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The DONA Foundation is a non-profit organization established in Geneva, Switzerland.

DONA Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors

The Board of Directors is the supreme organ of the Foundation.

The original Board of Directors and initial Chair of the Board were designated as of the Constitutive Assembly of the Foundation on January 20, 2014 and serve in their personal capacities. The current Board and Chair and their affiliations are listed below.


Dr. Robert E. Kahn
Dr. Robert E. Kahn
Director and Chair
Corporation for National Research Initiatives
Reston, Virginia, USA
Robert E. Kahn is Chairman, CEO and President of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), which he founded in 1986 after a thirteen year term at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). CNRI was created as a not-for-profit organization to provide leadership and funding for research and development of information infrastructure.
Mr. Stefan Eberhard
Mr. Stefan Eberhard
Director and Secretary
Oberson Abels SA
Geneva, Switzerland
Stefan Eberhard is a partner of the law firm OBERSON ABELS. He advises on Swiss business law with a particular focus on M&A, corporate and contract law. He also advises foundations and associations, in particular those involved in the sphere of the international organizations active in Geneva. A particular strength of OBERSON ABELS is its strong focus on tax.
Dr. Antoine Geissbuhler
Dr. Antoine Geissbuhler
Director
Division of eHealth and Telemedicine, Geneva University Hospitals
Geneva, Switzerland
Antoine Geissbuhler is a Professor of Medicine, Vice-Dean for Humanitarian and International Affairs at Geneva University’s Faculty of Medicine, Director of the Division of eHealth and Telemedicine at Geneva University Hospitals. He is also President of the Board of the Health-On-the-Net Foundation, Past-President of the International Medical Informatics Association, and Fellow of the American College of Medical Informaticians. He trained as a physician at Geneva University where he specialized in internal medicine, then, after a post-doctoral fellowship, became Associate Professor of biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University. In 1999, he returned to Geneva to take the responsibility for the design and implementation of the medical information systems at Geneva University Hospitals. In 2010, the telemedicine and distance education activities lead to the establishment of the World Health Organization collaborating center for eHealth and telemedicine. Since 2015, he is also in charge of the Innovation Center of Geneva University Hospitals. Author of more than 140 original scientific publications, his current research focuses on the development of innovative, knowledge-enabled information systems and computer-based tools for improving the quality, safety and efficiency of care processes, at the local level of the hospital, the regional level of a community healthcare informatics network, the implementation of the national eHealth strategy for Switzerland, at the global level with the Health-On-the-Net Foundation (http://www.hon.ch) and with the development of a large telemedicine network in developing countries (http://raft.network).
Mr. Rashid Ismailov
Mr. Rashid Ismailov
Director
Former Deputy Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation
Moskva, Russia
Mr. Rashid Ismailov is the Former Deputy Minister of Russia's Ministry of Communications. In this position, Mr. Ismailov oversaw the development of the IT industry while continuing to be involved with international cooperation. Prior to that, Mr. Ismailov was responsible for the development of international relations in the field of Communications, the expansion of relations with foreign partners and the strengthening of Russia’s image as one of the leaders on the global market for information and communication technologies. He is fluent in English, Italian, Portuguese and Turkish, and understands Spanish, German and French.
Mr. Majed Al Mazyad
Mr. Majed Al Mazyad
Director
International Telecommunication Union
Geneva, Switzerland
Majed Al Mazyad has a hands on experience in the field of ICT spanning for more than 16 years. He is an experienced executive who has demonstrated technical and leadership skills at both the national and international levels. He has actively contributed in the development of important policies and regulations that helped shaping the telecom market in the Kingdom, boosting competition, and maintaining a good mix of market and regulatory involvement. After his achievements in many leading positions, he was appointed in 2017 as a Deputy Governor for Technology and Infrastructure Sector of CITC and continued his quality achievements including enabling the development of the Mobile Internet and quadrupling its speed in less than 2 year and enabling the early adoption of emerging technologies.
Mr. Ed Pentz
Mr. Ed Pentz
Director
Crossref
Oxford, United Kingdom
Ed Pentz became Crossref's first Executive Director when the organization was founded in 2000 and manages all aspects of the organization to ensure that it fulfills its mission to make scholarly content easy to find, link, cite and assess. Ed is also Chair of the ORCID board of directors and Treasurer of the International DOI Foundation. Prior to joining Crossref, Ed held electronic publishing, editorial and sales positions at Harcourt Brace in the US and UK and managed the launch of Academic Press’ first online journal, the Journal of Molecular Biology, in 1995. Ed has a degree in English Literature from Princeton University and lives in Oxford, England.
Dr. Beth Plale
Dr. Beth Plale
Director
Indiana University Bloomington (IU)
Bloomington, Indiana
