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ICANN looking for chief registrant advocate (but there’s a catch)

Kevin Murphy, July 23, 2014, 14:11:02 (UTC), Domain Policy

ICANN is looking for a Registrant Services Director — somebody to advocate for the rights of registrants within the organization.
It’s a paid staff position, reporting directly to Global Domains Division president and ICANN number two Akram Atallah, not a part of the volunteer community.
The catch is that the newly created position is going to be based in Istanbul, Turkey, at one of ICANN’s three hub offices, which is probably going to limit the pool of available candidates.
“The right person for the role will build a team to develop and maintain a range of services and activities to support the needs of Domain Name Registrants,” the job ad states.
“It involves participation in a number of cross-organizational projects in areas such as registrant rights, contract interpretations and compliance, operations, legal policy definitions and implementation with a strong focus on multi-stakeholder collaboration,” it goes on.
I believe it will be the first time ICANN has had an executive dedicated to looking after the interests of registrants on its staff.
Limiting the pool of candidates further, ICANN is looking for somebody with eight to 12 years’ experience in a relevant role within the domain name industry.
An MBA or an advanced degree in engineering would be a plus, the ad states.


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Comments (8)

  1. Garth Miller says:

    re “based in Istanbul… which is probably going to limit the pool of available candidates”. Istanbul is a fantastic city of you have a decent income, just say’in ..

    • Kevin Murphy says:

      I don’t doubt that Istanbul is lovely, but it’s hardly the hotbed of the domain name industry. And ICANN is looking for somebody in their 30s at least, which would rule out relocation for many non-Turkish industry people.

    • Rubens Kuhl says:

      The recent Internet censorships events in Turkey also make harder to attract people that are used to an open Internet…

  2. Paul Schwada says:

    It’s a nice investment of good faith by ICANN on behalf of the investors. Istanbul, though… huh.

  3. Drewbert says:

    “An MBA or an advanced degree in engineering would be a plus”
    Huh? Surely a “registrant advocate” would need to be someone with a legal background, in particular US law, since that’s where ICANN runs from?

  4. Drewbert says:

    Customer advocate? Have ICANN finally admitted registrants are their customers, even if they are separated by two firewalls?

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