I am also expanding John’s remit as we are creating a new role of an ICANN Complaints Officer. The ICANN Complaints Officer will receive, investigate and respond to complaints about the ICANN organization’s effectiveness, and will be responsible for all complaints systems and mechanisms across the ICANN organization. We will be appointing someone to this role, reporting directly to John. This person will work closely with Ombudsman Herb Wayne.

The Complaints Officer is an important role that will provide a focus point for the community if they have complaints about the ICANN organization. It is an additional way to keep the organization and me accountable to you, the global ICANN community. The purpose of the office is to ensure that complaints and particularly those of community members, about systemic issues or concerns about the organization are heard, reviewed, analyzed and resolved as openly as appropriate. I want to be clear though that this in no way replaces or supersedes the important role of all ICANN’s formal accountability mechanisms.