George Sadowsky
George Sadowsky
Employment History
The Internet Society (2020-2023)
Member, Board of Trustees. Elected by petition by ISOC Chapters. Chair, NominationsCommittee, member Finance, Governance and PIR Board selection committees. in parallel, Trustee of the Internet Society Foundation.
Chair, Nominating Committee (2005-2008). Chaired nominating committee in 2005, 2006, and 2007, and was adviser to new Chair in 2008. The Nominating Committee at ICANN is essentially a selection committee, consisting of representatives of the community groups within ICANN. It is independent of ICANN and has responsibility for the entire cycle of candidate recruitment, evaluation and selection for positions on the ICANN Board as well as within its supporting organizations.
Member, Board of Directors (2009-2018). served as a member of the Board for maximum three terms of three years each, nominated by the Nominating Committee. Chaired Board CEO Search Committee in 2011-12 and in 2015-16, leading to selections of Fadi Chehadé and Göran Marby as ICANN CEOs. Chaired Board Working Group on Nominating Committee reform. Chaired Compensation Committee. Member of the Finance Committee, Structural Improvement Committee, Organizational Effectiveness Committee, and Risk Committee. Worked to establish Board Working Group on Trust and became its first Chair. Took strong interest in state of readiness for launch of new gTLD program and voted against it as premature. Led concerns regarding approval of .xxx top level domain. Contributed strongly toward issues regarding domain name industry economics, including registrar-registry overlapping ownership, economic effects of introduction of new gTLDs, and availability of data for future industry analysis
World Wide Web Foundation (2009-2012)
Consultant to startup foundation conceived by Tim Berners-Lee, the co-inventor of the World Wide Web. Contributed to exploration of technical developments for exploiting the shift to mobile networking. Participated in missions to Ghana to explore education initiatives and to Burkina Faso for study of the potential use of mobile networking for anti-desertification activities. Contributed to the development of the initial Web Index. With UNDP and Rockefeller Foundation support, wrote and edited "Accelerating Development Using the Web: Empowering Poor and Marginalized Populations."
Internews Network (2001- 2007)
Executive Director, GIPI. The Global Internet Policy Initiative (GIPI) was a joint initiative of the Center for Democracy and Technology" and Internews Network. The objective of the initiative has been to assist countries in redefining and evolving their policy environment -- their legal system, their regulatory structure, and other policies -- so that the benefits of the Internet, as well those deriving from related ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) can be more rapidly and more fully realized by all sectors of the society. At its height, GIPI projects were operating with full time local coordinators in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Russia, Serbia. Tajikistan, Vietnam, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The 2004 GIPI Annual Report describes the cumulative results of these projects. Worked with a policy expert and field manager to direct the activities of these projects, including field visits, discussions with government officials, and talks in various venues. Had administrative, budgetary and fund raising responsibility for the initiative.
Senior Technical Adviser, dot-GOV program, managed by Internews on behalf of USAID. dot-GOV is a government to government program for helping developing countries in the area of telecommunications policy, and is part of a larger initiative called dot-COM, reflecting USAID's move to centralize its assistance programs in the area of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies). Participated in project formulation, backstopping, management of conferences and workshops and presentations to funders and review bodies as well as technical supervision of experts in the field in multiple countries.
Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation Grant SCI-0451384, Extending High Speed Networking to Africa.
Consultant to New York University, USAID, the World Bank infoDev Program, Russell Sage Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Waitt Family Foundation, Markle Foundation, United Nations Development Programme, UN ICT Task Force, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and the Government of Switzerland. Expert witness in civil legal proceedings in the United Kingdom and the United States.
New York University (1990-2000)
Director, Network Services, 1999-2000 . . Information Technology Services. Network Services is one of the major units within Information Technology Services, which was formed in 1999 by a fusion of all centrally funded groups at NYU delivering computing and communications services to the University. NYU-NET, NYU's multiprotocol routed data network contains over 25,000 nodes, uses a fiber based infrastructure, and is connected at 155 Mbps to the commercial Internet and also at 155 Mbps to Internet-2, with links to both MCI's vBNS and Abilene. Network Services manages the collection of servers providing basic network services such as e-mail, Web services, FTP, and related services. Network Services manages the NYU-NET backbone and linkages to our Internet providers, and proposes and enforces security policy and management of security events. Network Services' data technicians manage additions and changes to the network infrastructure through the specification and installation of vertical and horizontal transmission media in university buildings and all residence halls.
Director, Academic Computing Facility, 1990-1999 . . Until 1999, the Academic Computing Facility was NYU's centrally funded support unit for computing and networking activities. Among other things, it included multiple shared central systems, microcomputer laboratories, and network services used for instruction and research. ACF's networking group also provided local area network consultation, installation, and integration.
During this period, the ACF evolved from a relatively narrow, technical, systems-driven support organization into one with effective distributed managerial leadership and strong customer orientation serving the majority of the university community. Specific initiatives accomplished included establishing an arts technology studio and technical support group, support for humanities computing, expanding distributed support services, networking student residence halls, establishing an Information Services group for managing and evolving the campus electronic information space, establishing a Center for Applied Parallel Computing, establishing a multi-access Help Center, and establishing an Innovation Center for faculty exploration and development. Staff structure and physical plant were reorganized, and an active program of courses, workshops, seminars and colloquia was initiated. The ACF underwent several self-initiated external reviews and was actively involved in a faculty process of planning for academic computing, contributing to restructuring of governance, advisory, and cost allocation mechanisms, and ultimately to the restructuring of information technology as a whole at NYU, resulting in the creation of the Information Technology Services Division at NYU.
