Recent Posts
- Facebook gunning for Web.com in latest $27 million-plus cybersquatting lawsuit
- Verisign says it needs .web because .com is running out of names
- Anger as Nominet rejects coup’s pick for chair
- Ahead of GoDaddy acquisition, MMX to scrap premium fees on 725,000 domains
- ICANN threatens to seize gTLD after Whois downtime
- China could block GoDaddy’s $120 million MMX swoop
- .CLUB CEO on selling to GoDaddy, Clubhouse, and .club’s “twerking moment”
- GoDaddy buys 30 new gTLDs for over $120 million
- Nominet members wail as ousted director made CEO
- XYZ adds .tickets to its gTLD stable
- EFF rages as Ethos closes Donuts buy
- Outrage at ICANN’s new “clown shoes” social distancing mandate
- ICANN refuses to say why it allowed Donuts to buy Afilias
- ShortDot bought another gTLD. Guess what .sbs stands for now?
- As Net4 goes dark, NIXI says customers won’t lose their expired domains
- .sucks mystery deepens. Who the hell is Pat Honeysalt?
- Universal Acceptance – making the internet work for everyone [Guest Post]
- ICANN rules out vaccine passports, kinda, but warns in-person meetings may be a long way off
- Motion to fire five Nominet directors passes in tight vote
- Nominet boss jumps before he is pushed
- Watch: the exact moment Nominet’s CEO sealed his fate
- Stick a fork in Nominet’s leadership. Tucows votes to fire half the board
- IP lobby demands halt to Whois reform
- Donuts adds another TLD to its stable as Richemont finally bows out of new gTLD program
- NamesCon Europe cancelled — “pandemics suck”
- As .gov changes hands, would Verisign run it for free?
- Nominet warns of government takeover as Namecheap backs fire-the-directors campaign
- ICANN 71 is online-only, because of course it is
- Correction: UNR’s trademark block service
- ICANN 70 has virtual schwag, other new stuff
- Everything.sucks, in losing UDRPs, puts the lie to the .sucks business model
- Domain industry shrank in Q4, but as usual there’s a big BUT
- Pirate Bay founder says ICANN won’t let him be a registrar
- ICANN finally cans Net 4 India
- Got beef with ICANN? Why you may not want to use the Ombudsman
- EU cancels .eu tender after Brexit cock-up
- More acquisitions? GoDaddy to raise $800 million
- Facebook lawsuit brings one country’s domain to a screeching halt
- CentralNic buys German monetization firm for up to $13 million
- .hotel battle lands ICANN in court over accountability dodges
- ICANN purges another dormant dot-brand
- Conspiracy nut ordered to pay thousands to “kingpins” as “cartel” lawsuit chucked out
- Three ICANN directors voted against Marby’s pay rise
- Former ICANN vice-chair Disspain joins Donuts
- Donuts acquires four more gTLDs, but allows one to be scrapped
- Rival wants the truth about the Afilias-Donuts deal amid “collusion” claims
- Coronavirus has made ICANN $11 million richer than predicted so far this year
- Lockdown bump sees GoDaddy double customer gains in 2020
- Brit .eu owners get another three-month stay of execution
- Verisign upgrades its cash-printing machine but warns post-pandemic “could go either way”
- Nominet declares member coup “invalid”
- Public comments open on new Whois policies
- ICANN CEO gets 5% pay rise
- Security firm sues Facebook to overturn UDRP loss of “good faith” typo domains
- Registrar giant created as Web.com merged with Endurance
- Nominet chair eats humble pie to stave off mass board cull
- ShortDot adds fourth gTLD to its stable, plans March launch
- Nominet boss has epiphany and calls for calm as his job hangs by a thread
- One year on, Namecheap still fighting aborted .org takeover and may target GoDaddy and Donuts next
- Defensive windfall on the cards for .spa? It’s not just for spas any more
- Two more dot-brands take the easy way out
- RobinHood.club showered with five-star reviews after .com confusion
- EURid reports 3% growth in final quarter before Brexit crunch
- Webcentral to change its branding yet again after tricky takeover
- Fire the board! Registrars attempt a coup at Nominet
- .club back over a million names as Clubhouse drives growth
- Eight years after asking, Israel to get its Hebrew ccTLD
- Time is running out for Net4 as ICANN questions Indian court ruling
- UNR getting out of the registry business with $17 million no-reserve auctions on 23 new gTLDs
- Amid .club boom, one AV vendor is blocking the whole damn TLD
- New rules could stop registries ripping off big brands
- MMX vows to refocus under new boss after crappy 2020
- Failed .org buyer Ethos Capital buys Donuts
- Crackdown looms for new gTLD auction gaming
- Would-be new country wants to share another country’s ccTLD
- 153 registrars fingered for ICANN security probe
- ICANN axes Cancun again. Apparently there’s a pandemic
- Gun nut site crashes at Epik after GoDaddy shoots it down
- It’s pandemic continuity versus gender diversity in ICANN’s board wish-list
- Free domains for .in registrants
- Here’s why two ICANN directors opposed extending Marby’s CEO contract
- Rules for the next new gTLD round near the final straight
- Island demands return of its “naked” ccTLD
- Donuts punter welcomes our new alien overlords in December premium sale
- Net 4 India gets unwelcome Christmas gift from ICANN
- Fuji Xerox kills off gTLD after rebrand
- EURid suspends 80,000 domains as Brexit transition ends
- GoDaddy’s female geeks make a bit more than men
- Donuts acquisition of Afilias closes, integration work begins
- GoDaddy pranks employees with “insensitive” phishing test
- US sneaks public Whois demands into pandemic relief bill
- Verisign drops half a mill on pandemic relief
- Mixed messages from ICANN on pandemic travel in 2021
- ICANN predicts rosy post-pandemic domain industry — time to start panicking?
