how technology has made a difference in the Government work moving forward.
I enjoy very much sitting down with fellow ICT members – male and female – to talk and discuss valuable solutions for the nation (Tonga) even the Pacific as a whole. Ive been involved in many international and regional meetings and workshops from ICANN, APNIC, PACNOG, IGF, and many more. I’m very passionate about a better ICT world in the PACIFIC and I want to actively help push support ideas and be a part of this development alongside other Board members to develop a better robust and more communicated ICT world in the Pacific.
If I am elected, I want to be more involved which, means pushing Tonga to be more involved in sharing Pacific ideas.
SWARAN RAVINDRA – Fiji
Swaran is involved in the training of industry and academic programs, industry consultancy and research in ICT related areas at Fiji National University- National Training and Productivity Centre.She also gained substantial international experience with partnering universities such as University of West Indies where she served as a an exchange lecturer for undergraduate and post graduate programs in ICT, research on Assistive Technology, program creation for Post graduate ICT/Education programs, training on Managing ICT professionals, Project Management and the establishment of Diversity and Inclusive Services. She has also taught Post graduate programs in Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic), and has been trained in National Institute for Rural Development and Punchayati Raj as well as Apollo Hospitals-Bangalore India.
She has had the opportunity to represent Fiji at Asia Pacific Organisation- Bilateral Cooporation between National Productivity Organisations– Mission to Sri Lanka and Korea (Productivity Promotion, Innovation and Industry 4.0) and been part of International Center for Democratic Partnerships-Pacific Dialogue for ICT Influencers and Entrepreneurs.
She holds a Masters in Information Systems by thesis (Medical Informatics). She is currently pursuing her PhD in Information Systems, specializing in Assistive Technologies for Inclusion of Persons with Special Needs in the South Pacific. She is also one of the fellows at APrIGF 2020. She is interested in designing, creating & utilizing ICT tools and techniques for Pacific Islanders in hopes to utilize ICT as an enabler and a catalyst for change for rural development and for persons who are differently abled.
TIMOCI TUISAWAU – Fiji
Having worked in various sectors (public, private and NGO) in the country I have experienced various aspects of how technology is applied and used across these sectors. Each sector is a specialty on its own and has its own set of challenges in terms of IT. Taking a cross section of this there are commonalities that may also be found in challenges faced. Having attended many workshops, meetings, education and discussions across the region and globally I have also found that many of these challenges face on a sectoral and national level are also common across regions. This is where I believe that my contribution as a member of the board of PICISOC would be most valuable. To be able to give advice and contribute to policy and processes on a national and regional level is where many of these challenges may be evaluated, investigated, addressed and monitored.
In terms of experience, over the years, I have experience across the whole spectrum of IT. I started out as a programmer and have gained certifications in oracle databases. I moved on to systems and networking and have a wide experience across servers, storage networking and systems. I have worked in the infrastructure field of data networks with practical and certification in network and voice cabling (UTP and fibre), wireless networking, radio backbone links, satellite technologies, Video, Voice, routing and switching. Across the whole stack of IT I have worked on designing, configuration, implementation and maintenance of the whole suite of technologies. Amongst the certifications achieved I was certified as a CDCP and CDCS from Singapore. This helped me design the Fiji Governments Tier 3 Data Centre, the first of its kind in the country and the Pacific region (excluding Australia and New Zealand).
I have extensive experience and field work in projects and project management. Over the past years I have led teams of people and helped promote self evaluation and high performance across many landscapes.