Thomas Embrescia

Country:	USA
Email:	tom (at) goto.jobs
Website:	[www.goto.jobs www.goto.jobs]
LinkedIn:	[Tom Embrescia Thomas Embrescia]

Thomas “Tom” Embrescia is Chairman and CEO of Employ Media, the registry operator of .jobs sponsored top level domain name (sTLD). He is also the Chairman of Second Generation Ltd. and Operating Partner at Resilience Capital Partners. Mr. Embrescia is a broadcast industry veteran. He owns and manages more than 50 radio and television properties. He serves as one of the Board of Directors of ACME Communications and a partner in Media One Group.

Mr. Embrescia holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Advertising fro from Bowling Green State University in 1968.

ICANN Involvement

As Chairman and CEO of Employ Media, Embrecia represents the company during ICANN activities and meetings such as the ICANN 32nd International Public Meeting in Paris.

Participation during the New gTLD Congress Hearing

He testified during the hearing conducted by both the United States House Sub-committee on Communications and Technology regarding ICANN’s new gTLD expansion program. In his testimony, he told the lawmakers that the private sector has a strong demand for new TLDs and emphasized that the program promotes competition, which “leads to innovation, drives business, creates jobs and provides opportunities.” He strongly encouraged the Congress to support the program. His testimony was surprising to the internet community since Employ Media and ICANN are facing arbitration proceedings in connection with ICANN's allegations that the company breached its .jobs Registry Agreement.

Employ Media vs. ICANN (Arbitration)

.Jobs was one of the TLDs approved by ICANN in 2004. The TLD was launched in 2005 and it was dedicated to serve the international human resources community.On February 27, 2011, ICANN sent a notice of breach to the registry agreement to Employ Media citing that the company's "universe.jobs program appears to be a job board that advertises job openings for multiple employers," which is inconsistent with the .jobs charter. ICANN also observed that the company and the Society of Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) allowed the Direct Employers Association to compete with other internet job boards. According to ICANN, Employ Media failed to operate and manage the .jobs domain name space under the spirit and intent of its charter and directed the company to "implement restricted registration policies" that is consistent with the purposes stated in .jobs TLD and to can registrations and/or disavow themselves from benefits of any registrations that are owned by related parties." ICANN threatened to terminate the registry agreement if the company fails to comply within 30 days. In response, Employ Media sent a letter to ICANN and expressed disappointment for "publicly defaming the company and its contractual partners, which caused irreparable harm." In addition, the company invoked the the cooperative engagement provision of its registry agreement to resolve the issue. On May 2011, Embrescia announced that Employ Media filed a request for arbitration with the ICC International Court of Arbitration citing that the internet governing body made "improper allegations and unwarranted threat." Embrescia explained, “This filing was necessary to ward off ICANN’s unwarranted and unprecedented threat of contract termination. That action created immediate uncertainty about the .JOBS TLD on the Internet and caused significant duress on our business.” . On July, 2011, ICANN responded to the request of arbitration and strongly defended its position that the notice of breach of registry agreement issued to Employ Media is appropriate. ICANN also requested the arbitration panel to deny all the reliefs sought by the company and the recovery of all costs including reasonable attorneys fees incurred in defending the case.