Recent Posts
- Most registrars did NOT “fail” abuse audit, ICANN says
- Surprise eleventh-hour picks for NomCom leadership after ICANN U-turn
- Man with broken shift key sues ICANN and GoDaddy over Bitcoin domain
- Alice’s Registry disappears down the rabbit hole
- Nominet rebels dominate directorship slate
- 10 Years Ago… new gTLDs, ICANN pay, DNS abuse and ethics
- Nominet to purge £50 million from war chest for good causes as new chair outlines strategy
- .club — the whole TLD just went down
- Donuts’ DropZone approved despite competition fears
- I’m not kidding, ICANN is flirting with banning jokes
- DotConnectAfrica slammed for two-faced strategy as it loses .africa appeal
- PIR poaches new CTO from Verisign
- Marby finds his pandemic pessimism
- James Bond domains listed for sale by .bond registry
- Afnic gets renewed for .fr
- Tucows buys UNR’s registry business as Schilling bows out
- Neustar exec fingered in Trump’s Russian “collusion” probe
- Donuts’ drop-catching service not anti-competitive, ICANN says
- Almost no security researchers asking for Whois records – Tucows
- Price of Whois lookups could rise as ICANN delays reform work
- Cloudflare goes all-in with at-cost domains
- Hold on to your stats! ShortDot gets two gTLDs approved in China
- CentralNic spends $6.5 million on traffic network
- Nothing but losses ahead for MMX
- Afilias appeals .web ruling, Verisign responds with “rigging” claims
- ICANN won’t vote on new gTLDs for another year
- ICANN now has half a billion bucks in the bank after huge pandemic profits
- Dead dot-brands top 100. Here’s the list and breakdown
- I had a stroke
- Volkswagen drives IDN dot-brand off a cliff
- CTO Conrad quits ICANN
- France gets more domain takedown powers
- MMX to return GoDaddy cash to investors
- Could registrars get sued under new Texas abortion law?
- DropCatch raises antitrust concerns about Donuts’ Dropzone proposal
- ICANN could get the ball rolling on next new gTLD round this weekend
- Domain industry SHRINKS again… except of course it doesn’t
- Toilet-maker’s dot-brand gets flushed
- Latest geo-gTLD goes to sunrise
- NameSilo says it’s growing too fast to be acquired
- Most registrars fail ICANN abuse audit
- More privacy headaches? UK to withdraw from GDPR
- Bizarre redactions in Pirate Bay founder’s ICANN registrar ban
- ICANN cuts the weekend from next public meeting
- DotKids signs very weird new gTLD contract
- Dropping domains might get more expensive at Donuts
- .sucks registry probably “connected” to mass cybersquatter, panel rules
- As Kabul falls, Whois could present a danger to ordinary Afghans
- Second-level .au names coming next March with tight deadline
- ICANN director picks for 2021 revealed
- Over 2,000 attendees for ICANN 73?
- .za back-end deal up for grabs
- ICANN spills beans on Marby’s million-dollar payday
- ICANN 73 will be “virtual first”
- Registrars to get more domain takedown powers
- Irish domain sales closely track pandemic restrictions
- MMX drops two registrars
- “Crimes against humanity” claims against Afilias
- Dead dot-brands #92 and #93
- GoDaddy and MMX delay closure of $120 million gTLD deal
- This company had every reason to want a dot-brand, but just killed it off
- Olympics: Australia preemptively blocking Brisbane 2032 regs
- GoDaddy rides another 21 gTLDs into its stable
- CentralNic expects H1 revenue of $174 million
- Domainers at risk as EnCirca takes over deadbeat registrar’s customer base
- Another new gTLD applicant lawyers up on ICANN
- Big names shunned as Nominet names first registrar council members
- As judge freezes assets, is this OnlineNic domain portfolio really worth $70,000?
- Nominet names new chair, slashes exec pay, promises reforms and more boardroom exits
- Facebook’s war on privacy claims first registrar scalp
- GoDaddy welcomes four porn TLDs
- New gTLD buzz is back again as ICA hosts “second round” webinar
- Nope, no Seattle meeting for ICANN
- .org domains could come in seven new languages
- .com and NameSilo fingered as “most-abused” after numbers rocket
- MMX gets nod to sell 22 gTLDs to GoDaddy
- ICANN to hold hybrid meeting in October (not that one)
- Cambodia looking at new registry overseer
- Panel hands .sucks squatter a WIN, but encourages action against the registry
- Three rivals challenge EURid for .eu contract
- Amazon has started using hard-won .amazon
- Will you use SSAD for Whois queries?
