Review of the ICANN Board of Directors
3 October 2009
ICANN appointed the Boston Consulting Group/Colin Carter & Associates to perform the external review of its Board of Directors. The Consultant delivered its review report, and presented it during a public workshop at the Cairo meeting.
Comments received during the following public comment phase can be viewed here.
Board Review Working Group
A Board Review WG was formed to help ensure that the evaluator's report contained the data and information needed to conduct the following work, and (primarily) to advise the Structural Improvements Committee and the Board on whether any change is needed for the Board.
The WG, considering the Independent Reviewer's final report, Board input, and comments from stakeholders and the public, issued an Interim Report that was presented at the ICANN meeting in Mexico City
This Interim Report presented the WG's "initial thinking" on the questions under review following the publication of the external review report and further consultation. A public comment period followed, as to allow for further inputs from the community.
Following this second round of consultation the Board review WG continued its activity and issued its second Interim Report [PDF, 133K] where most issues related to the external reviewer's report were finalized.
The second WG interim report was presented at the Sydney meeting; comments received during the presentation and during the following public comments phase helped the Board review WG to conclude its analysis of the few issues that were still outstanding.
The WG releases now its draft final report [EN, PDF, 132K], Français [PDF, 145K], Español [PDF, 152K], Русский [PDF, 336K], 中文 [PDF, 392K], العربية [PDF, 216K], which will be presented at the Seoul meeting. A final round of consultation is also organized before the finalization of the report for Board action.
Background
As set forth in Article VI of the Bylaws, the ICANN Board of Directors ("Board") consists of fifteen voting members ("Directors"). In addition, six non-voting liaisons ("Liaisons") are designated by certain ICANN bodies. The Directors serve as individuals who have the duty to act in what they reasonably believe are the best interests of ICANN, and not as representatives of the entity that selected them, their employers, or any other organizations or constituencies.
The Directors shall consist of 8 voting members selected by the Nominating Committee; 2 voting members selected by the Address Supporting Organization; 2 voting members selected by the Country-Code Names Supporting Organization, and 2 voting members selected by the Generic Names Supporting Organization. The President of ICANN serves ex officio as a voting member.
The Board annually elects a Chairman and a Vice-Chairman from among the Directors, not including the President.
The criteria for selection to the Board include:
- Accomplished persons of integrity, objectivity, and intelligence, with reputations for sound judgment and open minds, and a demonstrated capacity for thoughtful group decision-making;
- Persons with an understanding of ICANN's mission and the potential impact of ICANN decisions on the global Internet community, and committed to the success of ICANN;
- Persons who will produce the broadest cultural and geographic diversity on the Board consistent with meeting the other criteria set forth in this Section;
- Persons who, in the aggregate, have personal familiarity with the operation of gTLD registries and registrars; with ccTLD registries; with IP address registries; with Internet technical standards and protocols; with policy-development procedures, legal traditions, and the public interest; and with the broad range of business, individual, academic, and non-commercial users of the Internet;
- Persons who are willing to serve as volunteers, without compensation other than the reimbursement of certain expenses; and
- Persons who are able to work and communicate in written and spoken English.
In order to ensure broad international representation on the Board, each of ICANN’s five Geographic Regions shall have at least one Director, and at all times no region shall have more than five Directors on the Board (not including the President). Each of the following is considered to be a "Geographic Region": Europe; Asia/Australia/Pacific; Latin America/Caribbean islands; Africa; and North America.
- Terms of Reference for the independent review of the Board
- Request for Proposals for the independent review of the Board
- Independent review report (EN; Executive Summary available in AR, FR, EN, ES, RU and ZH)
- Public comments to the independent review report
- Interim Report of the Board review Working Group [EN, PDF, 124K]
- Public comments to the interim Report of the Board review Working Group
- Second interim report of the Board review Working Group (EN, PDF, 133K]
- Public comments to the second interim report of the Board review WG
- Draft final report of the Board review Working Group [EN, PDF, 132K]
- Public comments to the draft final report of the Board review WG