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ICANN replaces three directors

Kevin Murphy, September 8, 2010, 10:54:34 (UTC), Domain Policy

ICANN has named Cherine Chalaby, Bertrand de La Chapelle and Erika Mann as the new members of its board of directors.
The three will replace current vice-chair Dennis Jennings, along with Harald Tveit Alvestrand and Jean-Jacques Subrenat, whose terms expire next month.
Under ICANN bylaws, Jennings, Alvestrand and Subrenat could have served two additional three-year terms, but I do not know whether any of them applied to do so.
The ICANN Nominating Committee, which was responsible for selecting the new directors, highlighted the fact that the board is getting its first Arabic-speaking member.
That’s Egyptian Cherine Chalaby. I must confess I’d never heard of him either. Google tells me he has a tech/consulting background, and works for a UK-based investment bank.
ICANN has had a couple of minor run-ins with Arabic members of the community recently, such as over the the delegation of Arabic-script ccTLDs, which came in for criticism.
There was also a small flare-up over the random inclusion of an anti-terrorism clause in the new gTLD application process, which led to (in my view overblown) accusations of insensitivity.
NomCom chair Wolfgang Kleinwaechter said the appointment of Chalaby “underlines the importance of further internationalization of ICANN.”
The appointment of Bertrand de La Chapelle, who becomes the first second person to leave the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee to join the board, is also particularly interesting.
De La Chapelle is France’s GAC representative, and one of the most vocal members of the committee.
In my view, he’s currently the GAC rep doing the most to build bridges with the rest of the community over the tricky “morality and public order” policy process. The board’s gain is the GAC’s loss.
Clearly serious about his new role, de La Chapelle said he will quit his job as “Thematic Ambassador and Special Envoy for the Information Society in the French Foreign and European Affairs Ministry” and look for other sources of funding.
German Erika Mann joins the board after a 15-year stint as a Member of the European Parliament, sitting in the Socialist group. She speaks four languages and once ran her own IT consultancy.
According to her CV, she was an expert in ICANN matters between 1985 and 1994, which is almost supernaturally impressive.


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Comments (9)

  1. Jim Fleming says:

    The insiders that run ICANN are clearly driving it deeper into the weeds of obscurity and irrelevance.
    What 150+ staff and consultants do all day, remains a mystery.
    Vinton Cerf is headed over to the ARIN Board. There are billions of dollars of IP Address Space to be “managed”.

  2. Jim Fleming says:

    It should also be noted that the U.S. NSF – National Science Foundation, is once again starting to meddle in the Social Engineering of the .NET.
    The NSF is starting to toss around large grants (i.e. money) and the usual suspects will be recipients.
    Dennis Jennings is a product of the U.S. NSF “system” even though he is based in Ireland.
    Follow the money. It Seeks Overall Control

  3. Small correction — Paul Twomey used to chair the GAC and later joined the Board by virtue of his position of CEO of ICANN. So M. de la Chapelle is not the first.

  4. Jim Fleming says:

    The Board “yes men” are not nearly as important as those that place them there…
    “The members of the 2010 Nominating Committee are: Wolfgang Kleinwaechter (Chair), Hartmut Richard Glaser (Associate Chair), Tricia Drakes (Advisor), Yaovi Atohoun, Jeffrey R. Bedser, Olivier M. J. Crepin-Leblond, Margarita Valdes Cortes, Eduardo Diaz, Jan Gruntorád, Tony Holmes, Norbert Klein, Bill Manning, Chris Martin, Elliot Noss, Michael Palage, Mark Partridge, Mike Roberts, José Ovidio Salgueiro, Francisco da Silva, Henk Uijterwaal, Wilfried Woeber and Hong Xue.”
    The above are of course carefully placed by “The Community”.

  5. […] joined ICANN’s board of directors last December, after her appointment by the Nominating Committee. She’s currently the only female director with a […]

  6. […] joined ICANN’s board of directors last December, after her appointment by the Nominating Committee. She’s currently the only female director with a […]

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