The organisation that oversees internet domain names has appointed a new chief executive, who will take on some of the major challenges facing the nonprofit body, including controversy over expansion of its services.
Fadi Chehade (50) will start his job at Icann (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) in October. He is currently chief executive at Vocado, which provides cloud-based administrative software for educational institutions.
Mr Chehade told reporters in Prague, where Icann holds its 44th public meeting this weekend, he would pursue consensus-building among all the stakeholders involved in affairs affecting the internet.
“Multistakeholder models require patience . . . but I believe this process is nearly sacred,” Mr Chehade said.
Mr Chehade, born to Egyptian parents in Lebanon, where he lived until escaping the civil war there at the age of 18, led a number of IT companies in the US, including IBM. He replaces Rod Beckstrom, who is leaving Icann at the end of his three-year contract in July.
