ICANN Names New Leadership

SAN FRANCISCO, September 10, 2010 – The body responsible for managing the world’s domain name system named seven new individuals to leadership positions earlier this week.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) named Cherine Chalaby of Eygpt, Bertrand de La Chapelle of France and Erika Mann, of Germany, to its board of directors. Mann is a former member of the European Parliament and is now a vice president in Brussels at the Computer and Communications Industry Association.

Sébastian Bachollet of France and Marc Rotenberg, chief of the privacy watchdog group the Electronic Privacy Information Center, are two of the new members of ICANN’s At-Large Committee. Carlos Aguirre of Argentinais a new member of the Generic Names Supporting Organization, and Sokol Haxhiu of Albania of Albania is a new member of the Country Code Names Supporting Organisation. These sub-groups are responsible for developing policy recommendations to the board for their areas of expertise. Board members serve for three years and the terms begin at the end of the calender year.

ICANN received 82 applications for the position. Perhaps reflecting its highly technical nature, only four of the applicants were women.

The abstruse and jargon-filled world of ICANN is precisely what drew Mann, who says in some ways, ICANN’s world is very similar to the world of international trade.

“It’s something I’m deeply interested in and very rooted in,” Mann said in an interview. “I never imagined that I would get it, but I am very happy about it.”

“I’ve always liked those border issues between the technical world and political issues — it’s the same in international trade — it’s technical as hell with the way tariffs are negotiated for example, and lots of acronyms. Very few people survive the trade world, and it is the same for the internet, but those are the fascinating areas.”