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Anger as Nominet rejects coup’s pick for chair

Kevin Murphy, April 13, 2021, 15:58:47 (UTC), Domain Registries

.uk registry Nominet has rejected its members’ favorite for chair of the board, causing no small amount of irritation among those who backed last month’s boardroom coup.

Company acting chair Rob Binns yesterday told members that Sir Michael Lyons, who headed a review of Nominet a few years ago, will not be asked to be chair, after they failed to reach agreement on terms.

The company has posted an application form (pdf) for would-be chairs.

It seems Lyons was only looking for a short-term gig to help transition Nominet to a new operating model in line with the demands of the PublicBenefit.uk campaign, but Nominet wanted a commitment of at least three years.

Binns wrote (pdf) to members:

After much careful consideration, the Board has decided not to invite Sir Michael to be acting Chair. There was much in common between the current path the board is committed to, and Sir Michael’s view. However, the Board wants and needs a long-term Chair appointment to steer the company’s future and that did not align with Sir Michael’s conditions. We did explore a non-executive director seat but it was clear Sir Michael did not want such a role.

Binns had previously informed members their pick for deputy chair, Axel Pawlik, had also declined a consulting role at the registry.

Lyons and Pawlik had been put forward, with their cooperation, as replacement directors in last month’s Emergency General Meeting, which saw chair Mark Wood and three other directors fired by a slim majority of member votes.

CEO Russell Haworth resigned from both his executive and board roles shortly before the EGM rather that face the vote.

While PublicBenefit’s effort to slash the board almost in half was successful, a second motion to install Lyons and Pawlik did not make it to the agenda, with Nominet’s previous leadership claiming it broke company rules on member-selected directors.

Both Lyons and Pawlik signed a letter to Nominet yesterday expressing disappointment that they failed to come to an agreement and dripping with grim foreshadowing of future member action.

It (pdf) reads a little like a preemptive told-you-so.

We do not believe that you are currently in a strong enough position to begin recruiting new board members or a new CEO. Both require clarity about future mission and stability.

…

From the very beginning of our discussions, I have consistently underlined my concern to avoid a continuing period of uncertainty or to inherit a divided board, trying to fight the battles of the past. I wish you well with the task you have taken on.

The PublicBenefit campaign, spearheaded by Simon Blackler of the registrar Krystal Hosting, wants Nominet to eschew the diversification of its recent years under Haworth and return to its domain name registry roots, with lower wholesale prices and more money returned to public benefit causes.

The remaining board, under Binns and now supplemented by two newly appointed members of Nominet’s executive suite, has put forward a plan that addresses some of the campaign’s concerns, but many members do not believe quite enough humble pie has been eaten yet.

Members were angered last week when head of registry Eleanor Bradley, one of the ousted directors, was made interim CEO, a move one member today described as “taking the piss”.

Today, most of the member sentiment on social media has been critical of Nominet’s post-EGM choices, with rumblings of a second EGM to finish off the job.

But there was some appreciation that Nominet has been heavily engaging in discussions on Twitter today, which marks a switch from the pre-EGM hands-off approach to member engagement.

The company will hold a members-only meeting on Friday morning to discuss its plan for the future and, unlike the EGM, listen-only passes for the media appear to be available.

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