Former British diplomat, and business and human rights expert Vicky Bowman will join the Global Network Initiative as the new Independent Chair. She will assume her position on June 24. Bowman began her career as a diplomat, serving in several roles in the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, including in the European Union and as the UK Ambassador to Myanmar. She established the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB) in 2013, an initiative to encourage responsible business activities, and was based in Myanmar until being forced to leave in November 2022.
Independent Chair Vicky Bowman
In addition to MCRB, she serves as a Senior Adviser at the Institute of Human Rights and Business (IHRB), one of MCRB’s co-founders, an Honorary Senior Fellow of the British Institute for International and Comparative Law (BIICL), and on the Board of ICoCA, a multistakeholder initiative focussed on responsible business conduct in the private security sector. Bowman has an MA in Natural Sciences (Pathology) from University of Cambridge, holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bradford, and is an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College.
Bowman will succeed David Kaye, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and an internationally recognized and respected human rights and free expression expert. David had served as Independent Board Chair since October 2020. GNI is immensely grateful for David’s many contributions, including helping lead our strategic review, expand GNI’s membership and navigate multistakeholder collaboration in response to emerging digital regulatory approaches around the world.
“GNI is a remarkable organization, driven by an outstanding staff and a membership of civil society organizations, companies, academics and investors without parallel in internet policy circles,” David Kaye said. “Working with such committed professionals has been a high point of my professional life. I could not be more excited to hand over the chairmanship to Vicky Bowman, who brings to the board such deep expertise and a multistakeholder commitment at exactly the right time for GNI.”
Vicky Bowman said, “I am delighted to be joining the Global Network Initiative, as their work has been a constant reference point since Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business conducted its ICT Sector Wide Impact Assessment in 2015. We also worked together on follow up, culminating in a joint statement on internet shutdown after the military coup in 2021. At a time when digital risks and regulatory frameworks are rapidly evolving across the globe, I believe collaboration between companies, civil society and experts on standards and accountability is invaluable. I look forward to navigating this complex agenda with the team, the members of the GNI community, and other stakeholders.”
GNI’s Executive Director Jason Pielemeier welcomed Bowman’s appointment as Independent Chair: “Vicky is one of the leading figures in the business and human rights field and has distinguished herself by consistently elevating human rights as both a diplomat and an advocate, even in challenging circumstances and despite personal risk. Her experience and expertise will be tremendously valuable as we leverage GNI’s growing, multistakeholder membership to uphold freedom of expression and privacy in an environment marked by increased geopolitical tensions and regulation of technology.” He added his appreciation to the outgoing chair, noting that “David has been an incredible friend, mentor, and counselor to GNI and to me personally. GNI owes him a tremendous debt for his leadership, including through the challenging years of the Covid pandemic, and is incredibly grateful that he will remain engaged as a member.”
Bowman will lead the next term of GNI’s Board of Directors, which was elected in May, and will serve until 2027. GNI’s constituencies (tech companies, civil society organizations, academics and academic institutions, and investors) nominate and select their own representatives on the board to preserve a diversity of experience, insights, and perspectives in pursuit of freedom of expression and privacy rights.