Trustees

Founding Organisations

WIDE Project

The WIDE Project is made up of more than 100 loosely bound organizations including various corporations and universities. Its goal is the construction of a “Dependable Internet”, one that can be used by people from all walks of life in any situation with a sense of security.

The work of the WIDE Project is carried out by more than 730 researchers in Japan, collaborating with international researchers from all over the world.

APNIC

APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Centre) is an open, member-based, not-for-profit organization, whose primary role is to distribute and manage Internet number resources in the Asia Pacific region’s 56 economies. These number resources are the building blocks for the Internet to operate and grow.

APNIC helps build essential technical skills across the region, supports Internet infrastructure development, produces insightful research, and is an active participant in the multistakeholder model of Internet cooperation and governance.

APNIC performs these activities as part of its commitment to a global, open, stable and secure Internet.

Directors

Professor Jun Murai

Professor Jun Murai is known as the ‘father of the Internet’ in Japan. In 1984, he developed the Japan University UNIX Network (JUNET), the first-ever inter-university network in that nation.

In 1988, he founded the Widely Integrated Distributed Environment (WIDE) Project, a Japanese Internet research consortium, for which he continues to serve as a board member.

He is dean of the Graduate School of Media and Governance and a professor at the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University, where he earned his PhD in computer science in 1987.

He has served as President of the Japan Network Information Center (JPNIC) and as Vice President of the Japanese Internet Association. He served on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees from 1997 to 2000. 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.

In 2005, he was awarded the 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 honoured with the 2011 IEEE Internet Award, was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013, and was awarded the Legion of Honour by the Government of France in 2019.

Paul Wilson

Paul Wilson has nearly 30 years’ involvement with the Internet, including 20 years as the head of APNIC, the Regional Internet Registry for the Asia Pacific.

In this role, he has led APNIC’s development as a provider of critical Internet services and as a key contributor to Internet growth and development throughout the Asia Pacific.

Previously as Technical Director and CEO of Pegasus Networks, the first private ISP in Australia, Paul worked with early Internet technologies and helped establish the Association for Progressive Communications (APC).

Paul also consulted on various Internet projects for the United Nations and other international agencies, including the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). With IDRC, Paul helped to establish many early Internet services in developing economies of the region in the early 1990s.

Paul has worked as an expert and leader across the full range of communities and organizations involved in Internet development, including ISPs and network operators, non-profit organizations, governments and governmental agencies; and with many key organizations including RIRs, the IETF, ICANN, ISOC, APEC-TEL, the ITU and others.