Chehadé Announces Another Post-ICANN Gig With World Economic Forum

ICANN CEO and President Fadi Chehadé has announced another job for when he leaves ICANN on 12 March 2016. The latest appointment is with the World Economic Forum, the international organisation for public-private cooperation, who he will join as senior advisor to the Executive Chairman.This comes on top of a role Chehadé announced in August 2015 he will be taking up when he leaves ICANN as Senior Advisor on Digital Strategy for ABRY Partners, a Boston-based private equity investment firm. In this role, Chehadé said he will provide guidance to ABRY’s partners and their companies’ leaders on digital strategy. At the time he said he expected to add other roles to his portfolio and that he would update as appropriate. It was also reported in The Register in December that Chehadé will front “a new Chinese government initiative to expand its view of how the internet should be run.””I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the World Economic Forum’s work, advising the Global Challenge Initiative on the Future of the Internet,” said Chehadé. “I am deeply committed to doing everything I can to help ensure a trusted digital world, advancing global economic development and social progress for all. The Forum is uniquely positioned as an enabling platform to coalesce public, private and civic leaders and experts to form networks addressing the many economic and societal issues requiring global cooperation.””The Internet is a catalyst for the deep transformation of the global economy and society,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum. “The Forum’s work in this area will greatly benefit from Fadi Chehadé’s vision, counsel and drive in its efforts to advance progress through multistakeholder cooperation on some of the practical economic, social and security issues facing the international community.”The Future of the Internet Initiative seeks to help shape the Internet as the trusted driver of human progress, safeguarding its open, globally integrated, highly distributed, and multistakeholder nature. Focused on enabling networks of multistakeholder cooperation, it will actively address economic and societal topics including digital trade, cybercrime and policies facilitating access for all.Recruiting a replacement for Chehadé is still underway. In a post published on the ICANN blog on 18 January, ICANN’s President Dr Steve Crocker said ICANN’s “search for the next CEO is proceeding well and though I cannot say much more now, I look forward to giving you a fuller update just as soon as I can.”