Nominating Committee

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The ICANN Nominating Committee (NomCom) is in charge of selecting all ICANN officers except the Director and positions selected by other Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees, as set forth by ICANN's Bylaws. The NomCom is designed to operate independently from the Board, the Supporting Organizations, and Advisory Committees, and members of the NomCom are to act purely on behalf of the interests of the global Internet community as a whole. Being a NomCom member is voluntary; there is no monetary compensation for the positions, although members are reimbursed for expenses directly related to their duties.^[1]

The 2012, NomCom received 73 Statements of Interest from candidates all over the world (7 from Africa, 15 from Asia/Australia/Pacific, 12 from Europe, 24 from Latin America/Caribbean, 15 from North America)(14 female and 59 male), during its open nomination period from 23 December 2011 to 16 April 2012.^[2]

Criticisms[edit | edit source]

At the opening ceremony for ICANN 43 in San Jose, Costa Rica, former ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom criticized the ICANN Board and NomCom for their insularity. He said, "ICANN must be able to act for the public good while placing commercial and financial interests in the appropriate context. How can it do this if all top leadership is from the very domain name industry it is supposed to coordinate independently?” He claimed that the NomCom's structure poses a significant threat to ICANN, and stated that the Committee, which appoints half of the Board's voting Directors, should be "free of conflicts," and should appoint candidates that are "financially independent of the domain name industry." He said that ideally, a fully independent and non-conflicted NomCom should be in place before the nominations for the next round of Board appointments begins.^[3]

The industry's response to his speech was mixed. While some chalked it up to the former CEO attempting to shift attention away from his own failures,^[4] others noted that some of his statements were based in truth. Kieren McCarthy pointed out in his response to the speech that some of the Board's seats have been occupied by the same person or rotating sets of people for almost a decade, and that a few had been appointed to the Board from other leadership positions within ICANN. Only five of the 21 Members of the Board, at the time of the speech, had come from outside of ICANN's internal groups, and all five of those delegates had been selected by the NomCom, who themselves were chosen from within ICANN. McCarthy also noted that outside voices are frequently ignored or overruled by the Board and the NomCom, including mandatory independent reviews.^[5]

In October 2013, the ex-chair of NonCom, Rob Hall, also spoke out against the organization, citing an internal culture that promotes friends and colleagues rather than qualified candidates and discards formal advice from the ICANN Board. He also noted that the group attends ICANN Meetings on a purely travel basis and does not hold meetings at the events, and that increased lobbying threatens the organization further. "We are starting to see lobbying inside the NomCom: 'If I support this candidate will you support this one for me'. We are seeing the politics of GNSO play out in the NomCom," Hall said.^[6]

Some solutions Hall suggested implementing include changes in the way Committee members are chosen, removing secrecy, including Board members on the Committee, bringing in professional recruiters, and reforming the selection process, but he cites acknowledgement of the problem within the ICANN community as the prime impetus for change.^[6]

Members[edit | edit source]

The NomCom is made up of:

A non-voting Chair, appointed by the ICANN Board;
A non-voting Associate Chair, who is appointed by the Chair to help carry out the Chair's duties. The Associate Chair may not serve in place of the Chair under any circumstances, and may not otherwise be a member of NomCom.
The immediately previous NomCom Chair, as a non-voting advisor;
A non-voting liaison appointed by the RSSAC;
A non-voting liaison appointed by the SSAC;
A non-voting liaison appointed by the GAC;
Five voting delegates selected by ALAC;
Two voting delegates, one representing small business users and one representing large business users, selected by the Business Users Constituency of the GNSO;
One voting delegate from the gTLD Registry Constituency of the GNSO;
One voting delegate from the gTLD Registrars Constituency of the GNSO;
One voting delegate from the ISP Constituency of the GNSO;
One voting delegate from the Intellectual Property Constituency of the GNSO;
One voting delegate from the consumer and civil society groups, selected by the Non-commercial Users Constituency of the GNSO;
One voting delegate from the ccNSO;
One voting delegate from the Council of the Address Supporting Organization;
One voting delegate from an entity designated by the Board to represent academic organizations;
One voting delegate from the Internet Engineering Task Force;
One voting delegate from the ICANN Technical Liaison Group.

The Chair, Advisor, and Associate Chair serve until the conclusion of the next ICANN annual meeting. Non-voting liaisons serve a term as designated by their appointing entity. Voting delegates serve a one year term, and may serve up to two consecutive terms, after which a two year time period must elapse before they may serve again. ^[7]