The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is responsible for the coordination of global Internet systems, presented the award at its latest meeting, held in Buenos Aires to mark its 15th anniversary. Ms Cowley was praised for her leadership of Nominet and her extraordinary energy, knowledge and leadership in the domain name community.
âLesleyâs commitment to the multi-stakeholder model of ICANN has no doubt contributed to its success. She has been instrumental in improving the relationship between ICANN and the various Supporting Organisations and Advisory Committees, as well as building tremendous trust with the ccTLD community and helping to create the DNS Women Group,â explained Fadi Chehade, the President and CEO of ICANN.
Accepting the award, Ms Cowley said: âItâs a great honour to receive the very first ICANN award for leadership. I’ve had the opportunity to lead some incredibly professional and dedicated teams, both at Nominet and at ICANN, who are hugely committed to the multi-stakeholder model and to serving the many stakeholders in order to make a positive difference to the Internet. I’d therefore like to dedicate this award to them.â
The new annual award, which acknowledges an individualâs leadership in protecting ICANN’s multi-stakeholder model, is decided unanimously by the ICANN leadership team.
For more information from the ICANN meeting, visit buenosaires48.icann.org.
About Nominet
Domain names are one of the key building blocks of the internet â an essential component of every email address and website. Millions of businesses and consumers now depend on Nominetâs services, which underpin a critical part of the UK internet economy.
Nominet is a private, not-for-profit business, responsible for the smooth and secure running of the .uk internet infrastructure. We have over 2,800 members and are committed to acting in the public interest.
Nominet has also recently been chosen by several brands and communities to launch and manage new top level domains; wales, .cymru, .bbc .bentley, .comcast and .xfinity.
With the proceeds of their successful registry business, Nominet set up and supports the Nominet Trust, an independent charitable foundation focussed on increasing access, safety and education on internet issues.
As part of a commitment to making the internet a more trusted space, Nominet has also developed an information and advice portal – www.knowthenet.org.uk – which helps internet users to get the most of being online by staying safe, legal, and informed.
Follow Nominet on Twitter here, or visit its blog here.
About ICANN
ICANNâs mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer – a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn’t have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internetâs unique identifiers. ICANN doesnât control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesnât deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internetâs naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit: www.icann.org