Nominating Committee Call for Expressions of Interest in Assessment Team

Summary

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) seeks an organization capable of interviewing and assessing candidates for ICANN leadership positions. ICANN's Nominating Committee will take steps to identify and recruit a stream of candidates.

The search for candidates will be conducted on a worldwide basis depending on ICANN’s specific needs.  Assessments will need to be made on a continuing basis as statements of interest from potential candidates are received, starting in January 2008 and concluding no later than 15 May 2008.  Assessments should be made in person when possible and otherwise by telephone.

Background

ICANN is a not-for-profit public benefit California corporation having responsibility for the security and stability of the Internet through the management of the Internet's assigned names and numbers.  Under contract from the U.S. Department of Commerce, ICANN includes the IANA function that since the inception of the Internet has managed the Internet's naming and numbering functions.

According to the ICANN Bylaws, each year a number of leadership positions are filled by an independent Nominating Committee consisting of 23 volunteers, hereinafter referred to as the “Nom Com”, charged with identifying and selecting a majority of the members of ICANN’s Board of Directors, as well as representatives for several organizations internal to ICANN.  Each year the Nom Com searches for and identifies suitable volunteer candidates for such positions through broad outreach throughout the ICANN and related communities as well as the general community.  The Nom Com then evaluates the candidates in terms of the needs of the various constituencies for which it recruits and the stated background, qualifications and capabilities of candidates.

In the past, the size of the applicant pool has been slightly less than 100, and the candidates have come from 35 to 50 countries in all regions of the world.

The nomination/selection process is necessarily as transparent as possible, consistent with both ICANN Bylaws and the open culture in which a diverse group of professionals and volunteers operate.  However, the identities of the candidates are held in strict confidence throughout the process.

Until now, the Nom Com has performed this task without outside assistance.  However, the amount of work is very substantial, and the 2008 Nom Com has decided to explore the possibility of obtaining outside assistance for an initial, globally harmonized candidate assessment phase based on the following criteria of the assessment organization: skill as interviewers, capability to handle the assessments within the designated timeframe and fees/costs for performing the assessment.

Qualifications

Expressions of Interest are requested from organizations having the following qualifications:

1. Experience in assessing professional candidates for leadership positions in not-for-profit organizations.
2. Experience in performing confidential, detailed background screenings of potential candidates.
3. Sufficiently widespread geographic presence to be able to interview in person candidates from the significant percentage of capitals of countries in the world.
4. Sufficient linguistic skills to provide accurate assessments of individuals speaking predominant global languages. (Note that while the working language of ICANN is currently English and proficiency in English is required, effective assessments are best done in an individual's native language.)
5. Ability to respond promptly to a stream of assessment requests and provide prompt assessments for the Nom Com's deliberations.
6. Ability to ensure strict confidentiality of all of its work for the Nom Com.

Tasks to be undertaken

1. Establish a management regime that can respond rapidly to statements of interest received from countries in all regions of the world.
2. For each candidate, contact the candidate and perform an assessment of the candidate’s qualifications vis-à-vis both an established set of written requirements for each of the positions applied for and a general sense of the candidate's relative maturity and experience for the positions.
3. Interview and assess candidates in person, when possible, and otherwise by telephone.
4. Perform detailed and highly confidential background screenings of potential candidates.
5. Provide to the Nom Com a short written qualitative assessment and conclusions formed from each candidate interview, together with a numeric rating of suitability for each position considered on a scale to be jointly agreed upon initially by the organization and the Nom Com.
6. Ensure a candidate assessment turnaround time of no more than one month from the date that each candidate’s statement of interest is forwarded by the Nom Com to the organization between 1 January 2008 and 16 April 2008.
7. Provide a confidential analysis of results of candidate background screenings.
8. Ensure strict confidentiality of the entire process.

Please note that contact with the candidates should be structured on the basis that the candidates will often be senior professionals and should be accorded the courtesies and considerations appropriate for their stature.  Such contacts should leave the applicant with a positive view of both ICANN and the assessment experience.

Expressions of Interest

Expressions of interest should be sent to Patrick Jones, at patrick.jones@icann.org before 21 December 2007. The Nom Com expects to choose an organization very shortly thereafter.

Expressions of Interest should respond directly to the above qualifications and to the organization's ability to successfully undertake the above tasks.  Reference to similar assignments is desirable.

A cost estimate should be provided, assuming that there will be approximately 100 candidates who will apply for 1.5 positions on average, and that applications will tend to cluster both the beginning and at the very end of the application period of 15 December 2007-15 April 2008. Since it is at present not possible to provide an exact forecast for the total amount of candidates, the Nom Com estimates that a range of about 50 candidates will be handled by the Assessment Team.

The ICANN Nominating Committee reserves the right to make a choice using its own unstated criteria, not necessarily limited to cost, and it reserves the right to make no choice at all.