ICANN CEO Announces Leadership Structure Changes

Atallah “has tremendous experience and knowledge of ICANN,” in part because he was acting CEO between former CEO Fadi Chehadé’s departure in March and the start of Marby’s administration in May, Marby said in a Tuesday blog post. General Counsel John Jeffrey's portfolio will expand, adding oversight of a new complaints office. The new complaints officer “will receive, investigate and respond to complaints about the ICANN organization’s effectiveness, and will be responsible for all complaints systems and mechanisms across the ICANN organization,” Marby said. The officer will work closely with Ombudsman Herb Wayne. The complaints office “is an important role that will provide a focus point for the community if they have complaints about the ICANN organization,” Marby said: “It is an additional way to keep the organization and me accountable” to stakeholders but “in no way replaces or supersedes the important role of all ICANN’s formal accountability mechanisms.” ICANN’s Board Operations office will now be under Chief Operating Officer Susanna Bennett. She will lead an organizational review team that “will focus on the internal assessment and controls audit, and reporting of organization-wide performance, based on targets, to ensure best practices and alignment across the organization,” Marby said. He said he's also creating a new senior vice president-contract compliance and consumer safeguards role, which will replace the current chief contract compliance officer. Current CCCO Allen Grogan previously said he will retire in December. Diane Schroeder was promoted to senior vice president-global human resources, reporting directly to Marby, he wrote.