Minutes | Organizational Meeting of the ICANN Board 28 October 2021

An Organizational Meeting of the ICANN Board of Directors was held telephonically on 28 October 2021 at 23:30 UTC.

Maarten Botterman, Chair, promptly called the meeting to order.

In addition to the Chair, the following Directors participated in all or part of the meeting: Alan Barrett, Becky Burr, Edmon Chung, Sarah Deutsch, Avri Doria, Danko Jevtović, Akinori Maemura, Göran Marby (President and CEO), Mandla Msimang, Ihab Osman, Patricio Poblete, León Sánchez (Vice Chair), Katrina Sataki, Matthew Shears, and Tripti Sinha.

The following Board Liaisons participated in all or part of the meeting: Harald Alvestrand (IETF Liaison), James Galvin (SSAC Liaison), Manal Ismail (GAC Liaison), and Kaveh Ranjbar (RSSAC Liaison).

Secretary: John Jeffrey (General Counsel and Secretary).

  1. Main Agenda:
    1. Election of ICANN Board Chair
    2. Election of ICANN Board Vice-Chair
    3. Appointment of Membership and Leadership of Board Committees
    4. Confirmation of Officers of ICANN
  2. PTI Member Meeting:
    1. Annual Meeting of the Member
    2. Election of PTI President

 

  1. Main Agenda:

    Maarten Botterman introduced the initial meeting of the new Board and asked for León Sánchez to assume leadership of the meeting for the first item.

    1. Election of ICANN Board Chair

      León Sánchez introduced the agenda item. Tripti Sinha moved and Avri Doria seconded the proposed resolution, and the Board then took the following action:

    2. Resolved (2021.10.28.29), Maarten Botterman is elected as Chair of the Board.

      All members of the Board present voted in favor of Resolution 2021.10.28.29. The Resolution carried.

    3. Election of ICANN Board Vice-Chair

      The Chair introduced the agenda item. Sarah Deutsch moved and Tripti Sinha seconded the proposed resolution, and the Board then took the following action:

    4. Resolved (2021.10.28.30), León Sánchez is elected as Vice-Chair of the Board.

      All members of the Board present voted in favor of Resolution 2021.10.28.30. The Resolution carried.

    5. Appointment of Membership and Leadership of Board Committees

      Tripti Sinha, Chair of the Board Governance Committee, introduced the agenda item and read the proposed slate of members to serve on various Board Committees.

      Tripti Sinha moved and Becky Burr seconded the proposed resolution. The Board then took the following action:

      Resolved (2021.10.28.31), membership and leadership of the following Board Committees is established as follows:

      Accountability Mechanisms Committee
      Becky Burr (Chair)
      Alan Barrett
      Edmon Chung
      Sarah Deutsch
      Patricio Poblete
      León Sánchez
      Katrina Sataki

      Audit Committee
      Sarah Deutsch (Chair)
      Alan Barrett
      Akinori Maemura
      Mandla Msimang
      Ihab Osman
      Kaveh Ranjbar
      Katrina Sataki

      Compensation Committee
      Maarten Botterman (Chair)
      Sarah Deutsch
      Danko Jevtović
      León Sánchez
      Tripti Sinha

      Executive Committee
      Maarten Botterman (Chair)
      Göran Marby
      León Sánchez
      Tripti Sinha

      Governance Committee
      Tripti Sinha (Chair)
      Becky Burr
      Sarah Deutsch
      Avri Doria
      Danko Jevtović
      Ihab Osman
      León Sánchez

      Finance Committee
      Danko Jevtović (Chair)
      Harald Alvestrand
      Becky Burr
      Avri Doria
      Mandla Msimang
      Ihab Osman
      Tripti Sinha

      Organizational Effectiveness Committee
      Avri Doria (Chair)
      Alan Barrett
      Akinori Maemura
      Patricio Poblete
      Katrina Sataki
      Matthew Shears

      Risk Committee
      Harald Alvestrand (Chair)
      James Galvin
      Danko Jevtović
      Mandla Msimang
      Patricio Poblete
      Kaveh Ranjbar
      Matthew Shears

      Strategic Planning Committee
      Matthew Shears (Chair)
      Becky Burr
      Edmon Chung
      Avri Doria
      James Galvin
      Danko Jevtović
      León Sánchez
      Tripti Sinha

      Technical Committee
      Kaveh Ranjbar (Chair)
      Harald Alvestrand
      Alan Barrett
      Edmon Chung
      James Galvin
      Akinori Maemura
      Patricio Poblete
      Katrina Sataki

      Fifteen members of the Board present voted in favor of Resolution 2021.10.28.31. Ihab Osman voted against the Resolution. The Resolution carried.

