Kieren McCarthy Leaving ICANN

[IPB Corporation]

Hello all,

Kieren McCarthy has decided to leave his role as general manager of
public participation at ICANN.

Kieren has been with ICANN since February 2007, initially working from
the UK and then moving to Los Angeles. In that time he has worked
tirelessly and won frequent plaudits from the community and Board for
improving ICANN’s interactions with its community and lowering the
barriers to participation in the organization. He will be leaving at
the end of November, following the ICANN Seoul meeting and Internet
Governance Forum in Egypt.

Some of Kieren’s achievements have been to revamp the ICANN website,
restructure the public comment process, greatly expand and improve
remote participation at meetings, produce monthly magazines, encourage
and assist the production of a range of other newsletters and updates
to the community, introduce professional photography and video, create
a meeting question box, and oversee many of ICANN’s web presences
including the blog, public participation site, meeting sites, mobile
site, and the front page of the main ICANN site.

Kieren has been pivotal in the introduction of ICANN’s translation and
interpretation programs, its consultation principles, and its document
deadline policy. He has also introduced ICANN to a range of social
networking tools, used to improve interaction and communication with
the community, as well as a number of innovative sessions at
international public meetings, including a joint meeting of
representatives of all ICANN’s arms.

Kieren is leaving to work on a range of projects. He will be partly
returning to journalism and will continue to cover Internet and green
technology issues within California for the foreseeable future.

I’m sure you all join me in wishing Kieren great success in these next
projects.

Thanks!

Doug

[IPB Corporation]

Leaving ICANN, off to greener pastures
October 15, 2009 · 17 comments

in Domain names, ICANN, Internet, Journalism, Los Angeles

I am leaving my job as general manager of public participation for
ICANN on 25 November.

Yesterday, the COO sent round a note to staff; this morning I find
myself elevated to the point of wanting to dance. Whenever I leave a
job, I get the feeling of a weight being lifted off my shoulders and,
shortly after, feel the excitement of future possibilities. This time,
it is particularly strong.

I still have a busy meeting in Seoul in just over a week to deal with,
and then more work for the Internet Governance Forum in Egypt two
weeks after that. But from December I will be free to apply my
energies wherever I wish and man does it feels good.

I’ve learnt a hell of a lot over the past two-and-a-half years but
with the ending of a big agreement between the organization and the US
government (and they said it couldn’t be done), with my boss heading
back to Australia, and with a feeling that my ability to effect
changes has passed its peak, it is definitely time to move on.

Update: I just found my original post on taking the job. Pleased to
see I have managed to stay true to myself, although I may have to
evaluate performance against my own goals in December.

What will I be doing?

I have a long list of things that has been building up for a while. My
Sex.com book and its film rights, a book on the domain name industry,
a book on the cutting edge and revolutionary uses of the Internet. I
may write my Great Drunks book. I may write my Rockall disaster book.

I have two business plans. And I have my beloved journalism: the new
Internet extensions will be fascinating; I am absolutely itching to
get stuck into electric car technology. Two people have been asking me
to build their websites for a while. I definitely want to do some
consulting on participation and the Internet to save people huge
amounts of time and trouble figuring it out for themselves. And I have
an overriding desire to do some real good in a broader sense – maybe
get into some of the gov2.0 stuff going on.

My head is buzzing with plans; just need to take a week off surfing
and fixing up my van and it will all come clear. I’m also getting
married to Sapna in April in San Francisco and we will probably move
up there in the new year, which I’m also excited about.

So great opportunities lie ahead. In the meantime I need to stop
writing this post and get back to the unbelievable list of things to
do for the ICANN Seoul meeting.