Nii Quaynor


Nii Narku Quaynor is a Ghanaian scientist and engineer who has played an important role in the introduction and development of the Internet throughout Africa.

Biography

Quaynor graduated in engineering science from Dartmouth College in 1972 and received a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Thayer School of Engineering there in 1973. He then studied Computer Science, obtaining an M.S. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1974 and a Ph.D. from the same institution in 1977. He attended the Kinbu Secondary Technical School, Adisadel College and Achimota School in Ghana.
He is one of the founding members of the Computer Science Department at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, and continues to hold a professorship there. He is also a member of the Council of the University of Ghana.
In 2000, he became director of ICANN for the African region.

Work with telecommunications and the Internet

On Quaynor's return to Ghana from the United States in the early 1990s he established some of Africa's first Internet connections and was involved in setting up some key organisations, including the African Network Operators Group. He introduced Value Added Networks in the region through the introduction of the SWIFT, Internet and Commerce networks, and was founding chairman of AfriNIC, the African numbers registry.
Quaynor is the Chairman of the Ghanaian company Network Computer Systems, a member of the United Nations Secretary General Advisory Group on ICT, member of the ITU Telecom Board, Chair and of the OAU Internet Task Force, President of the Internet Society of Ghana, and member of the Worldbank Infodev TAP.
Quaynor serves as a Commissioner for the Global Commission on Internet Governance.

Awards and recognition

He was awarded the 2015 ICANN Multi-stakeholder Ethos Award together with Cheryl Langdon OrrAlso on 26 June 2013, he was selected for induction into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.In December 2007, Quaynor was awarded the Jonathan B. Postel Service Award from the IETF.