ICANN's new CEO
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During its 44th international meeting in Prague, the ICANN announced Fadi Chehadé to be its new CEO. The 50 years old takes up the role of Rod Beckstrom, the actual CEO of ICANN, and will be in charge of domain names at a crucial time, especially with the introduction of the new extensions.
Since his predecessor was at the origin of many controversies, one of the main roles of Fadi Chehadé will be to calm down the tensions within the ICANN itself, but also with the other entities involved in the Internet world. A role that Chehadé is ready to take: " I am driven by building consensus, it is the reason I am here today, there is no other reason. I love doing this. Bringing communities that on the face of it could never be brought together to agree on common things is exactly what I strive to do ", did he say during the opening speech in Prague.
Who is Fadi Chehadé ?
Citizen of Egypt, Lebanon and the United states, the new president speaks a fluent Arabic, English, French and Italian and his story is somehow... surprising. Indeed, the 13 years old little boy learns how to use guns as he takes part of the civil war in Lebanon. At 18 years old, he leaves his native country and goes to Los Angeles, where he learns English and gets his first job... peeling onions.
After he studied in Stanford, he becomes the general manager of Global Technology Services for IBM for the Middle East and North African countries. Later, he will also be the CEO of Vocado, an american software firm, and that's without mentioning the three companies he built up aside.
Chehadé could be the man that ICANN was waiting for. In Prague, his statements were very reassuring : “I will listen. I will listen to all of you. We may not always agree, and we shouldn’t. This is what the model is, but I will listen". Then he added: “I will be transparent, super-transparent. Is there a bigger word? Extra-transparent maybe (...)I will make all my decisions for the public interest”.
Concerning the future of ICANN, he already has his opinion: “ICANN cannot become a fortress. ICANN must become an oasis, a place that people see and come to because it works, because it makes sense, because it’s efficient. We must be expected to do better, ten times better than the commercial world. The Internet is the Greatest Public and must remain a gift.”
After so many nice promises, now Fadi Chehadé has to proove himself....
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Posted on : 28/06/2012
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