ICANN elects Cherine Chalaby as new chair

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has elected a new chair and vice-chair to head up its board of directors.

Cherine Chalaby and Chris Disspain were appointed at the 19th annual general meeting, in Abu Dhabi, as the new chair and vice-chair of the ICANN board respectively.

Chalaby was first elected to serve on the board in December 2010, and was chosen as the vice-chair in 2015.

He succeeds Stephen Crocker, who has retired from the role after serving as chair since 2011.

ICANN’s 60th public meeting, held in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries for the first time, featured a tribute to Crocker.

Hot topics during the meeting included data protection and privacy rules, particularly the EU general data protection regulation.

“Many discussions across the community focused on gaining an understanding of the main concerns for various stakeholder groups and calls to action for ICANN and the board,” said ICANN, in a statement released on Friday, November 3.

Disspain was selected to join the ICANN board in June 2011 by the country-code names supporting organisation, a body within the ICANN structure created for, and by, country-code top-level domain managers.

Chalaby said: “The board had enough confidence in ICANN’s maturity to elect me even though I do not come from the long and distinguished line of ‘masters of the internet universe’. I look forward to the future with great hope and enthusiasm, particularly to the partnership we will continue to build with the ICANN community.”

The board also welcomed new board members León Sanchez, Matthew Shears, Avri Doria, Sarah Deutsch, and Manal Ismail as the governmental advisory committee liaisons to the board.

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