Since I last wrote to the community in early March, the 2026 ICANN Nominating Committee (NomCom) has moved through the most intensive stretch of our cycle. We have held two in-person intersessional working meetings, completed two rounds of candidate short-listing, conducted 47 deep-dive interviews across our short-listed pools, and piloted a new methodology for assessing the skills and experience to support the NomCom’s consideration of future Board composition. We are now ready for the next step – face-to-face interviews with ICANN and Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) Board candidates at ICANN86 in Seville 5–9 June 2026.
This post recaps that work, while respecting the confidentiality boundaries that govern the Assessment Phase.
A Note of Remembrance
Before turning to that recap, I must pause to share news that weighs heavily on all of us. Our colleague and fellow delegate, Arinola Akinyemi, has passed away. Her loss is felt deeply across this committee and far beyond it.
Arinola brought nearly three decades of leadership in information and communications technology to everything she touched. As an entrepreneur and the founder of organizations dedicated to digital creativity and inclusion, she was a tireless and clear-eyed advocate for small businesses and for widening access to the digital economy – convinced that the benefits of a connected world should reach everyone, not only the digital natives among us. Within ICANN, she gave generously of her time as a delegate here at the NomCom, most recently chairing the Assessment Subcommittee, a critical phase in the NomCom process. Additionally, she served across the ICANN community, including as a mentor to many newcomers through the Fellowship Program and as a steady contributor across the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO).
Those who worked alongside her will remember the rare combination she carried: genuine warmth paired with real rigor. She listened carefully, spoke with purpose, and made the people around her feel both welcomed and held to a higher standard. Her contributions strengthened our community in ways that will outlast this cycle, and the example she set, of service offered without ceremony, is one we would do well to keep close.
We extend our deepest condolences to her family, her friends, and all who were fortunate enough to know and work with her. In the spirit of her Yoruba heritage, we say: Sùn re o: rest well. Ó dìgbà: until we meet again. May her gentle soul find peace, and may those who mourn her be comforted.
We will carry her memory, and her example, forward as we complete this cycle in her honor.
The First Intersessional: Mumbai, Alongside ICANN85
Our first intersessional was held in Mumbai, India, in March, synchronized with the ICANN85 Community Forum. As I mentioned in my 2 March post, scheduling the first intersessional alongside an ICANN Public Meeting was a deliberate change for the 2026 cycle – by accelerating the application window by one month, we were able to add approximately one additional month to the Assessment Phase.
The Mumbai intersessional was the inflection point where the field was narrowed from the record 223 applications across seven positions to the 47 candidates carried forward into deep-dive interviews.
We also used Mumbai to work through several procedural questions that the 2026 NomCom had inherited or raised internally – among them, how to weight unaffiliated directors and continuity as criteria, how to sequence incumbent peer feedback in our review, the policies governing AI tool use by NomCom delegates and by candidates, and whether to record deep-dive interviews so they could be shared with all of the delegates. These are the kinds of procedural questions every NomCom faces; we wanted to resolve them early in the cycle so the analytical work could proceed without rework.
Deep Dives: April Through Early May
Between Mumbai and our second intersessional in May, the NomCom conducted deep-dive interviews with 47 short-listed candidates. These are structured, confidential conversations led by NomCom delegates working in small teams. The objective is to develop a multidimensional understanding of each candidate – their motivations, their reasoning under pressure, their fit with the specific position they have applied for, and the qualities that don't surface from a written application alone.
For the candidates, these conversations are demanding. For the NomCom delegates conducting them, they are equally demanding – multiple hours per candidate, careful note-taking, and structured comparative deliberation afterward. I want to acknowledge the work of every delegate and ICANN staff member who carried this load through April and early May.
The Second Intersessional: Los Angeles
The 2026 NomCom held its second intersessional in Los Angeles in May. This was the meeting at which the deep-dive results, the new Board skills assessment (described below), the guidance provided by all the receiving bodies, the community input, and the incumbent peer feedback all converged into short-listing decisions.
By the close of the Los Angeles intersessional, the NomCom had:
- Identified seven short-listed candidates for the ICANN Board to be invited to face-to-face interviews at ICANN86.
- Identified four short-listed candidates for the PTI Board to be invited to the same face-to-face interviews.
- Finalized short-listed candidates and alternates for the Country Code Names Supporting Organization Council, the GNSO Council, the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) Europe seat, and the ALAC North America seat.
Consistent with the confidentiality of the Assessment Phase, the identities of short-listed candidates and the substance of NomCom deliberations remain private to the NomCom until the selection and background check processes are complete.
Piloting a New Board Assessment Methodology
One of the most substantive new elements of the 2026 cycle has been a pilot Board skills assessment methodology, which the NomCom developed and then applied for the first time during the two intersessionals.
The objective is straightforward: When the NomCom evaluates candidates for the ICANN Board, we need a clear picture of the existing Board's collective skills and experience, so that we can think rigorously about which candidate skill profiles would best complement what is already there. Historically, this analysis was an open discussion among the delegates. The 2026 pilot tested whether a more systematic, repeatable methodology could produce a comparable analytical artifact each cycle.
The pilot proceeded in three stages. First, we developed a rubric of skills and experience dimensions – drawing on the Board Governance Committee's annual skillsets guidance letter and community input. Second, we assessed the skills and experience of current Board members using a rubric based on publicly available information, including public bios and ICANN-published Board materials such as committee and working group assignments. The results were then used to develop an aggregate view of the Board’s current skills profile. Third, we modeled how the Board's collective skills profile could shift under several alternative composition scenarios, given the term-ending seats this cycle.
This work was used as analytical input to NomCom deliberation – not as a recommendation about which candidates the NomCom should select. Selection decisions belong to NomCom members, applying the full range of considerations that include diversity, regional balance, committee succession, and personality fit alongside skills.
The 2026 NomCom found the pilot worthwhile. We will recommend that future NomComs develop a formal program building on this work, including refining the skills list and weights, updating director profiles annually, and benchmarking AI tooling. Our intention is for the 2027 NomCom to be able to pick up where we leave off rather than rebuilding from scratch – which is the entire point of an institutional methodology.
What Happens Next
At ICANN86, the NomCom will conduct face-to-face interviews with the short-listed ICANN Board and PTI Board candidates. NomCom delegates will then vote to confirm the selectees and alternates across all positions. Background checks on short-listed candidates are already underway; the six-to-eight-week process will conclude for both selectees and alternates in the weeks following ICANN86 in Seville, Spain. The goal remains to announce the NomCom selectees in late August or early September 2026.
Closing
The 2026 cycle began with a record-breaking 223 applications. Behind that number is the work of every NomCom delegate, the support of ICANN staff, the engagement of the ICANN community in providing input, and the patience of all candidates who have been willing to put themselves through this process. We are grateful to all of them. We would also like to thank Teresa Elias for her many years of support to the NomCom, and to thank Jennifer Johnson for stepping into the interim role as head of NomCom support during this period. We look forward to working with her over the coming cycle.
The NomCom remains in its blackout period for the remainder of the cycle. External outreach is paused, and the only scheduled external interactions are the candidate interviews at ICANN86. We will return to the community with a fuller report once selections are announced.