What Fadi Chehadé ought to do in his last year as ICANN’s CEO
Here’s what firms and people want to see ICANN’s outgoing CEO accomplish ahead of he leaves the post.
ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé made the surprise notice the prior week that he would step down from his role as CEO of the organization next March. I reached out to a number of firms and people in the ICANN community to ask what they would most like to see Chehadé accomplish in this last ten months at the head of the internet group.
Elliot Noss, CEO of Tucows:
If Fadi were to take practical steps to get registrars, registries, IP and law enforcement working together more effectively I think that could have the most lasting impact.
He ought to pick a single issue, it could be privacy and proxy, it could be registrant validation, and lead an effort to successful completion. This would show it could be done and that multi-stakeholder is not win-lose politics as usual. This could be the legacy of his tenure.
Everyone pays attention to the IANA process. It will go forward with or without Fadi’s involvement.
Jon Nevett, EVP Corporate Affairs, Donuts:
Fadi has the opportunity to successfully complete his strong tenure by focusing on the two major initiatives: the IANA transition and the fresh gTLD program.
The transition won’t be fully complete by his departure, but he must focus the community on developing credible accountability mechanisms ahead of setting the organization on a final course to finish the transition.
The current gTLD round must be completed ahead of he leaves—some gTLDs still are unresolved, counting all of the TLDs impacted by GAC Category 2. For the program to reach its ultimate potential, this logjam needs to be cleared and deserves Fadi’s attention.
Becky Burr, Deputy General Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer, Neustar:
Bring the IANA stewardship transition across the finish line by supporting the community’s consensus development processes and embracing proposed community empowerment and accountability reforms. In addition, deliver on ICANN’s promises to enhance operational excellence.
Kurt Pritz, Domain Name Association:
Fadi has the opportunity to move a number of notable initiatives from “in-process” to “complete.”
Commit significant resources to address Universal Acceptance issues. Domain names and email addresses must work everywhere. Only ICANN is resourced and situated to immediately support this urgent communications effort.
Complete the gTLD round: launch all remaining fresh domain name registries (push to resolve all remaining contention sets). ICANN ought to resolve outstanding Policy questions that have slowed these fresh businesses: registration of two-letter names, operation of open/closed domain name registries, and GAC “Category 2” applications.
Fadi ought to support industry led initiatives to combat domain name abuses rather than rely on difficult to form contract provisions and ICANN compliance.
Finally, implement effective, community-developed accountability mechanisms as a pre-requisite to completing the IANA transition.
Michele Neylon, CEO of Blacknight:
With 10 months left in his tenure I suspect it’ll be quite hard for him to accomplish any fresh goals, but there are a number of projects that he ought to be able to bring close to completion.
The two main ones would be the IANA transition and the work on accountability. Leaving ICANN early next year in a position where the IANA transition away from the US government could be considered a “done deal” would be a worthy achievement. It is, unfortunately, unlikely that the actual transition will happen ahead of Fadi leaves.
And the only way that the transition can realistically proceed is if the “accountability’ work is completed. In other words, that broad community feels that ICANN as an organisation has matured enough to be accountable for its actions.
Feel free to leave a comment regarding what you’d like to see ICANN accomplish ahead of he leaves.
