I'm pleased to share with you that Ashwin (Ash) Rangan, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Chief Information Officer (CIO), recently won a 2022 SoCal CIO of the Year ORBIE Award.
The annual ORBIE Awards recognize top tech executives across the United States. This year, the Southern California chapter of the nationwide professional network of CIOs named five winners in the region. Ashwin, who is based in our Los Angeles office, received the Corporate ORBIE for CIOs of organizations with up to $200 million annual revenue.
ORBIE winners are chosen by their peers based on outstanding leadership, innovation, and engagement with the wider tech community. Ashwin has continuously demonstrated these qualities since joining ICANN in 2014, so I was thrilled, but not surprised, to hear that he won.
Ashwin is a visionary leader who devises innovative IT solutions that support ICANN's efforts to ensure a secure, stable, and unified global Internet. The ORBIE Awards serve as a reminder of the vital role that CIOs play in any organization, but especially one that is always looking ahead like ICANN. As Ashwin said during his acceptance speech on Friday, 11 November, CIOs have "the ability to recognize the future just a fraction of a second before most others do."
But just as important to ICANN as our CIO is the team that supports him. "The dreams that we dream are impossible to bring to fruition without our teams right behind us," Ashwin said while accepting the award.
As the head of our Engineering and IT function, Ashwin leads a team of nearly 70 employees who are responsible for IT governance and project management, IT security, IT infrastructure, community-facing solutions, and more.
I would like to congratulate Ashwin for this award, and to thank him and the entire Engineering and IT team for working hard every day in support of ICANN's mission. We could not do this without you.
