Sweden Telecom Official Göran Marby Named To Lead ICANN

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch

Senior Swedish official Göran Marby today (8 February) was announced as the new president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, succeeding Fadi Chehade who leaves the ICANN to join the World Economic Forum in mid-March. Marby will be the first European to lead ICANN, the internet domain system technical oversight body founded in 1998.

Marby was appointed in October for a second term as director-general of the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS), an office he has held since 1 January 2010. Asked how the transition will happen, Marby said that the Swedish government was in the process of deciding on his departure.

The Swede, who founded technology start-up appGATE, later acquired by Cryptzone, and also served as a Cisco business employee before joining the Swedish telecom regulator faced some tough questions at his first press conference as ICANN president designate over his ability to transition into a global multi-stakeholder organisation.

Recent Swedish press reports illustrated a fall-out of at least some of Sweden’s providers with the Chief Regulator, most notably the ISP Bahnhof, which is objecting to the renewal of the data retention legislation.

Marby, answering questions, acknowledged the critique by the providers, but said it had been his job in the end as a regulator to stand between the providers and the people. At the same time, he was eager to applaud the multi-stakeholder process. He said the transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is “based on the hard work of the community,” and the process so far gives “proof that the multi-stakeholder model works.” Control over the IANA, which is responsible for underlying changes to the internet domain system, is being transitioned away from the United States.

For the gap between the 12 March departure of Chehade and the arrival of the first European ICANN CEO who will move with his wife and two children to the ICANN headquarters in Los Angeles/Marina del Rey, the president of the Global Domain Names Division, Akram Atallah, will step in – very much as he did before the arrival of Chehade.

The ICANN press release is available here.