- CentralNic gets into artificial intelligence
- “Diversity” warning over ICANN Seattle
- ICANN DOESN’T money-grub in new gTLD contract shocker
- Pirate Bay founder among candidates for Nominet advisory council
- XYZ scraps .tickets rules but won’t lower the price
- EURid scraps residency rules for three countries
- Epik buys DNForum, explores member ownership options
- Nominet throws money at member-chosen charities
- ICANN backtracks on executive pay transparency
- Brexit-hit domains can still be recovered
- Net4 domains now parked after “fraud” ruling
- Pride Month not transformative for .gay
- Schwartz makes deal to sell ass.com for over $6 million
- US Feds seize 33 Iranian news site domains
- Domain firms plan “Trusted Notifier” takedown rules
- Did Harry and Meghan squat the Queen? [clickbait]
- There’s really only one question about the return to face-to-face ICANN meetings
- Registries unveil plan to tackle botnet abuse with mass takedowns
- Next new gTLD round should be less English, says ICANN boss
- Cade and Dammak win ICANN awards
- In two weeks, Brits will lose their .eu domains forever
- ICANN waves off EFF concerns about the Ethos-Donuts deal
- ICANNers itching to get back to face-to-face shindigs
- How awful would ICANN 72 have to be for you to stay at home?
- More non-rules proposed for Whois privacy
- Domain regs dip for second quarter in a row and it’s all China’s fault
- ICANN 71 — now with added bearded men!
- .autos priced waaay below its XYZ rivals
- Barrett to replace Da Silva on ICANN board
- CentralNic trumpets organic growth as its registrars reverse shrinkage
- EURid sells 1,369 Cyrillic names in five years
- Afilias hints at more legal action over .web
- ShortDot plans domain blocking service for brands
- No more acquisitions for Nominet
- Afilias leftovers rebrand as Altanovo
- American Gen Z not interested in ICANN?
- Honey Salt stops responding to .sucks cybersquatting complaints
- .web ruling hands Afilias a chance, Verisign a problem, and ICANN its own ass on a plate
- Verisign hopeful after decision reached in .web gTLD case
- As .spa launches, former partner pisses in the champagne
- ICANN chair reins in new gTLD timeline hopes
- Sav.com buys FIFTY new registrars
- Disclosure: I sold Tucows shares
Did Chehade really quit ICANN for this?
Kevin Murphy,
August 17, 2015, 15:49:02 (UTC),
Domain Policy
ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade will become a senior adviser with a private equity firm after he leaves ICANN next March.
He blogged today that he will take the role with Boston-based ABRY Partners and “provide guidance to ABRY’s partners and their companies’ leaders on digital strategy”.
Chehade, back in June, had described the ICANN CEO role as a “better job that I’ve ever had, or will ever have”.
He had years left on his contract.
My first thought is: really? This is the gig you quit ICANN for?
I’m drawn down the path of thinking that rather than finding the job of his dreams elsewhere, the dude is just suffering from ICANN burnout.
Chehade suggests in his post that ABRY is not a full-time job, writing: “I expect to add other roles to my portfolio and will update you all as appropriate.”
ABRY, at first glance, does not appear to have any significant connection to the domain name industry or to ICANN itself.
If the check is bigger at ABRY, why not.
Consider also the option of NetMundial burnout…
“Step down to spend more time with family” is often thrown out as a euphemism, but in this case perhaps it might actually be true.
It’s amazing that the first thing that any reasonable person would suspect, which has to deal with U.S. Delay in Giving Up Oversight of Internet Administrator ICANN, doesn’t even cross your mind.
We don’t know if it played a roll, but to completely be oblivious to it in this circumstance, Murphy, is incredible.
BTW: this is a good time to say “I told you so”. (If there’s a chance you’d recall the debate on your own, I’ll sit back and have you do it).
roll = role
Everything in ICANN takes years longer than expected so the transition delay isn’t the reason.
Fadi has lost a lot of weight in the last year, and he really does look burnt out. I’m with James on this one.
Its a pity though. I thought Fadi was doing a decent job by ICANN’s nut ward standards.
Katie , James I totally agree. Surely Fadi ‘s role needs to be split – one focusing on the final closure / completion / operations of Round 1 gTLD programme , starting Round 2 , the other on the IANA transition / implementation of much needed accountablility / transparency mechanisms.
Good idea. Or perhaps divide the job along the lines of “running the day-to-day at ICANN” vs. “lead & represent the multi-stakeholder community.”