Northwestern University (1986-1990)
Director, Academic Computing and Network Services . . Responsible for management and technical leadership of centrally funded University computing and network facilities for instruction and research, with $8 million budget . . Directed Vogelback Computing Center, microcomputing activities and laboratories, and Chicago Computing Service . . Responsible for Microcomputer Product Center, including retail computer sales operation and computer repair service grossing $6 million . . Responsible for relationships with customers, suppliers, departments, and professional and undergraduate schools . . Reorganized separate computing support groups into unified academic computing organization, reducing overall staff and budget by 15-20% while redirecting resources and focus toward workstation computing and creating groups for networking and advanced technology . . Directed networking group in establishing fiber-based initial campus backbone and Internet and other external links, as well as installation and support of multiple local area networks . . Directed study leading to internal and external program review and long term planning for exploitation of information technology within the University.
Concurrently, consultant to the National Academy of Sciences, the United Nations and other organizations involving international consulting missions, authorship of official publications, computer-related strategic planning, and economic modeling and simulation.
The United Nations (1973-1986)
Technical Adviser in Computer Methods . . Co-ordinated an international team of computer specialists responsible for technical implementation and support of computer based projects in 75 countries . . Responsible for project formulation, selection and direction of field experts, preparation of system specifications and requests for proposals, evaluation of vendor proposals, on-going vendor relations, and local and foreign training of national candidates . . Field missions to and work in more than 30 countries included project formulation, training, computer installation, hardware, software, and environmental trouble shooting, preparation of technical reports, and negotiations with client governments and equipment suppliers . . Responsible for post-enumeration technical support of 1982 Chinese Population Census Project . . Initiated use of microcomputer systems in developing countries in 1979, with multi-level support strategy.
Concurrently adviser to Director of Statistical Office . . Initiated design of an on-line information system for international statistics, introduced text editing and photocomposition methods, and collaborated in the establishment of a bibliographic information system.
Also performed occasional consulting work for government, research and social service agencies . . Evaluated requirements for computer installation and use for research and administrative applications. . Selected and installed microcomputer systems and software . . Trained staff members in procedures and operations.
The Urban Institute (1970-1973)
Senior Research Staff Member . . Participated in the design and construction of a DECsystem-10 based interactive system for the implementation and simulation of socioeconomic microanalytic models of the U. S. household sector, with Guy Orcutt and others . . Responsible for analysis, design, and programming of the simulation system and for substantive research in formulating model processes and policy experiments . . Work resulted in book and Ph.D. dissertation.
Consultant to Statistics Canada on production and dissemination of 1971 Population and Housing Census data and for design of an interactive economic information system, to the Inter-American Development Bank for an evaluation of proposed expansion of computer facilities and applications, and to the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan for computer department reorganization.
The Brookings Institution (1966-1970)
Director, Computer Center, and Senior Fellow . . Created computer center . . Designed physical facilities and installed IBM 7040 computer system . . Recruited and trained programming and operating staffs . . Participated in Brookings research involving quantitative and computational methods . . Developed data documentation and retrieval system for survey data files . . Directed research on high level language structures for social science computing . . Directed the creation of the 1966 and 1967 Survey of Economic Opportunity Research Files for the Office of Economic Opportunity . . Planned and participated in training programs and seminars for technical and research staff . . Directed selection of, conversion to, and installation of a Digital Equipment PDP-10 computer system, and established a social science research computing consortium.
Private Consulting (1962-1965)
While in graduate school at Yale, was a consultant to government agencies and research projects . . Introduced the use of computers for revenue estimation in the Office of Tax Analysis of the U. S. Treasury Department and developed a large computer-based microanalytic simulation model to analyze the revenue and distributional effects of preliminary versions of the Revenue Act of 1964 . . System was used by Treasury and Congressional committees to help design provisions in final bill . . Performed programming for the Brookings Institution for studying the structure of the Federal Individual Income Tax and the effects of the Revenue Act of 1964 . . Conducted tax analysis and revenue estimation seminar for state tax officials for U. S. Treasury and consulted for taxation agencies in Maryland, Indiana, and Georgia . . Participated in computer based legislative redistricting study with Special Master for Federal Court in Connecticut . . Collaborated with Yale faculty members in psychology, physics, economics, and psychiatry, applying statistical and computational methods to empirical data.
Yale University (1962-1963)
Manager of Operations of Yale Computer Center and Research Assistant in Economics . . Administered operations and activities of Center containing IBM 709, 1401, 1620 and 610 computers . . Supervised operations and applications programming staff, participated in operating system development, consulted with faculty and student users, taught courses in programming . . SHARE representative.
Faculty member, Economics Department and Cowles Foundation . . Performed research on and programming of voluntary prepaid medical care plan, linear programming models of economic growth, and other projects . . Advised faculty and students on statistical and computational methods applied to economic research.
Combustion Engineering, Inc. (1958-1962)
Applied mathematician and programmer for Nuclear Division . . Supervised computing group, responsible for use of IBM 704, 7070 and 1401 computers by physicists and engineers . . Developed an automatic operating system for the IBM 704, did systems programming, wrote assembly and utility programs . . Developed reactor physics, engineering, and statistical programs . . Conducted in-company training programs in computer programming and numerical methods.
Concurrently lecturer in the Department of Statistics, University of Hartford.