Board Risk Committee (RC) – Minutes 16 November 2013

RC Attendees: Steve Crocker, Ram Mohan, Gonzalo Navarro, Mike Silber – Chair, Jonne Soininen, and Suzanne Woolf

Other Board Member Attendees: Erika Mann

Staff Attendees: Xavier Calvez, Chief Financial Officer; Michelle Bright, Patrick Jones, Jacks Khawaja, Elizabeth Le, Amy Stathos, and Christine Willett


The following is a summary of discussion, actions taken, and actions identified:

  1. New gTLD Risk Assessment – The BFC received a report from staff regarding current New gTLD Program risk assessment efforts. Staff explained that risk mitigation is ingrained in the day-to-day activity of the New gTLD Program management. The New gTLD Team makes an effort to identify and address risks on an ongoing basis in daily steering committee meetings with the ICANN Executive Team as well as on a project-by-project basis. The BFC discussed a new overall risk assessment of the New gTLD Program will be conducted in 2014 by an outside firm. It is anticipated that a vendor will be engaged by March 2014, that the assessment, and that the final results developed by London in June 2014.
  2. DNS Risk Management Framework Update – Staff provided an update on the DNS Risk Management Framework. The DNS Risk Management Framework Working Group has submitted a proposal to the Board regarding recommendations for implementation. The RC will maintain oversight of the work. Phase 2 of the framework will begin in December. It is anticipated that Staff will present the outcome of Phase 2 to the RC in March 2014 before the Singapore meeting.
  3. Enterprise Risk Management Update ("ERM") – Staff provided an update on the ERM status and the progress that the ERM Team has made toward identifying key enterprise risks, risk interactions, and risk mitigation efforts. The RC reviewed and discussed enterprise risks identified and proposed mitigation plans, as well as the next stages of the ERM plan. The RC discussed various aspects of the presentation and alternative methods for presenting such materials and ideas for additional factors to include and agreed to work together on a presentation for Singapore.
  4. Any Other Business – Name Collision Framework – The RC engaged in a brief discussion regarding the name collision framework and decided to continue the discussion at a future RC meeting.

    • Action: Staff to add this agenda item to a future RC meeting for discussion.