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An Update on CEO Succession

18 January 2016
By Steve Crocker

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As promised during our Dublin meeting, I wanted to provide a short January update to the community on our CEO succession.

Our search for the next CEO is proceeding well and though I cannot say much more now, I look forward to giving you a fuller update just as soon as I can. I also want to thank you all for the contributions, thoughts and suggestions you have made over the course of the last six months. I and the rest of the Board, have greatly appreciated the input.

In the meantime, the ICANN organization continues its energetic pace of work led by Fadi Chehadé our President and CEO who will be with us until March 12, 2016.

Indeed, as part of his regular briefings to the Board, it’s clear Fadi has a full run up to his final day and his last meeting, ICANN55 in Marrakech, managing the organization and being its representative in key arenas.

With the Board’s full support, last week Fadi was in Washington D.C. and New York meeting with media, think tanks, stakeholders and the NTIA to discuss the IANA Stewardship Transition. Fadi will be continuing the engagement and briefings on the transition leading our delegations to the World Economic Forum in Davos this week and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February. These continue to be two important forums where there are discussions on the future of the Internet and where we continue to build support for ICANN and the forthcoming transition toward multistakeholder operation independent of the stewardship of the U.S. government.

As part of the Board briefings, and further to his post last year, Fadi has informed the Board of his future plans once he leaves ICANN and that there may be one or two additional announcements with respect to part-time advisory roles in the global Internet governance space in the coming weeks.

While the Board and Fadi are working hard on ICANN’s CEO succession and handover, we are also along with the whole community very focused on all aspects of the IANA Stewardship Transition. The Board is committed to working with the community to get the transition done on time and I continue to be impressed by and grateful for the dedication and hard work from all corners to get this last transition completed.

I look forward to updating you again in the coming weeks on our CEO succession.

Authors

Steve Crocker

Former ICANN Board Chair