Stakeholder Group: Private Sector
Region: WEOG
Biography
William Smith has over 30 years experience ranging from software developer to executive at several companies. He currently is Sr. Policy Advisor, Technology Evangelist at PayPal where he advocates for improvements to the security, stability, and reliability of the Internet. Mr. Smith represents PayPal at the IGF, ICANN, ARIN, WSIS, the ITU, and the IETF. He helps establish and present PayPal’s positions at these and other fora bridging the gaps between technology, policy, and business.
Mr. Smith is a frequent panelist on issues related to Internet Governance, security, privacy, and identity and has served the Internet Community for over 15 years through his participation in a variety of organizations in leadership roles. At these organizations he is known for his advocacy of open standards, open source, open governance, and non-assert covenants as a means to develop and promote a free and open Internet.
He currently sits on the ICANN WHOIS Review Team, provided input to the MAG during preparations for the Nairobi IGF, has been part of the US Delegation to several ITU meetings, and is a member of the US FCC’s Communications, Security, and Reliability Council. Mr. Smith is a past President and Chair of OASIS, served as co-chair of ebXML, the joint OASIS/United Nations Electronic Business Initiative, past Board member of IEEE-ISTO, and has participated at the W3C including as co-chair of the XML Linking WG.
Prior to joining PayPal, Mr. Smith was Sr. Director Business Strategy, Office of the CTO, Sun Microsystems where he helped establish and execute the company's international standards strategy. At Sun, Mr. Smith actively participated in the development of secure, privacy-aware digital identity standards as an officer and Board member of the Liberty Alliance and Kantara Initiative.
Mr. Smith holds bachelor's and master's degree in Computer Science, both from Brown University.