Karla Valente

Karla Valente joined the gTLD Registry team in September 2007 as the gTLD Program Director. She is responsible for managing the implementation of the New gTLD Program.

She has been in the TLD industry since 1999. She has developed and managed over 160 worldwide strategic partnerships and devised strategies to Fortune 500 clients on global brand protection including domain name registrations and sunrises, local presence, trademark registrations, recoveries and UDRP.

She most recently served as Senior Product Manager/Senior Registry Relations at VeriSign. In this role, Karla was responsible for developing, deploying and managing TLD products and partnerships for the Digital Brand Management Services Group. Prior to joining VeriSign, Karla was Director of Global Service Development of 1GlobalPlace, Inc. - a firm that was subsequently acquired by VeriSign. As the international operations point-of-contact, Karla developed and managed the company's global TLD service portfolio, structured and managed all registrar operations and accreditations. She also developed the company’s strategic international infrastructure and operations in over 20 countries. Additionally, she served as in-house co-counsel for international legal IP issues and supported the company's acquisition process and transition of intellectual property assets. Before working at the TLD industry, Karla has helped companies with international expansion programs, contracts and has provided cross cultural training.

Karla earned her MA in International Relations and International Public Law from the University of Amsterdam and has a Bachelor of Law (JD) from Brazil. She speaks several languages.

E-mail: karla.valente@icann.org