Ron Andruff

Country:	Canada
Email:	randruff [at] rnapartners.com
Facebook:	[Ron Andruff Ron Andruff]
LinkedIn:	[Ron Andruff Ron Andruff]

Ron Andruff is the founder and former President of Tralliance Corporation, registry operator for .travel. He was the longtime President and CEO of DotSport, LLC., which he represented at various international conferences. The DotSport initiative was created to gather support and apply for the .sport TLD with ICANN; the organization did not end up applying for the string after years of work towards that goal.

He is also the President of RNA Partners, which is an international marketing consultancy.

Mr. Andruff is a member of the Business Constituency at ICANN. He is also known as a former professional hockey player within the NHL.

.Travel

As Founder and former President of the Tralliance Corporation, Andruff has spearheaded the .travel initiative. He founded Tralliance in 2001, and received ICANN approval to run the .travel extension in 2005. The travel industry’s exclusive .travel TLD was confirmed by ICANN under his leadership; after a 30 month long application process. Commenting on the time it took to receive ICANN's approval, Ron said, "We have got to look at the global good of the internet . The body responsible is ICAAN and they really need to know who is applying, whats behind them and what they stand for". Tens of thousands of .travel domain names have been registered, and the initiative is currently supported by more than 140 travel trade associations from 9 industry sectors and more than 73 countries.

Ron Andruff brought his 30+ years of marketing experience to bear in his evangelizing role with Tralliance. Unfortunately, the .travel initiative did not pick up steam and Ron left the project as it came under fire for not thoroughly authenticating its registrants as promised. He characterized his departure as due to a difference in vision with the remaining management team.

In 1998, he made his mark in the travel industry when he co-founded fare 1, Inc., a powerful business-to-trade Internet portal that enables travel agents to quickly search for and provide clients with the lowest available fares. This was later subsumed under his work with Tralliance.

Other Work

A former NGO delegate to the United Nations’ Association for World Education and a distinguished member of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Andruff has participated in numerous foreign affairs briefings and research projects. In 1994, on behalf of the Foreign Policy Association, Andruff undertook an eight-month assessment of emerging electronic media and new technologies. He later authored a widely acclaimed white paper, distributed by the FPA, that provided a comprehensive analysis of the Internet and its widespread impact.

He is a frequent speaker at major travel industry conferences.

Andruff currently serves on the board of directors of the Waterbor Burn & Cancer Foundation in New York City and Just A Drop Charity in London, England.

Hockey

Ron Andruff is a Canadian national, and a former NHL professional player. He was drafted in the first round of the 1973 amateur draft by Winnipeg. Andruff's professional hockey career is notable for the fact that he played on 5 championship teams in 3 different professional leagues during a 9 year career. In addition to his 5 championship wins, he is also a two-time MVP.

Experience

• President, RNA Partners, Inc. - Currently holds this position
• President & CEO, dotSport LLC - January 2008 — Present
• Business Users Constituency Member, ICANN - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - 1999 — Present
• President & CEO, Tralliance Corporation - June 2001 — June 2007

Interests

Travel, kiteboarding, motorcycling, skiing, collecting contemporary art.

Honors

2006 Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales and Marketing awarded by Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI)

External Links

• CircleID Interview, Defends the Expansion of sTLDs