The head of the group that oversees all Internet addresses will step down early next year, after a plan to end US oversight is delivered to Congress.
Fadi Chehade sent notice to the board of the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) on Thursday telling them that he would leave after an annual meeting to be held in Morocco in March.
"I think this is the right time and the right thing to do," Chehade said in an exclusive interview with AFP.
"This is not about me. ICANN is much bigger than any one person, we are just folks passing here to keep this important ship strong and moving forward."
Chehade praised an "absolutely superb" team at ICANN that has been moving the organization from a predominately US-based operation to a global institution with offices and relationships spread around the world.
"I have done my bit, and I am sure the next leader will come in and do theirs."
Chehade said he has accepted a job in the private sector, outside of the domain name space which ICANN supervises. He promised to disclose the name of his new employer later this year, saying that his focus now remains on ICANN.
Chehade has agreed to remain on as an advisor to ICANN as long as the board needs him to be.
"I am deeply committed to working with the board, our staff, and our community to continue ICANN`s mission as we still have much to accomplish," Chehade said.
"During the remaining 10 months of my tenure, it`s business-as-usual."
Before joining ICANN as its CEO in late 2012, he served as chief executive of Vocado LLC, a US cloud software firm.
