ICANN creates a new division called the Generic Domains Division (GDD)

ICANN’s president Fadi Chehadé announced some organizational changes that will be taking place at the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, and which are part of Fadi Chehadé’s desire to increase ICANN’s focus on management at all levels.

To handle the tremendous increase in scale resulting from the New gTLD Program, and to ensure ICANN’s operational excellence, ICANN is creating a new division that will be called the Generic DomainsDivision (GDD). Akram Atallah, who is currently the Chief Operating Officer (COO), will become divisional President of the GDD that will include gTLD Operations, DNS Industry Engagement, and Online Community Services.

Given Akram’s transition, it was announced that Susanna Bennett, an accomplished financial and operational executive in technology services, will be joining ICANN as the new COO. Susanna will help to deliver on ICANN’s agility, accountability and visibility that Fadi Chehadé discussed at ICANN 46 in Beijing.

To provide coherence and leadership of the technical resources, a new position to manage Technical & Security Operations is created that will report directly to Fadi Chehadé. ICANN is very active in identifying candidates to fill this critical role.

Since becoming President and CEO in September of last year, and as Fadi Chehadé promised in Toronto atICANN 45, he has made it a priority to internationalize ICANN so key functions and top leaders are spread around the world to accelerate effective and professional global management.

Finally Fadi Chehadé said: “I look forward to ICANN 47 in Durban, taking place soon on 14-18 July, where I will be able to introduce you to our new COO and expand on other significant organizational changes taking place that will help us to mature ICANN, reaffirm our commitment to the public interest and serve the growth of the Internet.”