Thank you Marie-laure for disseminating this sad news to the wider ICANN community. I will always remember Alain, for his perseverance in ensuring the representation of civil society, NGOs and not for profits within ICANN through NPOC and as a friend of At Large. Even if disagreed with a position he often did so with a smile; indeed I have not met as many in the IG and ICANN space with such level of diplomacy and professionalism. He was a friend and colleague who will be greatly missed. My sincere condolences to his family at this time. With deepest sympathy, Cintra Sooknanan On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 8:59 AM, Sam Lanfranco <lanfran@yorku.ca> wrote:

I too would like to pay tribute to the memory of Alain Berranger.

I knew Alain for almost twenty years. He was at Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa when in the mid-1990s I and several others built the Bellanet Secretariate, housed at IDRC and an early effort at using ICT for global development collaboration. Marie-Laure has kindly written about Alain so I will add nothing. It was Alain who brought me into the NPOC, NCSG, ICANN orbit.

I too will miss him, though his memory lives on in NPOC and ICANN's multistakeholder model.

Sam Lanfranco ---------------------------------------------- "It is a disgrace to be rich and honoured in an unjust state" -Confucius ---------------------------------------------- Dr Sam Lanfranco (Prof Emeritus & Senior Scholar) Econ, York U., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA - M3J 1P3 email: Lanfran@Yorku.ca Skype: slanfranco blog: http://samlanfranco.blogspot.com Phone: 613 476-0429 cell: 416-816-2852