Blacknight’s Michele Neylon Reelected to Chair of the Registrar Stakeholder Group
Neylon seeks to raise awareness about pressing issues within the registrar community
Michele Neylon, CEO of Blacknight, Ireland’s leading domain registrar and hosting company has been reelected for a third and final term as Chair of the Registrar Stakeholder Group of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
The Registrar Stakeholder Group (RSG) is one of several Stakeholder Groups within the ICANN community and is the representative body of domain name registrars. It is a diverse and active group that works to ensure the interests of Registrars and their customers are effectively advanced.
The chair, in consultation with the executive committee and members, organizes the work of the Stakeholder Group and conducts RrSG meetings. The chair often confers with others in the ICANN community on Registrar-related policy and business issues, and is the primary point of contact between the RrSG and ICANN staff. Neylon has previously served as the Secretary to the RrSG and is the only European member of the executive committee.
This is Neylon’s third and final year as the Chair of the group and he feels that now, more than ever it is important for the registrar community to come together to address the issues that the group will face in the coming year. “Chairing the registrar stakeholder group is a tremendous amount of work but a very important job,” Neylon states. “Registrars are currently facing a lot of potential change regarding issues such as WHOIS privacy, accreditation agreements, compliance and new TLD adoption. As these are issues that affect the entire registrar business, it is important that we are strongly represented and are included in every step of the decision making processes at every level.”
Neylon plans to spend his term raising awareness of the importance of addressing registrar issues in the broader community. Neylon continues: “As the group’s only European executive member and the CEO of Ireland’s leading domain registrar and hosting company, I have a broad perspective on issues that affect the global registrar community. We must find solutions that work for registrars of all sizes and in all regions.”
Since the formation of ICANN, the Registrar Stakeholder Group has been the voice and advocacy organization for Registrars and their customers and has played a very active role in policy development and other ICANN processes.
The other members of the executive committee are: Vice Chair Jennifer Standiford (Web.com), Treasurer Paul Goldstone (DomainIT), and Secretary Darcy Southwell (Endurance International Group) .
For more information on the ICANN Registrar Stakeholder Group, please visit http://www.icannregistrars.org/about/
To learn more about Michele Neylon and Blacknight please visit http://www.blacknight.com
About Blacknight
Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com/) are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and co-location as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting services and domain name registration services to business globally. IP transit services and other solutions for more demanding business and academic customers are offered a la carte. Fibre broadband services for both business and domestic users are also available throughout most of Ireland.