Best ICANN CEO Quote of 2015: "My Neck Will Be Cut Tomorrow Morning"

2015-12-29

Best ICANN CEO Quote of 2015: "My Neck Will Be Cut Tomorrow Morning"

Image above: Seppuku by Rev. R. B. Peery. Image in the Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

"Now, if I’m sitting at the Board [of Directors] seat and I know that if I don’t do what my community tells me, my neck will be cut tomorrow morning, how will I really pay attention to the Public Interest?" - ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade explaining to the GAC on October 17, 2015, why the Membership Model doesn’t work for ICANN. See: GAC Oct 17: ICANN CEO, CCWG Co-Chair, Ships Passing in the Night?

First place runner-up 2015 Fadi quote:

My Transition from ICANN CEO, an Update: "I most recently accepted the invitation to co-chair a newly formed advisory committee to the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen ... To avoid any misunderstanding, I wish to confirm again that I have accepted this future role in my personal capacity." But read the press accounts:
Anonymous Hacks .... | Softpedia: "... [e]ven worse, at the same conference, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the organization that is in charge of managing domain names, has also pledged their support for a new plan for running the Internet, where Chinese figures have a more powerful word in the decisions taken by the organization. Since next year, ICANN will take over more IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) functions from the US government, this would give the Chinese government more power in how the global Internet is managed ...."

Second place runner-up 2015 Fadi quote:

“I'm not going to be steamrolled” - ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade to CCWG Co-Chair Thomas Rickert in Los Angeles, September 26, 2015, in response to Rickert not allowing Chehade to show a slide indicating where the ICANN community had not reached consensus about CCWG's proposal for "enhancement of ICANN accountability." See: ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade "Steamrolled" by CCWG-Accountability Co-Chair.

Third place runner-up 2015 Fadi quote:

Fadi Chehade: "Shall I answer this in Arabic?" Initial response of ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade to question (in English) submitted by Editor of Domain Mondo at the ICANN 54 Open Forum, after Chehade was directed to answer the question by ICANN Board Member Erika Mann (after consulting with the Board). See: ICANN 54 Public Forum Video, Q&A, ICANN, INTA, IANA, Lobbyists. Note: Fadi still has not followed-up and provided an answer to the question as he promised to do on October 22, 2015. Surprised?

Fourth place runner-up 2015 Fadi quote:

Fadi Chehade: "This is an important point because there's a definition of lobbyists but it's not people who influence outside of the U.S."

Steve Crocker: Stop. Please stop.

Fadi Chehade: This is actually wrong.

Steve Crocker: Please stop. Thank you. See: ICANN Lobbying, Conflicts, Ethics, Transparency, Accountability, Disclosure (emphasis added)

Fifth place runner-up 2015 Fadi quote:

Fadi Chehade: "... I think Adrian [Kinderis], Kurt [Pritz], and others who know this idea of the DNA Association [DNA represents interests of the new gTLDs domain name industry] and started in some small meetings we were having at the ICANN office where I was a huge early supporter, and continued to be ... there's a brewing issue for example coming up that will affect your industry ... I'm committed to your industry without a question. I need to understand it more and spend more time in it, no question. I did realize at some point that ICANN itself is an organization needs a dedicated president that is focused on serving the industry. I asked Akram [Atallah] to abandon his COO role and be the president [of ICANN's Global Domains Division (GDD)]. We created this division to serve you. In many ways we need to pair GDD and DNA and make sure that that is very tight ..."--ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehade, transcript of DNA meeting, February 10, 2015, video of meeting here (emphasis and links added). See also: Why Did ICANN Become a Member of Trademark Lobbyist Group INTA? (emphasis added)