Dear ICANN Community Members, I am pleased to announce that our VP of Policy, Denise Michel, has accepted the new position of Advisor to the CEO and we have recruited David Olive to serve as ICANN’s Vice President of Policy Development. Denise's new responsibility will draw on her outstanding work at ICANN over the last decade, which included helping to create what is now our global At-Large community, building an excellent ICANN Policy Staff, launching ICANN's independent reviews and restructuring initiatives, and personally shepherding some of ICANN's most important policy initiatives. Denise will help lay the ground work for ICANN's new accountability and transparency initiatives and provide Rod with strategic advice. She will be working, in part, out of ICANN's Palo Alto office. I am really excited to be adding David Olive to our team. He adds both significant strength to ICANN’s management team and senior presence in Washington DC. David joins ICANN from Fujitsu, where he had a successful twenty year career, and was General Manager and Chief Corporate Representative of Fujitsu’s D.C. Office. He advised Fujitsu on business planning, corporate and business development, and public policy issues affecting information technology, the Internet, electronic commerce, electronic government, telecommunications, and science and technology. In addition to his strong track record at Fujitsu, David has been an active participant in various technology-centric organizations, including as a member of the Commercial Board of Directors of TechAmerica, and as a member on the Board of Directors of the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) in Washington, D.C. He has also worked with many global business groups, including the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC), the U.S.-Japan Business Council, and the International Chamber of Commerce. David has been the Public Policy Chairman for WITSA, a consortium of over 70 information technology industry associations from economies around the world. David served as a Fujitsu representative to an OECD group and to the U.S. State Department‘s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy. David attended undergraduate studies at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and Princeton University. David will report directly to me and join effective 15 February. I am sure you all will join me in congratulating Denise on her new role, and welcoming David to the ICANN team! Best, Doug -- Doug Brent Chief Operating Officer ICANN Voice: +1 310.301.3871 Mobile: +1 650.996.4447 Fax: +1 310.823.8649