New Zealand lawyer is new chair of ICANN

Stuart Corner
Monday, 05 November 2007 04:53

IT People - People

Peter Dengate Thrush, a New Zealand lawyer, has been elected unanimously as the new chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to replace retiring chairman, Internet pioneer Vint Cerf.

Cerf said: his appointment was a clear signal that ICANN had matured. "ICANN has moved from a foundation state to a steady state. Peter understands that and the board's role and is a great choice to keep the organisation strong and focused," Cerf said.

Dengate Thrush, a Wellington based barrister, practices civil litigation, specialising in intellectual property, competition and Internet law. He has been involved in ICANN since its inception. As a member of the Boston Working Group, he provided comment in 1998 on the early drafts of the ICANN bylaws, and he co-chaired one of the pre-formation meetings of the Intellectual Property Constituency in Wellington, New Zealand.

He has been president of InternetNZ (the Internet Society of New Zealand) and was selected as a ICANN board member after an international vote of ccTLD managers in the ccNSO in December 2004. He is currently on the ICANN president's strategy, board finance, board governance, and executive committees.

Commenting on his appointment, Dengate Thrush said: "I think our biggest challenges are about serving the global audience. At a technical level there is the challenge of introducing international scripts at the top level for both gTLDS and ccTLDs, as well as new processes for introducing what may be a large number of generic top level domains.

"At the organisational level we need to expand our global activity and constantly increase international involvement, as well work on the completion of the Joint Project Agreement with the United States Government."

The board also unanimously re-elected Roberto Gaetano as deputy chair. Gaetano was selected by the 2006 nominating committee to serve as a board member. He has more than 30 years of experience in telecommunications and information technology, acquired working for different organisations in different countries and presently works for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). As a representative of ETSI (European Telecommunication Standards Institute), he played important roles in the formation of CORE (Council of Internet Registrars), the policy discussions around the US Government's White Paper.

Vint Cerf's farewell missive
Retiring ICANN chairman, Vint Cerf, has posted a lengthy parting letter on the ICANN web site, entitled "Looking Towards the Future, " in which he says: "In matters of public policy, including but not limited to public safety, security, privacy, law enforcement, conduct of electronic commerce, protection of digital property and freedom of speech, broad and international agreements may be needed if the Internet is to serve as a useful, global infrastructure. Many of these matters lie outside the formal purview of ICANN, but some ICANN policies and resulting operational practices will contribute to the global framework for life online.

"ICANN must seek to contribute to public confidence in the Internet and the processes that govern its operation. It cannot do this alone. The coordinated and cooperative efforts of many distinct entities will be essential to achieving this goal. At the same time, ICANN must protect its processes from capture or abuse by interests that are inimical to the openness and accessibility of the Internet for everyone.