Colleagues, friends, I hope you are well.

I'm very sorry to tell you that Peter Major has sadly passed away this past Friday.

It is hard to think of any one person who has had more impact on the political governance of the WSIS process than Peter. He personally helmed negotiation of every wsis progress resolution through CSTD, chaired CSTD multiple times, and was a tireless champion of the value of stakeholder-based Internet policy development. I do not believe the multistakeholder working groups on enhanced cooperation or the present one on data governance, of which I'm a member, would have happened without Peter pushing for the format - which is unique in the multilateral system.

More importantly he was a thoroughly decent human being who always had a smile or a joke to smooth over the difficulties of negotiations, always had time to talk to those with different views, and always sought outcomes which would benefit real people's lives.

Personally I've lost a friend, many of you have too. The notion of a people centric Internet has lost one of it's great champions.

Below a message from his daughter, Vera

Dear Colleagues,

It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my father, Péter Major. He died this past Friday, September 12, after a very short battle with cancer. He leaves behind his wife of 44 years, two loving daughters, and four grandchildren.

[...]

We are planning a private funeral, and in lieu of flowers we would be grateful for donations to the Recherche Suisse contre le cancer (IBAN: CH67 0900 0000 3000 3090 1), marked ‘P. Major’. I will put together a memorial book to celebrate his contributions and his memory. If you would like to include a message, you may email me directly or share it on the IGF website In Memoriam Péter Major. Please also feel free to circulate this message among people who knew him.

I am deeply proud of all that he accomplished, and I take comfort in knowing that his contributions and time with us touched many lives. I hope you will all remember him fondly.

Best regards,

Vera Major

Nick Ashton-Hart 
Senior Director, Digital Economy Policy

APCO Worldwide
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nashtonhart@apcoworldwide.com 
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