Rod Beckstrom was confirmed on Friday as the head of ICANN at the board meeting that concluded the week-long meeting. In his acceptance speech thanking the board for their appointment, Beckstrom described the organisation as “beautifully complex”, while he also described the position as CEO and president as “massively complex”.”Rod Beckstrom has exactly the sort of strong personal and technical background that ICANN needs, as we enter a period of unprecedented growth and change for the Internet,” said ICANN’s Board Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush, in announcing the appointment. “In addition to his cyber security expertise, he’s been a successful CEO of a global enterprise, done NGO work and volunteer work and a bestselling author. It’s an extreme understatement to say we are enthused.””The importance of the internet as a free flowing source of information is being underscored right now by the events in Iran,” said Beckstrom. “It shows the power of human expression through a free and open Net.”Beckstrom said he was really looking forward to the challenge and sees similarities to his role when he started the Peace Network, also a bottom up organisation, that grew from two to eventually over 1,000 people.Commenting on the appointment, Vint Cerf, father of the internet, said “Rod Beckstrom is strikingly well-prepared to undertake a new role as CEO of ICANN. His experience in industry and government equip him for this global and very challenging job.”Prior to this appointment, Beckstrom was the first director at the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity Center, which was formed in 2008, having resigned over battles over money and clashes over whether the National Security Agency should control Internet-security efforts, reports Associated Press.Other activities Beckstrom has been an active participant in the non-profit arena are serving on the board of trustees of the Environmental Defense Fund and the Jamii Bora Trust, a micro-lending group based in Nairobi, Kenya with more than 210,000 members.A co-author of four books, Beckstrom’s most recent, The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, details how diverse and untraditional organizations, can become virtually self-perpetuating, regardless of the status of their respective leadership.”The Internet has changed the way the world communicates and conducts commerce,” said Beckstrom. “And in no small way, this multi-stakeholder, bottom-up organization has been and will continue to be at the core of the Internet’s on-going evolution. Quite simply, the proof that ICANN works, is that the Internet works.”An interview with Rod Beckstrom by Brian Krebs of the Washington Post is available from:
voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/06/ex-dhs_cyber_chief_tapped_as_p.html