Today is an exciting day for the Internet Society. It gives me great pleasure to announce, on behalf of the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees, that Andrew Sullivan has been selected as the Internet Society’s new President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He will formally take up his position on September 1, 2018.
This selection now successfully concludes the CEO search process we began last November.
The CEO selection process involved extensive work on the part of the Board but gave us much food for thought. We received a wealth of extremely impressive applications from more than a hundred internal and external candidates covering a huge range of talent and experience. We had some thought-provoking conversations as part of the process and I would like to express my sincere appreciation to everybody who applied for the position.
I believe Andrew’s success in being selected for this crucial role represents an enormous opportunity for the Internet Society and the global Internet.
Andrew brings a wealth of Internet industry and technology experience with him. He has served in a number of past roles, including time at Dyn, now a Global Business Unit of the Oracle Corporation, managing Domain Name System (DNS) development and architecture departments and as the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) Chair for two consecutive years, 2015 and 2016. Andrew also played an instrumental role in the IANA Transition. He is currently serving as Chair of the IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC), where he has been involved with discussions around updating the relationship between the IETF and the Internet Society.
Most importantly for us as a global community of members, organizations and individuals that care deeply about the Internet, he embodies the core values of openness, transparency, inclusion and diversity that lie at the very heart of the Internet Society. He is committed to the ISOC vision of an Internet that works for all of us and believes fervently in the struggle to bring to everyone an Internet that is open, globally-connected, trusted and secure.
Not only that, but he is also committed to strengthening and growing our global community. Together, we have built this global technical infrastructure, this resource to enrich people’s lives, and this force for good in society. Because it is a challenging time for the Internet, he knows that it’s also a challenging time for the Internet Society, but he firmly believes in the power of this community to realize its shared vision for the Internet.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kathy Brown for her strong leadership over the past four and a half years. She has been pivotal in the organization’s transformation and I believe that we have never been in a stronger position, not just to face the challenges ahead of us, but to emerge as a true world leader in shaping the path and future direction of the Internet for the good of all humanity.
Kathy will continue in her current role as President and CEO until September 1. On taking up his role and assuming his new post, he and Kathy will work together during a period of transition to ensure a smooth handover of responsibilities.
Please join me in congratulating Andrew as we prepare to welcome him to this critical role leading the Internet Society.