Member candidate
Liza Aboud

Board experience

I currently Chair the Enterprise Risk and Strategy Committee at the Motor Vehicle Sales Authority of BC (VSA). The VSA ensures a safe and reliable motor vehicle buying experience and engages and educates industry and consumers in the public interest, mainly through online channels.

Of importance to CIRA is my board and executive experience with the oversight of mitigating cybersecurity risks and assessing the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence. My Board and executive experience includes strategic planning and enterprise risk management, especially as it pertains to organizations balancing for-profit and not-for-profit motives.

My board experience also includes oversight of HR best practices pertaining to attracting diverse talent (including Indigenous), talent retention, fostering healthy and safe work cultures, and CEO recruiting and compensation.

Executive experience

I am Chief Operating Officer at Engineers and Geoscientists BC, a regulator overseeing 40,000 engineers and geoscientists and 4,000 firms. I oversee these departments / functions: strategy, corporate governance, information systems including cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, DEI and Truth & Reconciliation, communication and engagement, continuing education, and privacy.

I was Vice President at the Land Title and Survey Authority of BC (LTSA) from 2007 to 2019. I co-built LTSA’s for-profit subsidiary, LandSure Systems, and was part of the team monetizing existing online services, leading the conceptualization of new online systems for third parties, and de-risking these endeavors. I also introduced and managed User Experience design for online services for the organization.

Occasionally, I help technology entrepreneurs position themselves, their companies, and their products to maximize awareness and drive leads.

My aim is to leverage my experience to guide CIRA in tackling the challenges and opportunities it faces to:
1. Increase the growth in .CA registrations and generic-top level domains (TLDs)
2. Offer new and existing robust registry, DNS, cybersecurity services, and education on digital literacy to ensure the security, reliability and performance of the .CA domain system
3. Ensure communicators who manage online presence know the benefits of .CA domains and integrate them into other digital platforms

And, a bit about the personal me. I live in BC but grew up in Quebec in a trilingual household. My passions outside of work are travelling, cooking West Asian food, and enjoying BC’s great outdoors.

I humbly seek your support in this election!

-Liza Aboud, MBA, ABC, ICD.D

Mandatory Questions

1. Explain from your perspective what CIRA does and why it matters.

CIRA manages the .CA domain name system and also provides registry services to other Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) clients and generic TLD (gTLD) domain clients.

CIRA’s role is becoming more critical each year as Canadian businesses, governments, and NGOs are highly dependent on online commerce and service delivery for their products and services. Without CIRA’s robust registry and cybersecurity services, the security, reliability, and performance of the .CA domain system and other domain systems managed by CIRA could be compromised, putting the internet community relying on these domains, and purchasers/members accessing these domains, at risk. The outcome would be the loss of integrity and trust in Canada’s very own .CA domain, an asset that is integral to Canada’s economy and the exchange of information across Canada.

Through its Net Good program, CIRA support projects, communities and policies to improve the internet for Canadians through three pillars – infrastructure, online safety and policy engagement. As part of Net Good, CIRA annually funds grants for community-led internet initiatives. CIRA also collaborates with partners and peers around the world to keep the internet open and safe.

-Liza Aboud

2. Why do you want to be on CIRA’s Board of Directors? In responding, please indicate how you would contribute as a CIRA Board Member and what specific skills and experience you bring that makes you a qualified candidate.

As an incumbent CIRA board director, I have seen CIRA grow in terms of its maturity, and fully understand the benefits it brings to its stakeholders. I want to continue the work I and other directors have invested in CIRA’s upcoming strategic plan and see it come to fruition.

I offer deep executive and board experience at organizations operating in the public interest, some of which have had mandates to become multi-service, multi-product organizations and drive revenue (offer some services at no cost, and others for a fee).

I have positioned myself at the integration of strategy and governance, product and service development, the oversight of IT/cybersecurity/AI, and the public interest.

I also offer CIRA a unique vantage point as a bilingual female executive of West Asian heritage located in BC!

– 2021 CIRA Elections –

I was elected in 2021 on the CIRA NomCom slate.

– Board Experience –

• I am currently Chair of the Enterprise Risk and Strategy Committee of the Vehicle Sales Authority of BC.
• I have served as Committee Chair on numerous boards and was co-founder of a not-for-profit association.
• I completed the ICD Director’s Education Program and Not for Profit Governance program and take ongoing ICD and other education.

– Executive Experience –

• I am COO at Engineers and Geoscientists BC where I oversee strategic planning, governance, information systems including cyber security and AI, privacy, and many other functions.
• I was a VP with the Land Title and Survey Authority of BC (LTSA), which operates multiple registries and provides land information.
• I was an officer with the LTSA’s for-profit subsidiary, LandSure Systems, and led many functions including service research and planning, and UX Design. I worked with my peers to monetize existing online information services and was a key player in the development of new online registries and other services, and de-risking these endeavors.

– Cybersecurity knowledge –

In terms of cybersecurity, I currently oversee the Information Systems function at my current employer.
• Over the past few years, I have crisis managed attempted system intrusions, information scraping, data breaches, DDOS attacks, and other issues affecting customers or internal operations, and provided input into a ransomware policy
• I have taken extensive board training in cybersecurity and AI
• I understand website development, hosting, and hosting concerns which have been a critical part of my communications roles for years.
• Am familiar with areas of law related to CIRA’s business, involving contracts, privacy, trademarks, copyrights and patents.

-Liza Aboud

3. What do you think are the top 3 challenges and opportunities facing CIRA in the next 3 to 5 years? What approach would you take to address these issues?

Here are the top challenges and opportunities facing CIRA over the next 3 years:

1. Challenge: Stagnant growth in .CA registrations

Solving the challenge/creating opportunity:

• Work with registrars to communicate the value of the .CA domain to younger Canadians and new immigrants

• Promote multi-language/character domain names.

• Encourage strategic domain .CA purchasing for buyers (with a Canadian presence) who already own other domains to protect and promote their brands, or for people to own and control their own digital presence.

2. Challenge: Increase in global quantity and complexity of AI-driven cybersecurity threats resulting in more lethal attacks, etc.

Solving the challenge/creating opportunity:

• Continue to leverage CIRA’s efforts and investments to counteract cybersecurity threats into affordable services that can be offered to other organizations.

• Improve Canada’s internet infrastructure through the increase/relocation of IXPs and the completion of the Traceroute Database to ensure data safety and sovereignty.

• Continue to encourage digital literacy for community organizations/NGOs

• Continue to encourage the federal government to provide threat intelligence data to trusted cybersecurity service providers, continue to fund the adoption of cybersecurity technologies for organizations of all types, and work to educate Canadians on cyber risks (CIRA Bill 26 Review).

3. Challenge: Geopolitical internet matters (splinternet) and domestic policy issues affect CIRA

Solving the challenge/creating opportunity:

• CIRA must to advocate for a free, open and interoperable internet by continuing to actively participate with domestic and international thought leaders and partners to promote the security and resilience of the internet. Ensure a key part of CIRA’s international collaboration is geared, among other things, to mitigating cyberthreats and establishing best practices combatting DNS abuse or cross-border electronic evidence sharing (Canadians Connected May 2024).

-Liza Aboud

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