SAN FRANCISCO (05/04/2000) - Nonprofit Net body the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced yesterday that it is embarking in earnest on a worldwide hunt for a new chief executive officer and president.
To help in whittling down the resumes, ICANN has hired a London-based recruitment consultant, the organization said in a statement issued yesterday.
Topping ICANN's list of attributes necessary for the body's new head are leadership, management ability, technical credibility and international expertise. Another vital quality is being able to facilitate agreement in relation to thorny problems concerning the operation and growth of the Net, ICANN said in yesterday's statement.
Mike Roberts, ICANN's present CEO and president, has held the job since the organization's founding in October 1998. His remit was to head up the body until the formation of an elected board of directors, a process that is drawing to a close. ICANN intends to appoint his replacement before the end of this year.
ICANN was formed in 1998 as a nonprofit, private sector body to take over the task of technical management of the Internet previously undertaken by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) which was sponsored by the U.S. government.
Also responsible for steering the search for a new ICANN head is the executive search committee of the ICANN board chaired by Vint Cerf [CQ], senior vice president for Internet architecture and technology at MCI WorldCom Inc.
Earlier this year, ICANN ran into trouble over a plan to hold an indirect election for its at-large board members which drew howls of protests from other nonprofit groups. The organization ended up backing down on the proposal, opting instead to hold a direct election of at-large board members. [See "CDT, Common Cause Applaud ICANN Election Decision," March 10.]ICANN, based in Marina del Rey, California, can be reached via the Internet at http://www.icann.org/.