The APNIC Executive Council (EC) recognizes the importance of diversity in APNIC community leadership. This was most recently discussed during the APNIC Annual General Meeting (AGM) at APRICOT 2026.
The EC has directed the APNIC Secretariat to consult the community on diversity in the EC and across community leadership, specifically, the barriers and friction points that affect whether people put themselves forward as EC candidates or participate in leadership roles. Insights will inform future initiatives to support a broader leadership pipeline. There is a heightened focus on this, given that APNIC’s By-laws have been updated and term limits have now been introduced for EC members, and succession planning is required.
A shared challenge
Diversity includes representation across dimensions relevant to community leadership — including, but not limited to, gender, geography, professional background or skills, and experience.
Diversity-related barriers in technical community leadership are not unique to APNIC. They are a challenge shared across the Internet and broader technical communities, partly because the technical community, which includes many engineers, has historically been male-dominated.
Broad participation and the sharing of experiences and best practices will help identify where participation pathways can be strengthened and where barriers persist.
Consultation methodology
To ensure accessible participation, the consultation will take place in two stages:
Stage 1 — Online engagement
- Three open listening sessions via Zoom
- Discussion via a dedicated Orbit mailing list
This stage is designed to gather a wide range of perspectives in an open and neutral setting. A summary of the input will be published on the APNIC Blog following this stage.
Stage 2 — APNIC 62 session
- A dedicated consultation session at APNIC 62 (in-person and remote participation available)
This session will further refine the themes and findings from the online sessions and incorporate additional perspectives.
Findings from both stages will be consolidated into a synthesis report and published publicly. Findings will be reported in aggregate or de-identified form, and individual participants will not be identified in published reports. This is intended to support open and candid participation.
The EC will review the findings and consider appropriate next steps, with the consultation report shared with the community following the December EC meeting.
Key dates
June – September 2026
- Online listening sessions
- Session 1: Thursday, 18 June 2026 (12:00 – 13:00 UTC+10)
- Session 2: Wednesday, 15 July 2026 (14:00 – 15:00 UTC+10)
- Session 3: Tuesday, 11 August 2026 (16:00 – 17:00 UTC+10)
- Orbit mailing list discussion
- Summary report published ahead of APNIC 62
9 September 2026
- Dedicated consultation session at APNIC 62
December 2026
- Final report published
A personal invitation from the EC
On behalf of the APNIC EC, I extend our sincere invitation to all APNIC Members and the community to contribute to this important consultation. Your perspectives will play an important role in shaping how we strengthen leadership participation across the APNIC community, and consequently APNIC’s future.
Registration for the 18 June 2026 session is now open.
The views expressed by the authors of this blog are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of APNIC. Please note a Code of Conduct applies to this blog.