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ICANN Offers Webinars, Resources to Support Prospective New gTLD Applicants

22 April 2026
By
Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy

Theresa Swinehart is the Senior Vice President of Global Domains and Strategy. In this role, she works with the community, contracted parties, stakeholders, and policymakers to ensure broad and inclusive engagement, consensus-based policymaking through ICANN’s multistakeholder model, and effective, accountable policy implementation. Her responsibilities include policy implementation, review operation, and cross-functional strategic initiatives such as ICANN’s compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. An expert in global Internet governance, Theresa also serves as co-deputy to the President and CEO. Her extensive industry experience, including nearly 20 years as a key contributor to ICANN’s growth and development, gives her a valuable perspective on how ICANN organization can work efficiently and collaboratively to better serve the global Internet community.

Theresa rejoined ICANN after three years as Executive Director of Global Internet Policy at Verizon Communications, where she specialized in emerging issues as well as stakeholder and policy engagement. Prior to this, she served as ICANN’s Vice President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, leading a team responsible for partnership reform, global engagement and outreach, and the participation in international forums. Before ICANN, Theresa was Director of Global E-Commerce at MCI, where she was responsible for such issues as Internet service provider liability, data protection, and participation in Internet-related forums, including the formation of ICANN. 

Theresa has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of California, Davis, a graduate degree in international studies from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a juris doctorate from American University. She served on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees and Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Committee. Theresa began her career in international human rights. She is fluent in German and is conversant in French.

If your organization is planning to apply for a new generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the 2026 Round, this is the time to finalize any steps needed to prepare your application. The application window opens on 30 April 2026 and will remain open until 12 August 2026. I would like to remind all interested parties of key resources we’ve made available, as well as to let you know how to get help, if needed, while completing your application.

Recordings of the Question-and-Answer webinars that took place on 21 April 2026 are now available. The two 90-minute webinars were dedicated to answering applicants’ questions regarding the TLD Application Management System (TAMS) as well as general information about the program. Two more Q&A webinars will be held in May; you can register on the dedicated webpage.

Applicants wanting to explore TAMS before the opening of the program should watch for the TAMS user guide, which we plan to publish next week. TAMS will be used for every aspect of application management and processing by applicants, evaluators, and ICANN staff.

If, after reviewing the available resources, an applicant still has a question, ICANN has a comprehensive support model that’s available across global time zones.

  • Before submitting an application, applicants can direct questions to Global Support either by email, which will be available 24/7, or by phone, which will be available 24 hours per day, Monday through Friday.
    • In addition to email and phone options, a new web form to submit inquiries will be available after ICANN86.
  • After submitting an application, applicants will also have the option to create an inquiry within TAMS for application-specific questions.
  • General questions, not specific to a submitted application, should continue to be directed to Global Support.

I look forward to sharing more news and updates as we enter the application submission phase of the 2026 Round.

Authors

Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy
Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy

Theresa Swinehart is the Senior Vice President of Global Domains and Strategy. In this role, she works with the community, contracted parties, stakeholders, and policymakers to ensure broad and inclusive engagement, consensus-based policymaking through ICANN’s multistakeholder model, and effective, accountable policy implementation. Her responsibilities include policy implementation, review operation, and cross-functional strategic initiatives such as ICANN’s compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. An expert in global Internet governance, Theresa also serves as co-deputy to the President and CEO. Her extensive industry experience, including nearly 20 years as a key contributor to ICANN’s growth and development, gives her a valuable perspective on how ICANN organization can work efficiently and collaboratively to better serve the global Internet community.

Theresa rejoined ICANN after three years as Executive Director of Global Internet Policy at Verizon Communications, where she specialized in emerging issues as well as stakeholder and policy engagement. Prior to this, she served as ICANN’s Vice President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, leading a team responsible for partnership reform, global engagement and outreach, and the participation in international forums. Before ICANN, Theresa was Director of Global E-Commerce at MCI, where she was responsible for such issues as Internet service provider liability, data protection, and participation in Internet-related forums, including the formation of ICANN. 

Theresa has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of California, Davis, a graduate degree in international studies from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a juris doctorate from American University. She served on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees and Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Committee. Theresa began her career in international human rights. She is fluent in German and is conversant in French.

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