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Chair’s Blog: Recap of the May Board Workshop

26 May 2026
By
Tripti Sinha

Tripti Sinha

ICANN Board Chair

Tripti Sinha is the President and CEO of Internet2, where she champions the organization’s core mission of enabling U.S. higher education and research institutions to collaborate on mission-critical technology services and emerging technologies. Internet2 also works with global National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). Sinha has over three decades of progressive experience in Internet and Cyber-Infrastructure technologies. Her experience spans leadership roles in engineering, operations, finance, governance, advocacy, and policy.

Before joining Internet2, Tripti held two leadership roles at the University of Maryland: Assistant Vice President and Chief Technology Officer and Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX), a regional research and education network. In these roles, she supported advanced, high-performance networking and research technologies, including GPU compute infrastructure optimized for AI workloads and investigating evolving quantum networking technologies.

She has served on many non-profit and private sector technology advisory boards, and was past Chair of The Quilt’s Board of Directors and former Co-Chair of ICANN’s Root Server System Advisory Committee.

Tripti has a Computer Science degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and did graduate work in Computer Science at the University of Maryland. She holds executive education certificates from Harvard Kennedy School in Public Leadership and Policy, and in Global Innovation and Execution from Stanford University. She was born in India and lives in the United States. As a child and young adult, Tripti moved back-and-forth between the U.S. and India which gave her an appreciation for global pluralism. She is proficient in English and Hindi, and understands Punjabi, Urdu and the ancient Sanskrit language. Sinha has a keen interest in Information and Communication Technology innovation, entrepreneurship, governance and policy, and international affairs.

Tripti was nominated to serve on the ICANN Board of Directors by the Nominating Committee in 2018. Her term will expire at the Annual General Meeting 2027.

For our most recent workshop, the ICANN Board of Directors assembled 1–3 May in Manchester, United Kingdom. The workshop took place just after the Contracted Parties Summit, giving members of the Board the opportunity to attend and engage with ICANN-accredited registrars and generic top-level domain (gTLD) registries.

Taking advantage of the gathering of contracted parties, the Board hosted a public session in which the chairs of the Registrars Stakeholder Group and the Registries Stakeholder Group shared their perspectives on the domain name industry. If you missed the session, a recording is available on the Board Activities and Meetings webpage.

Here is a summary of the other key discussions and outcomes from the May Board Workshop:

2026 Round: On 30 April, ICANN opened the application window for new gTLDs. The Board recognizes and appreciates the significant work undertaken by the New gTLD Program team, the Implementation Review Team, and everyone else who contributed to ICANN achieving this major milestone.

During the workshop, the Board received an update on the program implementation progress and the organization's readiness for the application processing phase. The Board was pleased to hear that the launch proceeded smoothly and encouraged by the progress reported thus far. The team also shared an update on the status of application processing for the Applicant Support Program (ASP) and the Registry Service Provider Evaluation Program.

In addition, the Board reviewed the community feedback received in response to its request for input on funding an increase in the ASP fee reduction from 75 percent to 85 percent for up to 75 applicants. After considering the range of feedback received, the Board has decided not to take further action on the proposal at this time.

At its Regular Meeting on 3 May, the Board approved contract extensions for an enhanced on-call support model for the New gTLD Program: 2026 Round.

Finance and Planning: The ICANN Board adopted the ICANN Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) Operating Plan and Budget, the ICANN Fiscal Year 2027–2031 (FY27–31) Operating and Financial Plan, and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) FY27 Operating Plan and Budget. Thank you to everyone who participated in the planning and budget process. If no Empowered Community rejection process is pending, the plans will go into effect on 1 July 2026. Read this announcement to learn more about the process and to access the adopted plans.

Additionally, the Board approved a revision to the ICANN Investment Policy, which formalizes a target balance and a maximum balance for the Reserve Fund. The policy also expands the scope of the Supplemental Fund for Implementation of Community Recommendations to fund any qualifying project and renames it the Project Fund.

Reviews: The Board discussed the Reviews Cross Community Group's (Reviews CCG) Refined Outline of Suggested Reviews System and considered its response to the request for input as a nominating group to the CCG.

The Board also approved a proposed Bylaws amendment to add a temporary Transition Article that will pause ICANN's obligations to initiate Specific Reviews while the Reviews CCG conducts its work. In response to the community's feedback, the Board directed ICANN org to provide regular reporting on the Reviews CCG's efforts to the community during the pause. The Empowered Community has the opportunity to consider whether it will reject the Standard Bylaws amendment before it takes effect.

Bylaws Amendments: Following a Public Comment proceeding in which the community expressed broad support, the Board approved proposed Fundamental Bylaws Amendments to implement the recommendations of the Second IANA Naming Function Review and the most recent Customer Standing Committee Effectiveness Review. The Empowered Community will hold an Approval Action Community Forum to discuss its consideration of the amendments in June during ICANN86.

FY27 Objectives: The Board approved the FY27 CEO Objectives and the FY27 ICANN Organizational Objectives, which reflect ICANN's strategic and operational priorities for the coming fiscal year.

RSS Governance: The Board continued its focus on Root Server System (RSS) governance by reviewing the outputs of the RSS Governance Working Group (GWG), which include governance principles and a functional model for RSS governance. ICANN org also previewed the planned documentation to inform the Board's consideration of the GWG outputs. The Board looks forward to reviewing those materials in the coming months.

Transfer Policy: The Board discussed the 47 recommendations from the Generic Names Supporting Organization's Transfer Policy Review Policy Development Process. We will hold a follow-up discussion to consider our next action on the recommendations.

The next Board Workshop will take place next month in Seville, Spain, ahead of the ICANN86 Policy Forum. We look forward to seeing many members of the ICANN community there!

Authors

Tripti Sinha

Tripti Sinha

ICANN Board Chair
Tripti Sinha

Tripti Sinha

ICANN Board Chair

Tripti Sinha is the President and CEO of Internet2, where she champions the organization’s core mission of enabling U.S. higher education and research institutions to collaborate on mission-critical technology services and emerging technologies. Internet2 also works with global National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). Sinha has over three decades of progressive experience in Internet and Cyber-Infrastructure technologies. Her experience spans leadership roles in engineering, operations, finance, governance, advocacy, and policy.

Before joining Internet2, Tripti held two leadership roles at the University of Maryland: Assistant Vice President and Chief Technology Officer and Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX), a regional research and education network. In these roles, she supported advanced, high-performance networking and research technologies, including GPU compute infrastructure optimized for AI workloads and investigating evolving quantum networking technologies.

She has served on many non-profit and private sector technology advisory boards, and was past Chair of The Quilt’s Board of Directors and former Co-Chair of ICANN’s Root Server System Advisory Committee.

Tripti has a Computer Science degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and did graduate work in Computer Science at the University of Maryland. She holds executive education certificates from Harvard Kennedy School in Public Leadership and Policy, and in Global Innovation and Execution from Stanford University. She was born in India and lives in the United States. As a child and young adult, Tripti moved back-and-forth between the U.S. and India which gave her an appreciation for global pluralism. She is proficient in English and Hindi, and understands Punjabi, Urdu and the ancient Sanskrit language. Sinha has a keen interest in Information and Communication Technology innovation, entrepreneurship, governance and policy, and international affairs.

Tripti was nominated to serve on the ICANN Board of Directors by the Nominating Committee in 2018. Her term will expire at the Annual General Meeting 2027.

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