A team of professionals from venture capital, internet technology, industry and management consulting markets is creating the Foundation. We all share one thing in common: a passionate commitment to deliver sustainable initiatives to developing regions.

John Patton, Chairman

John has been involved with the Internet and developing communities since 1995 when he first began working on connectivity in Russia. In 1999, John was one of the founders of The Initiative Foundation which sought to take the lessons learned in Sergiev Posad and replicate best practices in other developing communities.

Professionally, John is the Director of Business Development at The Cloud, a wholesale WiFi network provider headquartered in London. John has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Davidson College, North Carolina and is a native of Boston, Massachusetts.

Matthew Bateson

Matthew is an External Affairs Manager in Shell International having recently spent two years in Kazakhstan managing the international and local relationships with Government, media and community for offshore oil development in the Caspian Sea. Currently based in London, Matthew has worked internationally in the oil and gas business for 8 years, working in corporate finance before moving to External Affairs and focusing on the field of corporate social and environmental issue management.

Niall Murphy.

Niall Murphy is the Technical Director of The Cloud, the nationwide wi-fi network being deployed by Inspired Broadcast Networks, and is an experienced technologist and entrepreneur. Murphy is also co-founder and director of the Digital Thinking Network, a European Foundation established to facilitate thinking processes about change.

Murphy has extensive experience in building and running businesses in the telecommunications sector. Living and working in South Africa he founded, built and successfully sold Sprint South Africa, one of the first ISPs in Africa and one of the two major national Internet backbones in southern Africa. Following on from this sale, Murphy became a telecommunication’s policy advisor to the African National Congress (ANC) think tank, Centre for the Development of Information and Telecommunications Policy (CDITP) and also a member of the SouthAfrican National Foresight Project.

Murphy has a degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in Computer Science and Mathematical Sciences (Actuarial Science). He is a member of the International Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEEE) and the Explorers Club. He was also a founder and deputy chairman of the Internet Society of South Africa.

Wayne Myers

Wayne has worked in the telecommunication market for over 25 years of which the last seven years were assignments in Brussels, Paris and London. Wayne has worked for Viatel Inc. as President of European Operations, and before that PSINet, Cable and Wireless, Williams Communications and Worldcom employed Wayne to develop channel distribution and expand European operations. Outside the telecommunication industry, Wayne was president of The Gold Club, an advertising firm developing a unique distribution of discount consumer coupons.

Helena de Medeiros Fernandes

Helena has a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and an M.A. in International Economics and European Studies, from SAIS, Johns Hopkins University. Helena spent two years working at Credit Suisse First Boston in Latin American Investment Banking and four years at Merrill Lynch in Debt Capital Markets.

Victor Nemov

Victor and his family lived in Central Asia for many years, where he worked as an engineer and in the construction sector. In 1992, he moved his family to Sergiev Posad in Russia where he started a construction company. In 1993, he began working with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and shortly after he founded a training center for migrants in cooperation with IOM. Today, Victor is the President of the Fund for Social Programs, which oversees and operates the community network.

Sean Brady

Sean is a Managing Director of Credit Suisse First Boston, focusing on the design and marketing of equity derivatives. He began his career at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York in 1992, joining CSFB in 1994. Mr. Brady is a member of the board of advisors of the SPES Foundation, a Boston based inner-city tutoring program. He has been involved in various charitable activities in Latin America and Eastern Europe since 1990, and was one of the founders of The Initiative Foundation in early 1999

Pieter Zylstra (Board of Advisors)

During his professional career Pieter Zylstra (1969) has been working internationally in the (tele)communications field with a strong focus upon delivering strategic innovation solutions to clients. Mr Zylstra has been working for Deutsche Telekom (AsiaPac), British Telecom (Europe) as well as been an independent wireless entrepreneur. He has degrees in organizational-science and anthropology from Twente University of Technology, Leyden University (both in The Netherlands), as well as Gadjah Mada University Indonesia). He was awarded "best student" honours of Twente University of Technology (1995) based upon his book "A Guided Reality";on the adoption of Western Management Principles Practices within an Asian context. Currently Mr Zylstra is heading the global wifi/wimax program for Capgemini, one of the worlds' leading global system integrators.

Alan Dabbs (Board of Advisors)

Alan is General manager of the Social Capital Group, an international consultancy that seeks to help identify, understand and manage social issues in private sector and other regional developments around the world. He has helped design policies and practices for managing social issues for governments, companies and financial institutions. He is currently involved in major development projects in the Andes and the Caspian Sea.

Dr. Richard Morris (Board of Advisors)

Richard is a Cultural and Applied Anthropologist with extensive work experience in ethnographic studies and social/economic development consultations for eligible recipients in austere economic areas. His chief areas of past study and work are Russia, Siberia and the Baltic countries.