[lac-discuss-en] Fwd: [Soac-infoalert] Fwd: ICANN Announces Top-Level Executive Changes

[Carlton Samuels]

*6 June
2013
*

*For Immediate Release*


*ICANN Announces Top-Level Executive Changes *

*Organizational Shifts to Bolster Operational Effectiveness*

*Los Angeles, California… *The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) today announced that *Akram Atallah*, currently Chief
Operating Officer (COO), will become division President of the Generic
Domains Division, a newly created branch that will focus on generic domain
operations, domain name industry engagement and web services for the
community.

President and Chief Executive Officer Fadi Chehadé said creation of the new
division is necessary because ICANN’s new gTLD Program, one of the biggest
changes to the Internet since its inception, will see a tremendous increase
in scale and responsibility to ensure that ICANN continues to deliver
operational excellence.

*Susanna Bennett*, an accomplished financial and operational executive in
technology services, has been named new COO. She will be charged with
continuing to lead the organization’s day-to-day operations while also
continuing to improve management operations.

Bennett is leaving Jazz Technologies, Inc., where she was the Chief
Financial Officer and Vice President of Human Resources.

“Susanna has extensive knowledge of international operational
infrastructure, governance and integration in culturally-diverse
organizations,” said Chehadé. “She will help improve ICANN’s agility,
accountability and visibility, which I discussed during ICANN’s recent
meeting in Beijing. She will help us mature and tweak our bottom-up,
consensus-driven, multistakeholder model.”

Bennett has more than twenty-five years of experience with both public and
private companies and has established and managed international operations
in Europe, Asia, Australia, South Africa, and South America. Prior to
joining Jazz Technologies, Inc. in 2008, Bennett was the CFO Partner for
Tatum, LLC where she advised clients in China on acquisition strategies,
integration synergies and global market expansion.

“It is particularly exciting to partner with the passionate team at ICANN
at this time of dramatic international growth,” said Bennett. “The
Internet’s impact around the globe is phenomenal and in no small way
ICANN’s multi-stakeholder model has effectively framed the Internet’s
growth.”

Chehadé said both Bennett and Attalah will assume their new positions on
July 1 when several other new organizational changes will occur, including:

   - The creation of a new position to lead Technical & Security
   Operations. This individual will report directly to the CEO.
   - *Jamie Hedlund*, currently Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement
   for North America, will become a special advisor to Chehadé, while
   continuing leadership of North America government relations.
   - *Christopher Mondini*, currently Vice President of Business
   Engagement, will become the Vice President of Stakeholder Engagement for
   North America and Global Business Engagement. He will assist with ICANN’s
   overall engagement efforts.
   - *Nora Abusitta* will become Vice President of Public Responsibility
   Programs. Abusitta is currently the Senior Director of Inter-Governmental
   Development.

 Since officially becoming President and CEO in September of 2012, Chehadé
has made it a priority to both internationalize ICANN and to accelerate
effective and professional global management.

###

To download a high resolution photo of Susanna Bennett, go here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/icann/8971723401/sizes/l/in/photostream/\

To download a high resolution photo of Akram Atallah, go here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/icann/5058190631/sizes/l/in/photolist-8GYxRi-8H2FuN/



*MEDIA CONTACTS:                        *

Brad White

Director of Global Media Affairs

Washington, DC, USA

Tel. +1 202.570.7118

brad.white at icann.org



Andrew Robertson

Edelman Public Relations

London, U.K.

Tel. + 44 (7811) 341 945

andrew.Robertson at edelman.com



*About ICANN: **ICANN’s mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified
global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type
an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be
unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these
unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't
have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit
public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world
dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It
promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique
identifiers. ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop
spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its
coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an
important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more
information please visit: **www.icann.org* <http://www.icann.org/>*.*


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