ICANN has announced Kuek Yu-Chuang, a leading executive in technology policy development, has been named Vice President for Global Stakeholder Engagement for the Asia Region. 

Kuek has served most recently as a Senior Director for Yahoo! Inc., where he led the company’s public policy efforts in the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions.

Prior to joining Yahoo!, Kuek served as a Management Associate for the Singapore Government. In that capacity, he engaged in intellectual property policy development for Singapore’s Ministry of Law.

“Our recent meeting in Beijing, the largest in our history, clearly demonstrated the importance of Asia in our plans to further internationalise this organisation,” said Sally Costerton, Senior Advisor to the President for Global Stakeholder Engagement. “So we are pleased to have someone with Kuek’s regional understanding and public policy experience to head up the development and implementation of our strategic plan for Asia.” 

ICANN recently announced it is opening major hub offices in Singapore and Istanbul. Kuek will also serve as the Managing Director for ICANN’s planned Asia Pacific hub based in Singapore.

During the organisation’s April meeting in Beijing, ICANN President Fadi Chehadé revealed that ICANN is opening an engagement center in the Chinese capitol.

“This is an organisation that understands how important Asia is to the growth and vibrancy of the Internet,” said Kuek. “I’m looking forward to increasing the presence and awareness of ICANN across the Asian region since the Internet will undoubtedly help define the future here and around the globe.”

Kuek also has diplomatic experience, which Costerton said will be very valuable as ICANN’s lead figure in the region. Kuek worked for Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and served in Singapore’s Washington, D.C. Embassy where he helped plan and implement outreach to the U.S. Congress and the White House.

Kuek studied International Politics at China’s Peking University where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts. He later obtained a Master of Arts from Harvard University in the U.S.

He will assume the role on 1 August, 2013.