ICANN hires fresh COO, moves Atallah
ICANN shakes up leadership positions.
ICANN has moved chief operating officer Akram Atallah to a fresh role and hired a replacement from outside the organization.
Atallah has been named president of the Generic Domains Division. This fresh group will focus on generic domain operations, domain name industry engagement and web services for the community.
The division is being created since of the increase in “scale and responsibility” for ICANN in the wake of fresh top level domains, ICANN stated.
Atallah and ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé are longtime friends, and Atallah is credited with introducing Chehadé to ICANN.
Susanna Bennett will be taking over the COO spot.
Bennett comes from Jazz Technologies, Inc., where she was CFO and Vice President of Human Resources.
Chehadé touts her experience managing international operations, which continue to be notable for ICANN as it expands its presence across the globe.
Other personnel changes at ICANN include:
– Jamie Hedlund, right now Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement for North America, will become a special advisor to Chehadé, while continuing leadership of North America government relations.
– Christopher Mondini, right now Vice President of Business Engagement, will become the Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement for North America and Global Business Engagement.
– Nora Abusitta will become Vice President of Public Responsibility Programs. Abusitta is right now the Senior Director of Inter-Governmental Development.
