Staff Changes at #ICANN Reflect Growth and Global Focus

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced appointments and new organizational changes via its blog.

ICANN’s CEO, Fadi Chehadé, posted an entry on the organization’s blog that announced the creation of a new Generic Domains Division (GDD) with the current COO, Akram Atallah, appointed as the divisional President.  As a replacement, ICANN’s COO position will be filled by Susanna Bennett, currently CFO and VP of human resources at Jazz Semiconductor.

The change in personnel follows the recent appointment of a leading executive in technology policy development Kuek Yu-Chuang who has been named as VP of Asian engagement, and will assume the position on August 1st 2013. Mr Yu-Chuang served most recently as a senior director for Yahoo!, where he also led the company’s public policy efforts in the Asia Pacific and Latin American regions, which will give him invaluable experience for his new role at ICANN.

Sally Costerton, senior advisor to the president for Global Stakeholder Engagement, said Asia is an important part of the organization’s plans to become more international. “We are pleased to have someone with Kuek’s regional understanding and public policy experience to head up the development and implementation of our strategic plan for Asia,” she added.

ICANN has recently announced it will be opening its first hub office in Istanbul, Turkey as it expands its international presence. The non-profit organization is preparing to spread its operations across three global headquarters – Los Angeles, Istanbul and Singapore.

ICANN is currently overseeing one of the biggest changes in the internet’s history with the introduction of hundreds of new generic top level domains (gTLDs).

The first wave of gTLDs will be online later this year and ICANN has deemed it necessary to expand as it continues its mission to ensure a stable and secure global internet.

For more information on gTLDS, please contact CSC Digital Brand Services, a registered agent of the Trademark Clearinghouse.