Göran Marby resigns from ICANN President and CEO

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that the Board of Directors has accepted Göran Marby’s resignation as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Marby’s departure is effective immediately.

Göran Marby was not a good ICANN president and CEO by any measure.

The whole .org debacle in 2019-2020 happened on Göran Marby’s watch. ICANN was ready to approve the .org transfer but the California Attorney General ruined their party.

Now he will probably head over to one of the big domain registries. In 2020 ICANN and Verisign agreed to the .com price increase. Guess where he could be heading now.

“On behalf of the Board I’d like to thank Göran for his leadership over the past six-and-a-half years. He served during a critical time in ICANN’s history,” said ICANN Board Chair Tripti Sinha. “He was instrumental in leading ICANN organization (org) through the final phase of the IANA stewardship transition from the U.S. Government and in setting a solid vision for ICANN’s next chapter. He also championed ICANN’s efforts to serve the Internet users of the world through the creation of the DNS Security Facilitation Initiative Technical Study Group and Domain Abuse Activity Reporting project to mitigate threats to the Domain Name System, as well as the Coalition for Digital Africa to bring together like-minded partners to expand the Internet in Africa.”

At the request of the Board, Marby will be available to consult with ICANN until May 23, 2024, to support the transition to a new leader, as well as to advise the Board on any issue they require.

“I’m extremely proud of the work we have done together with the ICANN community and Board.

ICANN org has designed the implementation strategies for several critical initiatives that will shape the future for ICANN and the Internet users of the world,” said Marby. “I am also keenly aware that these are long-term initiatives for which leadership continuity is essential. The next President and CEO will shepherd the next phase of this work.”

The ICANN Board will convene its search for a new CEO at the start of 2023. Sally Costerton, ICANN Senior Advisor to the President and Senior Vice President, Global Stakeholder Engagement, has been named as Interim President and CEO. “I’m grateful to Sally for agreeing to take on this extra assignment to provide continuity and leadership,” noted Sinha.