Kurt Pritz has been appointed to take on direct oversight of the entire New Generic Top-level Domain Program in an interim capacity. He will assume the responsibilities of New gTLD Program Director Michael Salazar, who has resigned, in addition to his responsibilities as Senior Vice President for Stakeholder Relations.
Kurt will remain in this interim role, building on the significant work done to date, until a new Program Director is appointed. He is authorized to bring the full resources available to ICANN to bear on the application evaluation process to improve customer support, applicant communications, security and reporting.
In this new role, Kurt will report to Akram Atallah, in addition to his current responsibilities reporting to the CEO.
Several new tools soon will be provided to help applicants with any issues or questions about the evaluation process.
ICANN is committed to the highest standards of professionalism, reliability and security in the New Generic Top-level Domain Program.