Dear NPOC Members, I'd like to express my condolences to Oleve's family. He was a great contributor to the NPOC Community. Regards, On Fri, Oct 20, 2023 at 8:28 AM Poncelet Ileleji via Npoc-discuss < npoc-discuss@icann.org> wrote:
Good day NPOC Colleagues,
How do I start this write up, with flashes of the early days of NPOC popping back into my memory. It was a shock to me to read this morning on our African IGF WhatsApp group on a post by Emmanuel Vitus on the demise of Olevié Kouami who died of a heart attack in the early hours of Thursday 19 October 2023 in Lomé, Togo.
I got to know Olevié Kouami in the early days of NPOC over a decade ago, we were the only two Africans that our organisations were part of NPOC then. He was jovial, fun and we always agreed to disagree. Olevié Kouami was very active in NPOC in the early days, we worked tirelessly together with our Late Chair then, Alain Berranger of blessed memory who we lost some years back, God Bless Alain soul. .
I last met Olevié Kouami in person some 3 years ago at the Pullman Hotel in Dakar, still his usual self, he only sent a message to me some days after the global IGF in Kyoto on Facebook. To hear of his sudden demise is sad and shocking.
Olevié Kouami in his own way he contributed to NPOC early development, we co authored with other NPOC Executives colleagues then (Klaus Stoll, Alain Berranger, Marie-Laure Lemineur, Cintra Sooknanan, Poncelet Ileleji and Olévié Kouami ) the Non--‐Commercial Stakeholder Group: Not--‐for--‐Profit Operational Concerns Outreach Plan 2013. A Plan 10 years plus old , am attached again which I believe is still relevant to NPOC even today.
Olevié Kouami he is now with our dearest amiable chair Alain Berranger in the heavens, am sure they will talk about NPOC as those early days where heated in our dialogues and exchanges either at ICANN Meetings or Global IGFs where NPOC used to have sessions then or our numerous online meetings via skype or Adobe Connect back then.
To his close friend in NPOC Professor Emeritus Sam LanFranco who he developed a strong bond with I also send my big condolences. NPOC has now lost two individuals who in the early years of NPOC formation fought for its identity within ICANN. Our collective shared responsibility moving forward is to see NPOC carry out its mandate within the ICANN community in an honest and transparent way where equity counts even though we agree to disagree our NPOC membership binds us as we share the same objectives hence, we joined NPOC.
As ICANN celebrates 25 years of existence in Hamburg starting tomorrow 21 st October. NPOC birth to the be the second Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group constituency within ICANN is also important to mention what we have done to address issues of Not for Profits within the DNS space, no matter how little some might see our contributions.
To our current NPOC leadership, may God guide you to strengthen NPOC better than before, even though disagreements will happen, but we should not lose sight of why NPOC became a necessary constituency in ICANN.
May the soul of Olevié Kouami rest in perfect peace. Adieu Mr Jovial rest in the heavens brother, you ran your race our God knows best why you left us soon.
Peace Always
Poncelet
*Poncelet O. Ileleji*
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