Davidson appointed InternetNZ executive director

Society's president gets the day-to-day job

Keith Davidson, the current president of New Zealand's internet society, InternetNZ, has been appointed as its new executive director.

A panel comprising the vice president of InternetNZ, David Farrar, secretary Michael Wallmansberger and treasurer Chris Streatfield appointed Davidson unanimously, with the assistance of Tony Heyward from executive recruting firm Chamberlain Doyle. The panel subjected Davidson to psychometric evaluation and full reference checking before making the appointment.

Davidson succeeds Peter Macaulay to the position and is a long-term InternetNZ councillor, having been elected to that role in 1998. As well as his role with InternetNZ, Davidson has managed an ISP, Wise Net, and published a newspaper, the Wairarapa Times-Age. He is currently in the process of relocating to Wellington from Wairarapa and has resigned as the InternetNZ president. The responsibilites of president have been assumed by Farrar, who is now the acting president until the July 29 AGM when a new president will be formally elected.

Davidson says the continued fulfillment of InternetNZ's Strategic Plan will be his major focus in his new role. This plan outlines steps for InternetNZ's management of the .nz ccTLD, advocacy to the Government, support for industry best practice and self-regulation, protection and promotion of the internet, as well as NZ representation globally.

Stakeholder communications will also be improved, Davidson says, with InternetNZ's media focus moving off the IT pages and into the mainstream, presenting an authoritative view of internet-related issues. He adds that ENUM, or the mapping of telephone numbers to the Domain Name System as set out in RFC 2916 — is looming as the "next big thing" for InternetNZ. As ENUM is currently being trialled in NZ, Davidson says the society is keen to be involved in its evolution.