Congressional Scrutiny of ICANN CEO Increases Need To Select Successor, Stakeholders Say

Congressional scrutiny of retiring ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé’s involvement with the controversial Chinese government-led World Internet Conference (WIC) heightens the need for ICANN to select and announce Chehadé’s successor, while the controversy's potential effect on U.S. government approval of the planned Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition is less clear, said ICANN stakeholders in interviews. GOP presidential contender Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and two other senators jointly sent a letter to Chehadé Thursday questioning Chehadé’s plan to become co-chairman of a high-level WIC advisory committee, and what compensation he will be receiving for that role, in a bid to determine whether his decision to take on a role at WIC while still ICANN CEO is a conflict of interest (see 1602040061).

The letter from Cruz and Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, came less than six weeks before Chehadé’s planned mid-March departure from ICANN and amid what’s now viewed as a rapidly narrowed search for Chehadé’s successor as president-CEO. ICANN’s President and CEO Search Committee has selected its top two candidates to replace Chehadé, with the committee’s preferred choice being a “male from Europe,” a telecom and Internet governance lobbyist told us. The committee selected a secondary candidate “in case they can’t come to an agreement” with their preferred candidate, the lobbyist said. The committee selected the two after interviewing four candidates in Hong Kong, the lobbyist said.

Several ICANN stakeholders noted speculation that former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt is a finalist CEO candidate, though the lobbyist wasn’t able to confirm whether Bildt was among the four people the search committee interviewed. Bildt’s current role as chairman of the Global Commission on Internet Governance “certainly indicates his interest in this domain so I see why he could be interested in ICANN,” said Red Branch Consulting founder Paul Rosenzweig. Bildt “would also probably be the most notable person who’s ever been affiliated with ICANN, which would enhance ICANN’s stature in the same way that any international organization is enhanced by the affiliation with someone who has been a man of real substance in the political sphere.” But “my own questions would reflect that ICANN isn’t a government,” Rosenzweig said. “It’s a business -- a non-profit business, but a business nonetheless. So I would want to know a little more about the extent to which ICANN feels comfortable making him the CEO of an organization.” An ICANN spokesman didn’t comment but pointed to a Jan. 18 blog post in which ICANN Board Chairman Steve Crocker said the CEO search was “proceeding well and though I cannot say much more now, I look forward to giving you a fuller update just as soon as I can.”

The scrutiny of Chehadé’s post-ICANN plans may prevent ICANN’s board from seeking a temporary extension of his tenure until it can reach an agreement on a successor or make the board less willing to give him an advisory role after he leaves, stakeholders told us. ICANN’s board “made a mistake by not reacting more strongly” to Chehadé’s announcement he planned to take a role in WIC, given that forum’s stance against what’s viewed as traditional multistakeholder Internet governance values, said Rosenzweig. “If I was on the board, I would say that it’s appropriate for [Chehadé] to move on” in March as planned. Chehadé has until Feb. 19 to respond to the questions in Cruz’s letter, but a delegation from the Generic Names Supporting Organization’s Non-Contracted Party House may pose some of Cruz’s questions during a meeting with Chehadé set to occur after our deadline Friday, a domain names industry lobbyist told us.

Chehadé’s responses to the questions in Cruz’s letter may determine the extent to which the controversy spills over into congressional oversight of the IANA transition, lawmakers and stakeholders said. “I think the letter speaks for itself on our concerns, and we’ll see what we get” from Chehadé, said Lankford in an interview Thursday: “I don’t like the U.S. losing its oversight role [over the IANA functions] anyway. No one has been able to show us how this works or where things are going or how we’re going to continue to have an open Internet if the leadership of Russia and China get the ability to have a greater ability to” influence ICANN.

The questions Cruz and the other senators raised in their letter “are less about [Chehadé] since he’s leaving in March, though there are clearly questions about whether he’ll have a continued relationship with ICANN past March,” said Phil Corwin, principal of e-commerce and IP law consultancy Virtualaw. Cruz’s letter “goes more toward the accountability issue and whether the ICANN board properly holds staff accountable.” The IANA transition “is a purely technical issue that’s taken on a political dimension” in Congress,” said Shane Tews, visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’s Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy. “Once you start to look at headlines” about Chehadé’s involvement with WIC, “that definitely would give federal people room for pause to say they want this transition fully vetted.”