The establishment of the APNIC Foundation Hong Kong (AFHK) and APNIC Foundation Australia (AFA)
The Foundation was originally established in Hong Kong in 2016. To further support the mission and goals of the APNIC Foundation, APNIC also established the APNIC Foundation Limited Australia. Both APNIC Foundation entities share a common vision, however each are responsible for managing and implementing different projects in the Asia Pacific region and are guided by their respective boards.
Mr Sharil Tarmizi
Chair – APNIC Foundation Australia
(Malaysia)
Sharil Tarmizi has 30 years of experience in law, regulatory work, finance and technology both in the private and public sector. He was Chair of the Government Advisory Committee (GAC) in ICANN from 2002 to 2007 and actively participated in two World Summits on Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva and Tunis.
Sharil has been involved in many capacity building programs with various regional and international bodies. He penned a chapter on, ‘Strengthening the Voice and Participation of Developing Countries in Internet Policy-making’ in a book called “Internet Governance-Asia Pacific Perspectives” published by the UNDP APDIP in 2005. His views are often sought and two notable involvements were the Broadband Strategies Handbook (World Bank-2009) and the Media Convergence Review Panel (Government of Singapore). In 2010, he became Vice Chair of the Child Online Protection Working Group at the ITU. Sharil also served as a member on ITU’s mPowering Development Initiative to provide strategic guidance to ITU’s Telecommunications Development Bureau (2012 to 2015) and had also served as an Advisory Board Member to the United Nations University (UNU) Institute in Macau (2019 to 2023).
He graduated from University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and is a Barrister, of Gray’s Inn, London.
Ms Sylvia Efie Sumarlin
Chair – APNIC Foundation Hong Kong
(Indonesia)
Ms Sylvia Sumarlin is Chair of the Federasi Teknologi Informasi Indonesia (the Indonesian Information Technology Federation (FTII)). The FTII represents 14 professional IT associations. In this role, she leads efforts to advise the government on a national ICT roadmap and regulations that encourage the use of ICT, promote local IT industries to other economies in the Asia Pacific, develop cooperation with international partners, and provide education to enhance the knowledge of ICT professionals.
Ms Sumarlin’s involvement in the Internet began in 1995 when she established and led Dyviacom Intrabumi (DNET), one of Indonesia’s first ISPs. She has founded two other companies specializing in chipset development and defence activities. She also serves as the Permanent Committee Head in the area of ICT Infrastructure Development for the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Ms Sumarlin acquired a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) from Syracuse University, USA in 1986. In 1989, she earned two Masters of Arts in International Relations and Economics from Syracuse University.
Mr Sharad Sanghi
(India)
Mr Sharad Sanghi is the Managing Director and CEO of Netmagic, an organization that he founded in 1998, and is now an NTT Communications Company.
Mr Sanghi is responsible for growing Netmagic into India’s leading managed hosting and cloud service provider, with over 1100 employees and nine data centres delivering services to over 2000 enterprise customers across the globe.
Mr Sanghi is a pioneer in the Indian cloud computing space, and his vision has helped Netmagic become a leader in the public cloud services market in India. On the business side, he led Netmagic through three successful VC funding rounds with Nexus Venture Partners, Fidelity, Cisco Systems and Nokia Growth Partners. He also led the 2012 acquisition of the company’s majority stake by NTT Communication Japan – a first in the Indian data-centre market.
Mr Sanghi is an industry veteran with over 20 years of extensive experience in developing Internet backbone infrastructure and providing Internet services. He is also a part-time Non-Executive Director on the Board of Bharat Electronics Limited, appointed by the Government of India.
During a six-year stint in the US, he worked for Unified Network Management Architecture Group at AT&T Bell Labs, the Backbone Engineering Group of NSFNET (ANS) and the Router Systems Development Group of Advantis (IBM Global Network). He has also helped Merrill Lynch and Bankers Trust design and deploy Wide Area Networks.
Mr Sanghi is an Electrical Engineer from IIT Bombay and holders a Masters degree from Columbia University, New York.
Dr. Jun Murai
(Japan)
Dr. Jun Murai is known as the ‘father of the Internet in Japan’. In 1984, he developed the Japan University UNIX Network (JUNET), the nation’s first-ever inter-university network. In 1988, he founded the Widely Integrated Distributed Environment (WIDE) Project, a Japanese Internet research consortium. He is a professor of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University, from which he earned his PhD in computer science in 1987.
In 2013, he was inducted into the “Internet Hall of Fame (Pioneer category)”. Prof. Murai also served as President of the Japan Network Information Center (JPNIC) and as Vice President of the Japanese Internet Association. He was appointed to the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees from 1997 to 2000 and in 1998, he was appointed as one of nine initial directors of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and served until June 2003.
He won the 2005 Internet Society’s Jonathan B. Postel Service Award in recognition of his vision and pioneering work that helped spread the Internet across the Asia Pacific region. He was also honored with the 2011 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Internet Award.
Mr Jeremy Harrison
(Australia)
Jeremy Harrison is the General Counsel of APNIC, advising both APNIC and APNIC Foundation on legal and regulatory compliance across all aspects of the organisations.
Prior to joining APNIC, Jeremy worked at a national Australian law firm. His work in private practice focused primarily on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and stakeholder management issues for clients ranging from publicly listed companies, large membership-based organisations, government authorities, to non-profits.
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Jeremy worked for 15 years in the technology sector designing, developing, and managing digital projects.
Jeremy holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from Griffith University, Australia.
Rajnesh Singh
Executive Director, Ex Officio
(Australia)
Rajnesh (Raj) Singh joined the APNIC Foundation in December 2023. He is a technology industry thought leader and former serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in the Asia-Pacific and beyond.
He has played founding and leading roles in several technology and private equity investment firms with significant experience in business management and strategy development, spanning diverse industries such as telecommunications, power infrastructure, agriculture, and real estate.
Raj has an intimate understanding of the nuances of the Asia-Pacific with lived experiences in the region. He has worked extensively with governments, academia, civil society, and the private sector and has served on several Advisory Boards. He has been part of Expert Working Groups for regional and international organisations on infrastructure, policy, regulatory reform, and development issues.
His Internet community leadership roles include Chair of the Asia-Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF), Founding Chair of ICANN’s Asia Pacific Regional At-Large Organisation (APRALO), and he was the Regional Vice President for Asia-Pacific at the Internet Society (ISOC) and established its Singapore-based subsidiary.
At the APNIC Foundation he builds partnerships and advocates for the technologies, policies and best practices that contribute to a global, open, stable and secure Internet that is affordable and accessible to the entire Asia Pacific community.