ICANN Blogs

Read ICANN Blogs to stay informed of the latest policymaking activities, regional events, and more.

New Organizational Changes

6 June 2013
By Fadi Chehadé

It is with great pleasure that I share with you some exciting new organizational changes that will be taking place at the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, and which are part of my desire to increase ICANN’s focus on management at all levels.

To handle the tremendous increase in scale resulting from the New gTLD Program, and to ensure ICANN’s operational excellence, I am creating a new division that will be called the Generic Domains Division (GDD). Akram Atallah, who is currently the Chief Operating Officer (COO), will become divisional President of the GDD that will include gTLD Operations, DNS Industry Engagement, and Online Community Services.

Susanna Bennett (left) and Akram Atallah (right)

Given Akram’s transition, I’m delighted to announce that Susanna Bennett, an accomplished financial and operational executive in technology services, will be joining us as the new COO. Susanna will help to deliver on ICANN’s agility, accountability and visibility that I discussed at ICANN 46 in Beijing.

To provide coherence and leadership of our technical resources, I am also creating a new position to manage Technical & Security Operations that will report directly to me. This is an important commitment to our mission and community, and we are very active in identifying candidates to fill this critical role.

Since becoming President and CEO in September of last year, and as I promised in Toronto at ICANN 45, I have made it a priority to internationalize ICANN so key functions and top leaders are spread around the world to accelerate effective and professional global management. I look forward to ICANN 47 in Durban, taking place soon on 14-18 July, where I will be able to introduce you to our new COO and expand on other significant organizational changes taking place that will help us to mature ICANN, reaffirm our commitment to the public interest and serve the growth of the Internet.

Authors

Fadi Chehadé

Former President & CEO