Nabil Bukhalid

Lebanon lost today an exceptional man and one of its Icons. The 2017 Middle East Internet Hall of Fame inductee, referred to as the "Father of the Internet", left us too soon on Jan 3, 2023. Nabil Bukhalid is an Internet evangelist and a public speaker in the Internet world. He made many significant contributions to the introduction and development of the Internet in Lebanon. He is principally known for establishing the first Internet node in Lebanon and the .LB Domain Registry. Deepest sympathy and condolences to his wife Joumana, his children Leila, Zeina, and Sami, his family, and his friends as they mourn his loss. At the American University of Beirut (AUB), Nabil Bukhalid led the Computing and Networking team that brought the Internet to Lebanon. He made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet in Lebanon, established the Lebanese Domain Registry (LBDR), and served as administrator and registrar for the .LB ccTLD since its creation in 1993. Nabil is also the founder of the Lebanese Academic and Research Network (LARN), co-founder of the Lebanese Broadband Manifesto Support Group (LBSG), and BeirutIX, the first Internet Exchange Point in Lebanon. He is also a co-founder and ex-president of the Internet Society Lebanon Chapter, co-founder and CEO of the Lebanese Internet Center, and advisory board member of the Lebanese Canadian Tech Hub. In this capacity, Nabil contributed to many Internet governance, strategic planning, capacity-building, and research efforts in the EMEA region, and organized and presented at numerous conferences on technical, governance, and socio-economical concepts related to the Internet, multi-stakeholder governance, knowledge society, and open data. He attended AUB, where he earned both his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (1981) and EMBA (2006).