Michael Salazar joined ICANN as Program Director for the New generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) program in July 2009. As the Program Director he is responsible for designing and deploying the gTLD Application Processing Program and subsequently managing the gTLD Program Office (GPO) once the program launches. The GPO is responsible for day-to-day operation of the gTLD Application Processing Program and covers areas such as the TLD Application System (TAS), Application Service Center (ASC), Application Comments and Program Feedback, and managing the various service providers (e.g. Evaluation Panelists).

Michael comes to us after 16 years at KPMG where he was a partner in the Advisory Services Group. At KPMG he focused on business improvement initiatives, risk management activities, information protection and business resiliency. Among his accomplishments were designing, implementing, and conducting the enterprise risk assessment process for the 2nd largest metropolitan transportation agency in the United States, streamlining the compliance processes for numerous organizations including Fortune 500 companies, leading teams in large-scale enterprise resource planning implementations, conducting a technical security assessment at one of the nation’s largest multi-campus university systems, and leading an international team in conducting a large-scale privacy policy review for a large-multinational corporation.