- DI World Global International Headquarters is relocating
- ICANN throws the book at Net4 over dodgy transfer claims
- Fraud checks coming to .ch as SWITCH renews contract
- South African registry to be merged with film censor, broadband regulator
- There’s one obvious pick for next year’s ICANN Community Excellence Award
- ICANN could block Donuts from buying Afilias
- Westerdal offloads two more gTLDs to Donuts
- Whois privacy group finds its new chair
- Three more new gTLDs blink out of existence
- NamesCon Europe founder Dietmar Stefitz reportedly dies
- Credit union gTLD changes hands to perhaps surprising buyer
- After 20 years, DomainTools takes its first VC dough
- Gay charities get first taste of domain cash
- CIRA hits major .ca milestone on 20th anniversary
- .org made $97 million last year
- XYZ launches its beauty-themed gTLDs with slashed prices
- “Criminal” domain suspensions drop again in .uk but thousands of pandemic domains frozen
- NameSilo in profit as sales rise 11%
- CentralNic more than doubles revenue as parking business thrives
- WIPO handles 50,000th UDRP case as coronavirus drives complaints
- Brits get small reprieve in Brexit domain crackdown
- Vaccine agency to get more domain takedown powers next year
- Domain growth dropped off in Q3, says Verisign
- Donuts boss discusses shock Afilias deal
- GoDaddy has a secret weapon in its push into corporate domains
- Donuts acquires Afilias to create registry giant
- ICANN finally addresses Net 4 India meltdown, but mysteries remain
- Masochistic mug urgently wanted for thankless, pay-free ICANN leadership role
- ICANN made over $500k in secret lawyer payments over [REDACTED] legal dispute
- .spa registry relocates to .xyz
- .forum sunrise period will cost less than half the regular reg fee
TLDH hires ICANN’s former new gTLDs head
Top Level Domain Holdings has hired Michael Salazar, former head of the new gTLD program at ICANN, as its chief financial officer.
The hire, which is still subject to some regulatory checks, will also see Salazar become an executive director of the company, which has applied for dozens of new gTLDs.
Salazar was at ICANN for three years, before leaving this June in the wake of the TLD Application System and Digital Archery messes.
Before ICANN, he was with KPMG for 16 years, according to TLDH.
It’s the second time TLDH has brought a former ICANNer on board to fill a senior role.
Former chair Peter Dengate Thrush controversially joined the company as executive chairman in July 2011, but recently announced that he will be leaving the company in January.
Salazer replaces David Weill, CFO as well as a founding director of the company, who is leaving. He’s the second original director, after Clark Landry, to quit in as many months.
Tagged: ICANN, m+m, Minds + Machines, new gTLDs, tldh
Looks like a good time to have worked for ICANN, worked for a cause most people had no interest in, then to jump ship to this new industry ICANN created to make a boat load of money yourself. Slimy if you ask me. Sickens me this type of stuff is allowed to happen – all at the world’s expense.
Salazar didn’t approve the program, he just worked there.
Actually the right way to characterize Michael Salazar’s departure from ICANN is “resigned.” (Not “jumped ship” or even “let go.” Neither of these terms is accurate.)
We are completely delighted to have him on board at TLDH/Minds + Machines. Michael not only understands the ICANN processes, he is a former partner at KPMG and really a perfect fit for us as CFO. His being available just as we began a search for a CFO was a happy stroke of serendipity. As we move to a more operational phase, we will continue to add people and make changes that befit the new needs of our company.
I should also note that Digital Archery at ICANN was not Michael’s idea, and he was not in charge of it.
Antony
Thanks for the clarification Antony, I’ve tweaked the post accordingly.
I guess “thrown under the bus” would probably be inaccurate also. 😉
https://twitter.com/antonyvc/status/215959024473096192
We all speculated at the time. Now I have better information.