[ICANN]<http://www.icann.org/> News Alert https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2014-10-12-en ________________________________ New ICANN Chief Contract Compliance Officer Appointed | Position of Consumer Safeguards Director is Created 12 October 2014 The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced the appointment of Allen Grogan as Chief Contract Compliance Officer, overseeing Contract Compliance and Safeguards. In his new position Grogan will report directly to President and Chief Executive Officer Fadi Chehadé, and he becomes a member of ICANN's Global Leadership Team. He has served as ICANN's Chief Contracting Counsel since May 2013. "Expanding the domain name space as we are doing through the New gTLD Program requires that we continue to align our operational capabilities with the demands imposed by 1300 new Registry Agreements," said ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehadé. "Allen's expertise will add to the excellent operational capabilities of our current team a deeper level of legal experience and analysis." Allen Grogan has negotiated and implemented the new gTLD agreements, and has more than 30 years of experience as a lawyer specializing in technology and the Internet. His experience and knowledge of the contracts related to the New gTLD Program will serve the team well in grappling with compliance issues related to the safeguards and ICANN's Public Interest Commitments. The workload of ICANN's contractual compliance team has increased markedly. From August 2013 to August 2014, 36,732 informal complaints were filed against registrars, while 853 informal complaints were filed against registries. During the same period, 72 formal complaints were filed. Maguy Serad, ICANN's Vice President for Contractual Compliance since 2012, will remain in her role and will report to Grogan. During her tenure, Serad has successfully scaled and expanded the team, making it an effective global department. She has operationalized our compliance capabilities in a way that embraces growth. "Under Maguy's leadership, the Contractual Compliance team has done an outstanding job building a sustainable foundation for the future," said Grogan. "We now want to build on that foundation in the most efficient and comprehensive manner possible." Grogan will also be exploring ways that ICANN can work with others to help safeguard registrants and the global Internet community in ways that may go beyond pure contractual enforcement. A newly created position of Consumer Safeguards Director will also report to Grogan, and will focus specifically on implementation of those ICANN contract safeguards directed toward protecting consumers. "Today, we have 21 staff members, spread over three hub offices. We are now able to offer 24 hour support in nine languages," said Chehadé. "Our next step is to begin building a broader compliance vision that will serve us well in our mission of providing public benefit." To download a high resolution photo of Allen Grogan, go here: https://flic.kr/p/pmw7fa. To download a high resolution photo of Maguy Serad, go here: https://flic.kr/p/pmwVgq.