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ICANN Announces Nominating Committee Chair and Interim At-Large Advisory Committee Members

20 January 2003

Marina del Rey, California USA (20 January 2003): The Internet Corporation for Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced that its Board of Directors elected Linda Wilson to serve as the first chair of the new Nominating Committee. The Board also elected ten volunteers from nine different countries to serve as members of the Interim At-Large Advisory Committee (Interim ALAC), the new body formed to create closer ties between users of the Internet and the ICANN Board of Directors.

The Nominating Committee is required by ICANN's new bylaws resulting from the extensive reforms of the past nine months. The Committee will select eight of the 15 voting members of the post-transition ICANN Board of Directors and also will select individuals to serve in other key positions. Linda Wilson has been an ICANN Board Member since ICANN's founding in 1998. She has had a distinguished career in higher education, having served as president of Radcliffe College for a decade, prior to which she was vice president for research at the University of Michigan.

"We are indeed fortunate that Linda has agreed to fill this role," noted Vinton Cerf, chairman of the ICANN Board. "The Nominating Committee is central to ICANN's reforms. Linda's distinguished background, reputation for fairness, and commitment to ICANN make her eminently qualified."

The Board also launched the ALAC, another key plank in the reformed ICANN structure, by naming ten individuals who have agreed to serve on an interim basis until the permanent ALAC can be formed. They are:

  • Pierre Dandjinou (Benin)
  • Clement Dzidonu (Ghana)
  • Izumi Aizu (Japan)
  • Xue Hong (China)
  • Thomas Roessler (Germany)
  • Vittorio Bertola (Italy)
  • Erick Iriarte Ahon (Peru)
  • Sebastián J. Ricciardi (Argentina)
  • Esther Dyson (USA)
  • Wendy Seltzer (USA)

Information on these individuals is posted at <http://www.icann.org/committees/alac>

In keeping with ICANN's new bylaws, underpinning the ALAC will be a network of self-organizing, self-supporting "at-large" structures throughout the world involving individual Internet users at the local or issue level. These structures will form five "Regional At Large Organizations" (RALOs) that will be the main forum and coordination point in each region for public input to ICANN. The ALAC structure will provide advice to the Board and other organizations within ICANN regarding the needs for, and the impact of, proposed policies on the Internet's individual users.

The new bylaws call for the Interim ALAC members to serve until each RALO can be established and elect its own members to the permanent ALAC.

ICANN President Stuart Lynn thanked "these ten individuals who have graciously agreed to organize new ways to attract the many voices of Internet users, from around the world, into the ICANN process. The RALO/ALAC structure will provide for continuing, informed, and real participation by those interested in the work of ICANN."