I have no doubt that all of ICANN agrees that the ICANN community and the organization should expect Board members to hold themselves to the highest standards of integrity, and to uphold the reputation and credibility of the Board as a whole. To that end, I want to share with you the steps that we have, and will be taking, in this regard.
As can be seen from Steve Crocker’s blog, the Board has been considering the issue of Board member screening for some time. The Board Governance Committee carefully considered this matter in detail at its meetings on 11 October 2017 and 27 October 2017. Based on this input, the Board is taking several steps.
First, the four current and incoming voting Board members who have not gone through the due diligence screening process that the Nominating Committee (NomCom) utilizes have volunteered to do so immediately. These are the voting Board members selected by the Country Code Names Supporting Organization (Chris Disspain and Mike Silber) and the Generic Names Supporting Organization (Becky Burr and Matthew Shears).
Second, should any concerns be raised during the screening process, these will be considered and the Board will take appropriate action depending on the severity and breadth of any such concerns, which may include invoking the Bylaws provisions relating the removal of Directors.
Third, on Thursday, the Board will pass a resolution directing Göran Marby, President and CEO, to develop a proposal paper to be posted for public comment. The paper will ask all of ICANN’s Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees to seriously consider utilizing the same or similar integrity screening process for both voting directors and non-voting liaisons. As it does for the NomCom, the Address Supporting Organization and the At-Large community, the ICANN org is prepared to facilitate this screening process for all Board members selected by the Community.
We look forward to continuing the discussion of this issue following the public comment process mentioned above