Since joining ICANN late May, I’ve been thinking about ICANN’s Global Leadership Team and what functions should be present to help guide the organization. As a result, I’ve made a few small changes to this team to reflect the importance of key functions and make sure we’re positioned to lead the next chapter at ICANN.
The timing also seemed right given the upcoming departures of Allen Grogan and Nora Abusitta from the team.
A first small tweak is rather than Global Leadership Team we will call the senior most leadership group the ICANN organization Executive Team. This will also help to clarify the separation of roles between Board, Staff and the Community.
As you’ll recall, after three years at ICANN, Nora will be leaving the organization at the end of June. The Development and Public Responsibility Programs Department (DPRD) will now come under the leadership of Sally Costerton, Senior Advisor to the President and Senior VP, Global Stakeholder Engagement. It is a natural fit for the team, with a lot of existing collaboration and will allow us to continue key engagement efforts like the NextGen@ICANN program and supporting academic outreach.
I am also pleased to announce two new additions to the Executive Team. Duncan Burns joins as Senior VP, Global Communications and will report directly to me. The Communications team plays a critical role in raising awareness and understanding of and participation in ICANN and the community’s work. The move to the Executive Team addresses the increased demand to support the entire organization and our community to communicate its important work as we start a new chapter at ICANN. The Language Services department will also now come under Duncan’s leadership. This will help us continue to communicate with people in their local language and make the most of the natural collaboration between communications and language services.
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Xavier Calvez also joins the Executive Team as part of our continued commitment to Operational Excellence and fiscal responsibility. He will continue to report to Susanna Bennett, our Chief Operating Officer (COO).
As previously announced, Allen Grogan will become part-time from 1 August before leaving at the end of December 2016. For the time being, he will continue to report to Akram Atallah, President of the Global Domains Division (GDD) and will stay on the Executive Team. I remain committed to the important role of the Contractual Compliance team and its work as we look at replacing Allen.
To better define and differentiate Ashwin Rangan and his team’s work from that of the Office of the CTO, Ash’s title will change to Senior VP, Engineering and Chief Information Officer (CIO). This will more accurately reflect the work of his team around our systems’ security, infrastructure and software engineering in support of the ICANN community’s and organization’s internal needs. He will continue on the Executive Team as we look to further deploy secure, easy-to-use, fit-for-purpose digital assets.
David Conrad’s role as Chief Technology Officer remains unchanged. He and his team remain focused on research and advisories related to the Internet’s unique identifier systems and technologies.
I wanted to make these adjustments to recognize performance and better support our needs. I believe this strengthened team will help provide the right guidance and leadership to the organization for the road ahead.
