The Ayra Association (formerly GAN) is honored to announce the appointment of the first 12 Ayra Ambassadors. This is a significant milestone in the development of Ayra because of the unique role Ambassadors play in Ayra governance. They are:
- JC Cannon, Privacy Strategist, Technologist, Writer
- Pyrou Chung, Founder and Foundation Director, Knowledge for Development
- Franziska Granc, Senior Project Manager, Nimbus
- Smita Gupta, Curator, OpenNyAI, Agami
- Akash Kapur, Senior Fellow, New America Foundation
- Viky Manaila, Trust Services Director, Intesi Group
- Hilda Moraa, CEO and Founder, Pezesha
- Jean Philbert Nsengimana, Chief Digital Advisor, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
- Rachel Sibande, Senior Officer, Global Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Jacques von Benecke, Group CTO, Druk Holdings and Investment Bhutan
- Kuenga Zam, Director, Department of Digital Transformation, GovTech Bhutan
- Yodahe Zemichael, Executive Director, National ID Ethiopia
This role originates in one of Ayra’s core principles: Equitable Participation.
“Ayra shall be open to all parties who have a direct stake in its mission; it shall give equitable representation to all such stakeholders; and it shall not give preference to any single stakeholder or group of stakeholders.”
Since the Ayra’s mission is to provide a trust layer for the Internet, and since all trust decisions are ultimately rooted in people, it is only natural that individuals have a direct voice in the governance of this new digital public utility.
To implement this principle right from the start of Ayra—what we call Phase 1—it was decided that organizations and individuals should have equal representation in governance. This means that for every representative of a for-profit member organization, there should be one person representing the voice of the individual and civil society.
Since these persons must serve as public representatives of Ayra as a whole, we call them Ayra Ambassadors. The initial Member Advisory Council (MAC)—the governing body of the Ayra during Phase 1—consists of representatives of the 20 for-profit Ayra Founder organizations and 20 Ayra Ambassadors.
We are heartened by the wide range of backgrounds, talents, cultures, and continents represented by our first 12 Ayra Ambassadors. This reflects a second core principle of Ayra: Inclusive and Diverse.
“Membership will be open to representatives for public authorities, private sector companies, and individuals across the globe; it will foster inclusivity and seek to serve a highly diverse membership of individuals and organizations of all sizes, geographies, industries, and use cases.”
This is critical because Ayra’s purpose is to facilitate the development of sustainable trust relationships across boundaries of all kinds: nations, industries, languages, communities, and cultures. It can only do this successfully if Ayra governance is globally representative of all these points of view.
The first set of 12 Ayra Ambassadors were selected from among nominees proposed through the networks of Ayra members worldwide. The second set is open to a public nomination process. If you believe you know someone who would be an exemplary Ayra Ambassador, or if you would like to be an Ambassador yourself, we invite to visit and share our online application at the bottom of the Ayra Ambassador page of our website. Note that, because Phase 1 only lasts through the end of 2024, the deadline to nominate a Phase 1 Ambassador is October 11.
The work of Ayra Ambassadors in Phase 1, together with the rest of the representatives of the MAC, is to develop the long-term sustainable governance of the Ayra as a digital trust utility. In future blog posts, we will be covering this launch process.