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Three ICANN directors voted against Marby’s pay rise

Kevin Murphy, February 19, 2021, 11:53:53 (UTC), Domain Policy

In what may or may not have been an accidental moment of transparency, ICANN has revealed that three of its directors recently voted against giving CEO Göran Marby a pay rise.

Notes on the February 8 board meeting, which granted Marby a 5% salary increase from July, contain this tally:

Eleven Directors voted in favor of Resolution 2021.02.08.05. Three Directors voted against the Resolution. Two Directors including Göran Marby, the subject of the Resolution, were unavailable to vote. The Resolution carried.

It appears to be the first time, at least in recent years, that an ICANN board vote breakdown has been published on a matter of executive compensation.

Assuming this was a deliberate decision to increase transparency, rather than an admin screw-up, kudos to ICANN for the baby-step.

Any resolution carried by the ICANN board related to personnel matters such as pay is usually during a confidential “executive session” which is not properly minuted and doesn’t usually have a vote breakdown published.

The report does not name the dissenting directors or their arguments against the pay raise. That kind of thing would usually come in the formally approved minutes, which might not come for months and might not elaborate further.

However, when Marby sought and was granted a contract extension last year, and the vote was not unanimous, ICANN did eventually publish some information about dissenting directors’ rationales.

One director had voted against the extension partly due to issues with “the CEO’s communication style” that he believed needed to be addressed. Another abstained because she felt there should have been a formal performance review first.

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