Kurt Pritz

Country:	USA
Email:	kurt.pritz [at] icann.org
Website:	[pritz-immobilien.at pritz-immobilien.at]
LinkedIn:	[kurt-pritz Kurt Pritz]
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Kurt Pritz is a practicing attorney and the Senior Vice President of Stakeholder Relations at ICANN, where he oversees the growth of ICANN's Multistakeholder Model, as well as ICANN's key stakeholder relationships. He is also overseeing the implementation of the New gTLD Program. His high-profile work includes representing ICANN at judicial and legal hearings in Washington, D.C..

Prior to joining ICANN, Pritz was the Vice President of Production at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he directed the manufacturing and engineering of theme park shows worldwide. He has also worked as a plant manager for the Eaton Corporation.

He holds a B.S. and M.S. in Physics, an M.B.A. and a J.D.

Roles within ICANN

Kurt was appointed as a Vice President of ICANN in September 2003. He was promoted as Senior Vice President for Stakeholder Relations on December 2006. As VP for Stakeholder Relations, Kurt serves as spokesperson of the internet body on different issues particularly the ICANN new gTLD program. He led the coordination of multiple public consultations regarding the program until it was approved and implemented by the ICANN Board. Kurt continues to provide information, answer and discuss issues related to the new gTLD program as they arise.

Senate Hearing on New gTLD

In December, 2011, it was announced that Kurt Pritz would be a witness in a U.S. Senate Hearing on ICANN's new gTLD Program. The appearance is a defensive one for Mr. Pritz, as the hearing was likely scheduled due to the intense lobbying of the Association of National Advertisers, and its anti-TLD off-shoot, CRIDO. He is to be the most-senior ICANN staff member at the December 8th hearing. It was not the first time that he was called to such a hearing, he attended at least one similar House hearing earlier that year.

Video Presentations on New gTLD

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Statement Regarding HostExploit's Accusation Against eNom

In 2010, HostExploit, an anti-malware research group accused eNom, an ICANN accredited registrar for hosting an unusually large number of malicious websites and the preferred registrar for pharmaceutical spammers. The group also accused the company's domain name resellers of violating ICANN rules by allowing registrants to provide inaccurate information in the Whois data base. In response to the issue, Kurt informed the research group that ICANN will investigate the issue. eNom will be asked to provide its response to the accusations and appropriate actions will be done.