Panel: ICANN and IANA transition: What’s next and what’s at stake?

Hashtag: #igfusa_ICANN

We are now on the last step in transitioning oversight for Internet address and domain name functions from the US Government to global stakeholders, a transition that was anticipated 18 years ago when the US established ICANN. It’s said that “if you love something you have to let it go”, but some in Washington aren’t ready to let go of the unique role for US government in the domain name system.

This panel will summarize the transition plan and new accountability mechanisms for ICANN. Panelists with diverse views will debate whether that plan has adequately addressed concerns and questions from Congress and others. And each will offer views on what Congress and the Administration should do next.

Keynote

Lawrence Strickling

Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and Administrator, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce

Lawrence E. Strickling was sworn in as Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the Department of Commerce in June 2009. In this role, Strickling serves as Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Executive Branch agency that is principally responsible for advising the President on telecommunications and information policy. A technology policy expert with more than two decades of experience in the public and private sectors, Strickling’s focus at NTIA includes leading initiatives to expand broadband Internet access and adoption in America and to ensure that the Internet remains an engine for continued innovation and economic growth.

After joining NTIA, Strickling oversaw the development of an approximately $4 billion Recovery Act broadband grants program and now manages the rigorous oversight of these nationwide broadband projects to ensure they deliver timely and lasting benefits to the American public. Additionally, under Strickling's leadership, NTIA launched America's first public, searchable nationwide map of consumer broadband Internet availability and crafted a ten-year plan that the agency is now implementing to nearly double the amount of commercial spectrum available for wireless broadband, as directed by President Obama. Strickling also oversees NTIA’s efforts on a host of domestic and global Internet policy and administrative issues, including playing a key role in the Commerce Department's Internet Policy Task Force; advocating the U.S. Government’s policy positions abroad; and promoting the stability and security of the Internet’s domain name system through its participation on behalf of the U.S. government in Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) activities.

Moderator

Shane Tews

Consultant, Vrge

Shane Tews is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI’s) Center for Internet, Communications, and Technology Policy, where she works primarily on cybersecurity and Internet governance issues. She is also the chief policy officer at 463 Communications, a firm that advises high-tech organizations on Internet policies.

Tews dealt with Internet security and domain issues as vice president of global policy for Verisign Inc. She is currently vice-chair of the board of directors of the Internet Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote a decentralized global Internet. She began her career on Capitol Hill as a legislative director for a member of Congress and worked in the George H. W. Bush White House, in the Office of Cabinet Affairs and at the US Department of Transportation.

Tews studied communications at Arizona State University and at American University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in general studies with an emphasis on communications and political science.

Panelists

Steve DelBianco

Executive Director, NetChoice

As Executive Director, Steve works with NetChoice members to set and execute the NetChoice agenda.

Steve has become a well-known expert on Internet governance, online consumer protection, and Internet taxation. He’s provided expert testimony in twenty-one Congressional hearings and many more state legislative sessions.

Steve advocates for NetChoice positions at the National Conference of State Legislatures and the American Legislative Exchange Council, where he serves on the Private Enterprise Board. Moreover, Steve regularly enters the lion’s den at the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, where he’s the lone opponent of new tax burdens on Internet commerce.

Steve is frequently quoted on technology issues in the media, including a segment on 60 Minutes exposing barriers to innovation in residential real estate. Steve debated online taxes on CNN Situation Room, CNBC Larry Kudlow, PBS Nightly Business Report, CBS This Morning, and Marketplace Radio.

Gordon Goldstein

Managing Director - Head of External Affairs, SilverLake

Gordon M. Goldstein joined Silver Lake in 2010. He is a Managing Director with responsibility for global external affairs, including domestic and international government relations, public policy, strategic communications and media relations for Silver Lake as well as key public affairs issues and initiatives for the firm’s portfolio companies. Dr. Goldstein represented Silver Lake as a member of the United States delegation to the World Conference on International Telecommunications convened in 2012 in the United Arab Emirates and also served on the American delegation to the United Nations International Telecommunication Union Plenipotentiary Conference in South Korea in 2014. Dr. Goldstein currently serves on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Private Equity Growth Capital Council, an industry trade group based in Washington, D.C.