Dr. Plale is the Michael A and Laurie Burns McRobbie Bicentennial Professor of Computer Engineering and Executive Director of IU’s Pervasive Technology Institute at Indiana University Bloomington (IU). Plale served at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) 2017 -2020. Plale’s research interests are in research infrastructure, open science and reproducibility, and AI accountability.
Mr. Adama Samassékou
Mr. Adama Samassekou
Director
Président du CIPSH, Président du Réseau MAAYA
Bamako, MALI
Adama Samassékou from Mali is the current president, with ministerial rank, of the African Academy of Languages. Born in 1946 in Mali, he served between July 2002 and December 2003 as the President of the PrepCom of the Geneva phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). Previously, he was Malian Minister of Education (1993-2000) and former spokesperson for the Government of Mali (1997-2000). Since 2003, he is a member of the Haut Conseil de la Francophonie.
Dr. Ulrich Schwardmann
Dr. Ulrich Schwardmann
Director
Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH (GWDG)
Göttingen, Germany
Ulrich Schwardmann was one of the founders of the ePIC Persistent Identifier Consortium for eResearch in 2014 and is chair of the ePIC Management Board. He was responsible for the Quality of Service strategy of ePIC and currently he is enforcing the standardization and use of PID Information Types and profiles. Ulrich has been involved in several RDA working groups since its foundation, and was involved in topics and outcomes directly related to the Digital Object Architecture. He implemented a hierarchical approach for data types on top of the ePIC DataTypeRegistry (DTR) and he is working on a standardization process for DTRs in ISO-SC32 WG2. Ulrich is DONA-MPA delegate for GWDG. He has a degree in mathematics, has a long lasting background in parallel and high performance computing and lead the data management activities of GWDG.
Dr. Peter Wittenburg
Dr. Peter Wittenburg
Director
Research Data Alliance Europe (RDA EU)
Nijmegen, Netherlands
Dr. Peter Wittenburg is an Executive Director of Research Data Alliance Europe (RDA EU). He is also a member of the RDA Technical Advisory Board (TAB) and a scientific advisor of the EUDAT. He has a background in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Berlin). Previously, at the Max-Planck-Gesselshaft Institutes (MPI), he led a technical group of about 30 experts in the field of psycholinguistics. He had setup labs at the MPI to research on a variety of digital signal processing techniques, such as focusing on real time eye tracking, gesture analysis and pitch detection. He is widely known for his leadership roles in the various projects and efforts funded by the European Union.
Dr. Stephen Wolff
Dr. Stephen Wolff
Director
Internet2
Washington, DC, USA
Stephen Wolff brings over forty years of leadership in the development, management, and operations of network technologies and is regarded as one of the original visionaries and architects behind the Internet of today, including leading the development of NSFNET, a key precursor to the commodity Internet. Wolff's experience includes teaching and research in communication theory and networking, and development of ARPANET technology including the transition to TCP/IP. His NSF responsibilities included support of basic research in networking and communications, the development of national, regional, and campus R&E network infrastructures for NSFNET, and coordination of R&E networking with other US Government agencies as well as with emerging NRENs in other countries.
Mr. Gao Xinmin
Mr. Gao Xinmin
Director
Internet Society of China
Beijing, China
Mr. Xinmin Gao is the Vice President of Internet Society of China, member of the Advisory Committee for the State Informatization, P. R. China and member of Consultative Committee on UN Information Technology (CCIT),China Association for Science and Technology (CAST). He graduated with a Master degree from the Department of Electrical Machinery of the Polytechnic Institute of Kalinin, Leningrad in the former Soviet Union. He has extensive working experience in research organizations in the former Ministry of Electronics Industry, and later assumed the position of Director of the State Information Center. Research fields include studies on the application of computer technologies in power grid and informatization development planning. Mr. Gao has been long engaged in Internet governace research and has rich experience on e-commerce related field.
Mr. Xihui Zhen
Mr. Xihui Zhen
Director
Content Digital Innovation Technology Co.,Ltd.
Beijing, China
Mr. Xihui Zhen is the CEO of Content Digital Innovation Technology (CDI), a software development company he founded in 2002. CDI is a member of the Coalition of Handle Services – China, the DONA Foundation’s Multi Primary Administrator (MPA) located in China. The Coalition of Handle Services – China was the first accredited MPA from the DONA Foundation. CDI primarily focusses on developing DOA based application solutions for all industries, creating DOA application tools to help others develop their own DOA based applications, as well as conducting DOA based research to help better apply the DOA technology. As one of the early adopters of DOA technology, Mr. Zhen has over 20 years of practical experience working with the DOA. Mr. Zhen holds the position of Co-Chairman and Chief Expert of the Coalition of Handle Services – China, and has been the primary global point of contact for the Coalition since its establishment in 2014. Mr. Zhen is also the Vice Chairman of the DOA Application Technology Standardization & Development (ATSD) Steering Committee where he works to promote the application of DOA technology in China and in global community.