Nora Nanayakkara
As a bit of a “digital evangelist”, I very much enjoy meeting .uk stakeholders as part of my Nominet Board role – hearing about their experiences of online and gathering feedback about the obstacles and challenges they face in carving out a presence for themselves online.
I am a Non Executive Director on the Board of Nominet, the .uk registry and an elected member of Nominet’s Policy Advisory Body. In addition, I have business development responsibility for Sedo UK, (part of Adlink Internet Media) and provide business services consultancy for the Pilotlight Charity. You can read more about my work experience under the “Experience” tab. I speak fluent German, basic Spanish and rather poor French and Italian 
I enjoy travelling, cooking and reading. I live in Berkshire with my family. My favourite colour is red, favourite city is New York and when I was a child, wanted to grow up to be a baker. I really liked cake and way back then, I had never heard of digital media 
Working alongside a huge range of stakeholders in the .uk domain name industry over the last six years, offers me an opportunity for perspective in comparing .uk with other ccTLDs as well as first-hand experience of the effects of Nominet policies on its end-users. This unique background of direct contact with thousands of .uk end-users (domain traders, parkers, registrars, venture capitalists, content developers, ad providers, SEO agencies, marketing/branding groups and small businesses) enables me to capture a broad range of Nominet members’ needs and requirements.
I have participated in numerous industry events, written responses to several discussion papers and presented several position papers as part of my goal to provide feasible and constructive input at Nominet. As part of my Board and PAB roles, I am committed to meeting attendance and to ensuring the views and needs of all .uk domain users are represented in a competent and responsible way.
I believe Nominet and its leadership has a lot to be proud of – Nominet is stable, secure and continuing to grow. It is a beacon of best practice in the international registry community and benefits from excellent staff and customer service. As .uk stakeholders, we are entering a new era in online; one where the registry needs to be working within a corporate governance structure that can handle change and is equipped with a competitive and viable strategy that reflects the realities of the .uk namespace. Membership support is needed to effect some changes in this regard, and I believe that once that is achieved, Nominet will be ready to meet the challenges raised by and leverage the potential unlocked by digital business, both in the UK and internationally.
