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Chair’s Blog: Takeaways From the May Board Workshop

26 May 2025
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.

Earlier this month, the ICANN Board of Directors gathered in Hanoi, Việt Nam, and advanced our work in several areas, including the New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Program: Next Round and Root Server System (RSS) governance.

As usual, I wanted to share an update on our progress. Here are the key takeaways from the three-day May Board Workshop:

Finance and Planning: At the Regular Board Meeting on 3 May, the Board adopted the ICANN Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) Operating Plan and Budget, the ICANN FY26–30 Operating and Financial Plan, and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority FY26 Operating Plan and Budget. Pending the outcome of the Empowered Community processes, the adopted plans are expected to go into effect on 1 July 2025. Read this announcement to learn more about the process and to access the plan documents.

Next Round: The Board also approved funding of up to $25 million to cover the final implementation costs of the New gTLD Program: Next Round through 30 April 2026. Per the Board Finance Committee's recommendation, the Board authorized the ICANN organization (org) to spend up to $23 million from the Supplemental Fund for Implementation of Community Recommendations and up to $2 million from the New gTLD Program: 2012 Round application fees.

Reviews: The Board held a productive discussion on ICANN Reviews, including the community input we have received since ICANN82. Following the workshop, the Board held a Special Meeting on 19 May where we passed a set of resolutions related to Reviews. These include concluding the current iteration of the Pilot Holistic Review and the continued deferment of Organizational Reviews until the completion of one Continuous Improvement Program cycle.

The Board also resolved to continue the deferral of the Fourth Accountability and Transparency Review. Deferring this review will provide time for the community to discuss, and provide input on, the future of ICANN Reviews. Please join the Board next week for a special ICANN83 Prep Week engagement session on this important topic.

In addition, the Board directed the ICANN organization to develop a plan for continuing the community dialogue to support a broader discussion of Reviews, including holding an engagement session at ICANN84.

RSS Governance: The Board received an update on the latest work of the Root Server System Governance Working Group (GWG). The Board understands that significant progress has been made in the drafting of a report for Public Comment. The Board will continue to engage in the GWG work through liaisons and looks forward to the next update after the Public Comment proceeding.

WSIS+20 Review: ICANN org's Government and Intergovernmental Organization Engagement team shared the latest developments related to the 20-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society outcomes (WSIS+20). You can learn about ICANN's engagement strategy around the WSIS+20 review, and how to get involved, by reading this blog.

Ombuds: ICANN Ombuds Elizabeth Field presented the Office of the Ombuds' strategic priorities, case management highlights, and key performance indicators. We discussed the need to provide more clarity about certain areas of the Ombuds' work. The Ombuds will share the activity report and case management highlights with the community before ICANN83.

RIR Governance: The Board discussed the draft Regional Internet Registry (RIR) Governance Document, which the Address Supporting Organization Address Council published for Public Comment. We will review the next draft of the RIR Governance Document at our September workshop.

The final day of the workshop included a public session led by the chairs of the Registrars Stakeholder Group and the Registries Stakeholder Group on key issues facing ICANN's contracted parties. A recording of the session is available on the Board Activities and Meetings page.

Following the workshop, several of my Board colleagues and I remained in Hanoi to attend the Contracted Parties Summit and the APAC DNS Forum. Moreover, I had the pleasure of kicking off the keystone event for this year's Universal Acceptance (UA) Day, where I spoke about the importance of a multilingual Internet and the Internet community's progress on UA.

Soon, the ICANN Board, community, and org will come together in Prague, Czech Republic, and online for ICANN83. I hope to see you 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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