Esther Dyson

Esther Dyson was appointed a director of WPP in 1999. She is chairman of EDventure Holdings, the pioneering US-based company focused on information technology and new media. Having recently sold her business to CNET Networks, the US based interactive media company, she is now their editor-at-large. She is an acknowledged luminary in the technology industry, highly influential in her field for the past 20 years, with a state-of-the-art knowledge of the online/information technology industry worldwide, and the emerging information technology markets of Central and Eastern Europe. An investor as well as an analyst/observer, she sits on the boards of IBS Group, Meetup.com, NewspaperDirect, CV-Online and Graphicsoft, and on the consumer advisory of Orbitz, among others.

Dyson donates time and money as a trustee to emerging organizations (Bridges.org, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Eurasia Foundation). For several years in the '90s she was chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. From 1998 to 2000, she was founding chairman of ICANN (the organization responsible for overseeing the Domain Name System). She is also on the Advisory board of the elite networking group Renaissance Weekend, the Board of Trustees of the Eurasia Foundation which promotes the private sector in developing countries and the board of the Markle Foundation.

Career: 1972, fact checker, reporter, Forbes magazine; 1977, Wall Street analyst for New Court Securities; joined Rosen Research and bought out the firm in 1983, changing its name to EDventure Holdings; numerous non-executive directorships, including i-Gabriel, WPP and Meetup.com; current or former member of advisory bodies including National Endowment for Democracy, Eurasia Foundation, Technology Empowerment Network, Institute for East West Studies, Global Business Network, Santa Fe Institute, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Markle Foundation; 1998-2000, founding chairman of ICANN, now on its advisory committee; former adviser to Al Gore as member of National *Director, [[The After-School CorporationInformation Infrastructure Advisory Council]]; also advised Republicans through the Progress and Freedom Foundation

She is also a member of the advisory panel for the Stockholm Challenge award. 


 * Advisory Board (2001 at least), Technology Empowerment Network

Her father is Freeman Dyson.

Advising South Africa
Dyson has been an advisor to the South African government:
 * Dyson has previously visited South Africa as part of Thabo Mbeki's presidential advisory council on technology but this is one of the first times she will be speaking in a public forum.

Affiliations

 * Zedo (spyware/ad network) – board of advisors
 * Edventure Holdings, Inc.
 * WPP Group PLC – Board member
 * Voxiva; Board member
 * Manugistics – Board member
 * Audumbla – Board member
 * National Endowment for Democracy Board member
 * Director, Sunlight Foundation
 * Director, The After-School Corporation
 * Director, Long Now Foundation
 * Advisory Council, Center on International Media Assistance
 * Judge, Since Sliced Bread
 * Member, Future Shapers Collaborative
 * Director, Federation of American Scientists
 * Steering Committee, World Movement for Democracy