      Rationale for Resolutions 2021.10.28.29 – 2021.10.28.31

      Article 7, Section 7.2 and Article 14 of the ICANN Bylaws call for the Board to appoint the Board Chair, Board Vice Chair, and chairmanship and membership of each Board Committee, including filling any vacancies which may occur in these positions during the year. The appointment of the Board leadership and Board Committee slates is consistent with ICANN's Mission and is in the public interest as it is important to ensure that the Board and its Committees have the properly skilled expertise to carry forth ICANN's Mission, Commitments and Core Values.  This decision will have no direct fiscal impact on the organization and no impact on the security, stability or resiliency of the domain name system. This is an Organizational Administrative Function that does not require Public Comment.

    6. Confirmation of Officers of ICANN

      The Chair introduced the agenda item and read the proposed slate of Officers of ICANN. Göran Marby moved and Avri Doria seconded the proposed resolutions. The Board then took the following action:

      Resolved (2021.10.28.32), Göran Marby is elected as President and Chief Executive Officer.

      Resolved (2021.10.28.33), John Jeffrey is elected as General Counsel and Secretary.

      Resolved (2021.10.28.34), Xavier Calvez is elected as Senior Vice President, Planning and Chief Financial Officer.

      Resolved (2021.10.28.35), David Olive is elected as Senior Vice President, Policy Development Support.

      Resolved (2021.10.28.36), Ashwin Rangan is elected as Senior Vice President, Engineering and Chief Information Officer.

      Resolved (2021.10.28.37), Theresa Swinehart is elected as Senior Vice President, Global Domains and Strategy.

      All members of the Board present voted in favor of Resolutions 2021.10.28.32 – 2021.10.28.37. The Resolutions carried.

      Rationale for Resolutions 2021.10.28.32 – 2021.10.28.37

      Pursuant to Article 15, Section 15.2 of the ICANN Bylaws "[t]he officers of ICANN shall be elected annually by the Board, pursuant to the recommendation of the President or, in the case of the President, of the Chair of the Board. Each such officer shall hold his or her office until he or she resigns, is removed, is otherwise disqualified to serve, or his or her successor is elected."

      The annual appointment of the Officers is consistent with ICANN's Mission and is in the public interest as it is important to ensure that the organization identifies individuals who assume the duty and responsibility for managing the organization and carry forth ICANN's Mission, Commitments and Core Values.

      This decision will have no direct fiscal impact on the organization and no impact on the security, stability or resiliency of the domain name system.

      This is an Organizational Administrative Function that does not require public comment.

  2. PTI Member Meeting:

    1. Annual Meeting of the Member

      The ICANN President and CEO introduced the agenda item, noting that Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) is a wholly owned subsidiary of ICANN. Accordingly, since PTI is set up as a single-member organizational structure, ICANN as the sole member has a few governance measures that are affirmed annually during this meeting in a transparent manner per the ICANN Bylaws and PTI Bylaws. Kim Davies, the PTI President, also joined the annual meeting as required by the PTI Bylaws.

      After discussion, León Sánchez moved and Tripti Sinha seconded the proposed resolutions. The Board took the following action:

    2. Resolved (2021.10.28.38), the ICANN Board confirms that this meeting is the Annual Meeting of the Member of Public Technical Identifiers ("PTI").

      All members of the Board present voted in favor of Resolution 2021.10.28.38. The Resolutions carried.

    3. Election of PTI President

      Whereas, pursuant to Section 7.2 of the PTI Bylaws, ICANN as the sole member is required to annually elect a President of PTI.

      Resolved (2021.10.28.39), the ICANN Board, in its role as sole member of PTI, hereby re-elects Kim Davies as the President of PTI.

      All members of the Board present voted in favor of Resolution 2021.10.28.39. The Resolutions carried.

      Rationale for Resolution 2021.10.28.39

      The resolutions taken here today fulfill ICANN's responsibility, as the sole member of PTI, to annually elect the President of PTI. The regular election of a PTI President allows the PTI Board to continue its work.

      The election of the PTI President is taken fully in line with the obligations as set forth in the PTI Bylaws.

      These actions confirm ICANN's continued commitment to its Bylaws' obligations surrounding the performance of the IANA Functions that are contracted to PTI.  This also directly serves ICANN's mission to ensure the stable and secure operations of the Internet's unique identifiers, and serves the public interest in the continued stable performance of the IANA functions.

      None of the actions taken today are anticipated to have any impact on the security, stability or resiliency of the DNS, though PTI is essential to ICANN's security, stability and resiliency work.  There are resource implications in supporting PTI, which are reflected in the PTI, IANA and ICANN Budgets.

      The appointment of the PTI President is an Organizational Administrative Functions for which public comments were not necessary.

    The Chair called the meeting to a close.