Chehadé’s Planned Departure Seen Having Minor Impact on IANA Transition

Former NTIA Administrator John Kneuer is concerned about Chehadé’s decision to continue to lead ICANN for the next 10 months because it means he will “continue to lead the IANA transition process but it will be implemented by somebody else,” which Kneuer said he believes is a “sub-optimal” outcome. Kneuer, now president of JKC Consulting and a Fairfax Media Partners senior partner, has previously represented clients in the domain name industry but said he doesn't represent any currently. The likely extension of NTIA’s current contract with ICANN to perform the IANA functions beyond the current Sept. 30 expiration date likely means that “the person who is thinking through and negotiating with the community what the future ICANN accountability mechanisms are going to be is not going to be the same person who would then have the responsibility to execute” those mechanisms, Kneuer said. A transition to new leadership has the potential to result in demands on “every term and every concept” in the IANA transition plan, he said.

ICANN is “bigger than” Chehadé, but his status as its most visible leader means his departure is akin to “the captain of the ship leaving,” said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro. Chehadé has “been the one who’s been pushing ICANN to be a more global institution, he’s been the one who’s been championing the elimination of U.S. oversight, he’s the one who’s been going around the world making these promises about what ICANN will be like in the future,” Castro said. “You have to wonder about ICANN’s future direction here.” Chehadé’s departure makes it “even more important that everyone’s happy with where ICANN is before the IANA transition happens because there’s not just going to be change in oversight, there’s also going to be a change in leadership,” Castro said. “If there’s not that strong accountability, I think stakeholders are going to question whether their voices are being represented.”

The leadership change could present a potential for Congress to further “reinforce” its calls for additional oversight of the IANA transition, Castro said. FairWinds Partners CEO Nao Matsukata said he believes domestic U.S. politics are one of several factors that are likely to have a far bigger effect on the transition than Chehadé’s departure, saying a pair of May 13 House hearings on the IANA transition and other ICANN issues (see 1505130061) have returned the transition to the public consciousness. Chehadé’s departure could give Congress “another point that anybody who has concerns about the transition could use to prolong the process or raise questions about it,” Matsukata said. “You could easily see people in Congress or someone not in the U.S.say that ‘for the transition to go forward it’s prudent for us to hear how the next CEO sees this whole structure and process going forward.’ That could easily become a factor.”

ICANN hasn’t announced a time line for its CEO search process. A spokesman said the non-profit selected Chehadé in 2012 based on a recommendation for a search committee that took less than a year to select him after then-CEO Rod Beckstrom’s August 2011 announcement about his own planned departure. The ICANN board will need to decide whether it wants ICANN’s next CEO to continue Chehadé’s work on influencing the international Internet governance debate or to focus on internal ICANN issues given the non-profit’s work on changing its accountability mechanisms, Matsukata said. A candidate who could “bridge” those two focuses would be an interesting choice but might not be ideal for ICANN because it “has a lot on its plate right now” internally, Matsukata said. It might be preferable to select someone who would focus on internal ICANN issues first and then step into the global Internet governance debate, he said.