Elizabeth Thomas-Raynaud is the lead for ICC’s digital economy policy work and Director for the Business Action to Support the Information Society (ICC BASIS) initiative. This role involves representing members, negotiating in international processes, managing projects and leading teams and policy development and advocacy strategies to advance global business perspective on issues from Internet and telecoms, to privacy and data protection as well as cybersecurity and digital trade.
Focused on ensuring business representation and advancing multistakeholder stewardship in Internet governance and advocating for enabling environments that promote ICT for development, ICC BASIS convenes and facilitates business input into work streams resulting from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). This spans intergovernmental activities of the UN or those in multistakeholder format such as the Internet governance forum (IGF) or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Ms Thomas-Raynaud has been with ICC since 2005 in evolving roles across ICT, digital media and marketing portfolios. Prior to joining ICC, she spent over ten years in communications and public affairs roles with experience in financial services, health care and consulting sectors in Canada and France.
Ms Thomas Raynaud has served, by appointment of the UN Secretary General, on the Multistakeholder Advisory Group for the Internet Governance Forum and has represented business as a speaker at B20, APEC, OECD events as well as those of the United Nations General Assembly and relevant UN agencies.
Founder and past-Chair of ICC’s World Business Women (WBW) initiative, Ms Thomas-Raynaud recruited and chaired the team of employees that launched WBW in 2012, with the ICC Secretary General as its champion. The initiative was set up to encourage greater diversity of representation and leadership across all of ICC and to promote women’s economic empowerment through ICC’s leadership and engagement.
She holds a Master of Arts degree in International Journalism from City University of London, United Kingdom and studied International Economics and Political Science to earn her Bachelor’s degree from the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada.
A dual citizen of Canada and France, Ms Thomas-Raynaud is married and has two daughters.
