[ALAC-Announce] ICANN Taps Senior Exec as new Communications VP

[At-Large Staff]

10 April 2013
For Immediate Release
 
Seasoned International Executive Named to Lead
ICANN Communications Team
Duncan Burns to Guide Rapidly Expanding Communications Efforts
Beijing, ChinaŠ The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) today announced that Duncan Burns has been named as the
organization¹s Vice President of Global Communications.

Burns is leaving Hill+Knowlton Strategies in Washington, D.C. to lead
ICANN¹s rapidly expanding global communications team.

³Duncan has the international experience and leadership skills we need
³ said Sally Costerton, ICANN¹s Senior Advisor to the President for Global
Stakeholder Engagement. ³He understands both our unique bottom up model and
community as well as having the experience to lead the rapid
internationalization needed as our new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD)
program translates to ramped-up demands for qualitative international
communications. I can think of no one better suited to guide those efforts
than Duncan.²

Costerton announced the hiring of Burns during ICANN¹s on-going largest-ever
public meeting in Beijing.

Burns has been with Hill+Knowlton Strategies since September 2000, working
in both London and Washington D.C. on a range of national and international
programs across the technology, energy, finance and NGO sectors. In 2011,
Burns was appointed H+K¹s first global energy practice director, responsible
for driving the growth of the energy practice worldwide and delivering best
practice across the company¹s roster of clients and network of experts.
Burns was also the interim general manager of H+K¹s Washington DC and
previously senior vice president in the technology practice.

³I am excited to be joining ICANN at such an important time in its history
as it enables the Internet¹s evolution into new languages, markets and
beyond. I was part of a team that a couple of years ago worked with ICANN in
its efforts to expand awareness of the organization¹s new gTLD program,²
said Burns. ³I was impressed by the people I met and the way in which
transparency and engagement are the core around which ICANN and its
communications efforts are built.²

In the last few years Burns has led teams working with, among others,
Qualcomm, eBay, the Nuclear Energy Institute, Statoil and Better Place.

Burns, who was born in the United Kingdom, will be based in ICANN¹s
Washington, D.C. office.  He assumes his new position on May 20.

Jim Trengrove, ICANN¹s Senior Director of Communications who has been
leading the communications department since September 2012, will shift his
focus to the expansion of ICANN¹s media platforms.

###

To download a high-resolution photo of Duncan Burns, go here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/icann/8635212039/sizes/z/

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: ICANN¹s 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 Internet¹s unique
identifiers. ICANN doesn¹t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop
spam and it doesn¹t deal with access to the Internet. But through its
coordination role of the Internet¹s 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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