ICANN has appointed John Crain as CTO. Okay, his official job title is more of a mouthful:
ICANN Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
As far as I can tell he’s been filling the role on an interim basis since the departure of David Conrad last year.
For the last couple of years Crain was ICANN’s Chief Security, Stability, and Resiliency Officer (CSSRO). He’s been with ICANN since 2001 which must make him one of ICANN’s earliest hires and longest standing employees.
His new role is pretty broad and gives him oversight on pretty much all things technical.
Here’s the official announcement:
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) organization (org) today announced that its Chief Security, Stability, and Resiliency Officer (CSSRO) John Crain has been appointed ICANN Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. He now reports to Göran Marby, ICANN President and Chief Executive Officer. Crain, who will lead the org’s Identifier Research, Operations, and Security (IROS) team, first joined ICANN in 2001. In his most recent position as CSSRO, Crain was responsible for establishing strategy, planning, and security for the org’s SSR-related programs and he represents ICANN in operational and technical dialogues and forums to ensure the community’s engagement with these programs. “I’m very pleased to make this announcement. John has been instrumental in protecting the security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet for the users of the world during a time of rapid expansion and evolution,” said Marby. “His leadership, keen insight, and outstanding contributions have made him a well-respected member of the ICANN community and a trusted member of the security community. He is the right person to lead our efforts to improve our knowledge about the identifiers ICANN helps coordinate, to improve the technical operation of the Internet's system of unique identifiers, and to evolve and future-proof our technological stature.” In his new role, Crain takes on the added responsibility of leading ICANN org’s technical research efforts and will oversee the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions. Crain succeeds David Conrad, who left the org in October 2021. Prior to joining ICANN org, Crain was a member of the executive management team at the RIPE NCC in Amsterdam. Crain is based out of ICANN org’s Los Angeles office.
Best of luck to John in his new role!
