Internet Governance Expert to Advise ICANN on Global Strategy
29-Aug-2013
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LOS ANGELES, Ca - Theresa Swinehart, a leading expert on international Internet governance and policy and a major force in ICANN's historical evolution, has been named Senior Advisor to the President on Global Strategy, a press release by the Corporation stated.
Most recently, Swinehart served as the Executive Director of Global Internet Policy for Verizon Communications, where she specialized in emerging issues and stakeholder and policy leader engagement.
"As ICANN expands its global presence, it is critical that we bring on board someone who is capable of uniting the international community in pursuit of strategic matters," said Fadi Chehadé, President and CEO. "Theresa played an important role in ICANN's history and her institutional knowledge of the past will serve us well as we look to the future."
Swinehart previously served as ICANN's Vice President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, leading an international team dedicated to expanding the organization's outreach around the world. She was instrumental in the development of ICANN, and represented the organization's global presence in front of a wide and ranging audience, from technical organizations to the business community and beyond.
In her new role Swinehart will oversee a strategy team that has overarching responsibility for a range of strategic initiatives including ICANN's recently announced Strategy Panels (http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-15jul13-en.htm), and the organization's five-year strategic plan.
"As global Internet usage grows, all the issues surrounding ICANN's strategy and role become all the more important," said Swinehart. "I'm excited about helping ICANN form a future vision consistent with its mission and the needs of the global community."
Swinehart assumes her new position on September 16.
She obtained her law degree from American University's Washington College of Law. Swinehart also holds a postgraduate degree in International Studies from the University of Vienna and a bachelor's degree in International Relations from the University of California, Davis.
ICANN's mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet's unique identifiers. ICANN doesn't control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn't deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet's naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit: http://www.icann.org