March 2nd, 2009
Chief of Internet oversight body ICANN to leave post
Paul Twomey, chief executive of the Internet’s key oversight agency since 2003, will step down after a successor is named.
Twomey did not give a reason for departing other than to say he wants to “move on to another leadership position in the private or international sectors.” He said he declined a three-year contract renewal with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, last year.
ICANN’s formal announcement was given as part of its regular meetings this week in Mexico City.
Twomey said he will stay on until a successor is named and for an unspecified period after that to help with transition. His contract expires July 1.
The decision comes as ICANN prepares to simplify procedures for adding new domain name suffixes as alternatives to “.com,” a move likely to spawn hundreds or thousands of new Internet addresses in its wake. ICANN may soon allow Internet addresses entirely in languages besides English for the first time.
The U.S. government, which funded much of the Internet’s early development, selected ICANN in 1998 to oversee domain name policies. The Marina del Rey, Calif.-based nonprofit group regularly faces complaints that it is arbitrary, secretive, slow and dominated by U.S. policy.
Twomey’s decision to leave comes a little more than a year after Vint Cerf, one of the Internet’s founding fathers as co-inventor of a key communications technology, stepped down as chairman of the organization.
“I can think of no other person who has had more influence on the course of ICANN’s evolution than Paul,” Cerf said in a statement.
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
