Paul Twomey, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
In a prepared statement, Twomey did not give a reason for departing, other than to say he wants to “move on to another leadership position in the private or international sectors.” He said he declined a three-year contract renewal with ICANN last year.
ICANN plans a formal announcement later Monday as part of its regular meetings this week in Mexico City.
Twomey said he will stay on until a successor is named and for an unspecified period after that to help with transition.
His contract expires July 1.
Interesting that after heading up introduction of the new gTLD’s, in an effort to expand domain extensions by hundreds maybe thousands, he is leaving in the middle of the process.
Is this a result of the old saying if you can’t stand the heat stay out of the kitchen?
We know this proposal is meeting with strong opposition from of the Commerce Department and many Fortune 500 Companies.
We also know that ICANN lost almost $5 million in the stock market.
It certainly curious timing for his decision to leave.
Mr Twomey feels the opposition to new gtlds is growing much much stronger than he thought and it’s very likely that after having wasted millions on this, his project will even never see the light.
My feeling is that the DoC will put an end to this announced mess and ask ICANN to allow new extensions on a one by one basis after carefully reviewing each application (like previously new added gtlds).
Thousands of new gtlds is not realistic.
Torpedos are coming from everywhere, time for Mr Twomey to leave the boat before the US administration, trademarks owners and domain owners make it sink.
If Paul Twomey ‘cant stand the heat’ he must have had an asbestos suit on for the last 6 years !
I have no idea how you can concoct a theory that he is suddenly jumping ship when both he and the Chairman of the Board have said he raised his departure with the Board last year AND he is staying on through to the end of 2009.
So there’s nothing curious about this at all.
Still – let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good story….