John Kneuer

President and Founder of JKC Consulting LLC

John Kneuer is the President and Founder of JKC Consulting LLC and a Senior Partner at Fairfax Media Partners, a company organized to source, acquire, and manage transformative businesses in the telecommunications and media industries.

Prior to starting Kneuer LLC, Mr. Kneuer served as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. In this capacity Mr. Kneuer was the principal advisor to the President of the United States on telecommunications policy and the Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (“NTIA”).In addition to representing the Executive Branch in domestic and international telecommunications and information policy activities, NTIA also manages the federal use of spectrum; performs cutting edge telecommunications research and engineering, including resolving technical telecommunications issues for the federal government and private sector; and administers infrastructure and public telecommunications facilities grants.

Prior to his service at NTIA, Mr. Kneuer served as a Senior Associate at the law firm of Piper Rudnick in Washington, D.C., providing regulatory and legislative representation to corporate clients in the telecommunications, defense, and transportation industries. Earlier in his career, Mr. Kneuer served as the Executive Director for Government Relations at the Industrial Telecommunications Association, and prior to that served as an Attorney-Advisor in the Commercial Wireless Division of the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Bureau. Mr. Kneuer received B.A. and J.D. degrees from the Catholic University of America.

Kristian Stout

Associate Director for Innovation Policy at the International Center for Law and Economics (ICLE)

Kristian Stout, Associate Director for Innovation Policy at the International Center for Law and Economics (ICLE), has expertise in technology and innovation policy. As a technology professional and entrepreneur for over ten years, Kristian’s scholarship is influenced by a practical understanding of the challenges facing innovators in the modern economy. Kristian has previously been a lecturer in the computer science department of Rutgers University, is frequently invited to speak on law and technology topics, and has been published in law journals and legal treatises. Kristian is an attorney licensed to practice law in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, is counsel at A&S Technologies, a software services firm, and sits on the board of CodedByKids, a nonprofit organization that provides STEM education to underprivileged children.

Kristian graduated magna cum laude from the Rutgers University School of law, served on the editorial board of the Rutgers Journal of Law and Public Policy, and was additionally awarded a Governor’s Executive Fellowship from the Eagleton Institute of Politics. You may follow him on twitter at @kristianstout

Berin Szoka

President, TechFreedom

Berin Szoka is the President of TechFreedom. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Center for Internet Freedom at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Before joining PFF, he was an Associate in the Communications Practice Group at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he advised clients on regulations affecting the Internet and telecommunications industries. Before joining Latham’s Communications Practice Group, Szoka practiced at Lawler Metzger Milkman & Keeney, LLC, a boutique telecommunications law firm in Washington, and clerked for the Hon. H. Dale Cook, Senior U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma.
Szoka received his Bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University and his juris doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Submissions Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and California (inactive).

He has served on the Steering Committee for the D.C. Bar’s Computer & Telecommunications Law Section, and currently serves on the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC). Szoka has chaired, and currently serves on, the Board of Directors of the Space Frontier Foundation, a non-profit citizens’ advocacy group founded in 1988 and dedicated to advancing commercial opportunity and expansion of human civilization in space.

He blogs for the Technology Liberation Front.

Jonathan Zuck

President, ACT

Jonathan Zuck is a widely known and respected leader in the technology industry. As a former application developer and IT executive, he brings more than fifteen years of experience running small business technology companies to his leadership of ACT | The App Association.

Since becoming President of ACT | The App Association, Mr. Zuck has steered its growth into one of the most influential organizations at the intersection of technology and politics. ACT |The App Association is widely recognized as industry leader representing small business software and technology companies that drive innovation and job creation.

Mr. Zuck is in high demand as a speaker, traveling across the globe to address trade conferences about the potential impact of government regulation on innovation and small businesses. In the U.S., he has testified numerous times before Congress and his guidance is regularly sought by government leaders throughout Washington.