ICANN released its “compensation practices” today (pdf file) and for an organization that is “non-profit” there is some serious money being made by the insiders.
According to the document, CEO Rod Beckstrom entered in to a three year employment agreement effective 1 July 2009 with a base salary of US$750,000 per year.
Right.
3 years @ $750K per Guaranteed.
In the height of the recession when over 10% of the population is unemployed, the leader of the non-profit monopoly got a guarantee of over $2.2 Million dollars over the next three years to head up the non-profit corporation known as ICANN.
But wait there’s more.
Mr. Beckstrom is also given an “additional at risk compensation” of up to US$195,000 per year.
So lets add $600K to the equation.
Now we are up to $2.8 Million dollars for 3 years, which over $2.2 of which is guaranteed.
But wait, there’s more.
Mr. Beckstrom also gets coverage “under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement.”
Nice.
Very Nice.
However Mr. Beckstrom is not alone.
Other higher up in ICANN are banking as well.
The Chief Operating Officer Mr. Doug Brent has a base salary of US$270,000 per year, PLUS a housing allowance of $24,000 per year AND an additional “at risk compensation” of up to 48% of base, so lets call it $540K per year PLUS housing, PLUS standard coverage under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan.
The General Counsel and Secretary Mr. John Jeffrey compensation consists of a base salary of US$230,000 per year, PLUS an additional “at risk compensation” of up to 30 % of base pay per year, and standard coverage under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan.
Senior Vice President, Services Mr. Kurt Pritz compensation consists of a base salary of US$245,000 per year, additional “at risk compensation” of up to 30% of base pay per year, and standard coverage under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement.
The Chief Financial Officer Mr. Kevin Wilson’s compensation consists of a base salary of $170,000 per year, additional “at risk compensation” of up to 20% of base pay per year, and standard coverage under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan.
Ok so you might be asking what is this “at risk bonus compensation program” everyone seems to be in on.
The program is described by ICANN as one designed “to provide incentives to staff for the accomplishment of specific goals and objectives throughout the year that have been identified as being of significant importance or adding value to the overall ICANN effort.”
“”Most staff members participate in the at risk compensation program. Participation, and level of participation, are determined by senior management or the Board of Directors as appropriate.”
So as ICANN goals of additional gTLD’s for example are reached, executives receive additional compensation, as detailed above of up to 50% more than their base salary.
Nice.
Very Nice.
Recession?
Not at ICANN.
By comparison
The President of the United States makes $400K.
The Secretarial General of the UN which is the highest paid person at the UN makes $227K.
Add another $400K+ per year for Rod Beckstrom’s new digs in Palo Alto:
http://forum.icann.org/lists/3gtld-guide/msg00098.html
(probably a lot more when you consider extra staff for them)
ICANN is such a farce. They are only there to line their pockets. They could care less about the people they represent and they send a beautiful spokes model to the conferences in hopes we’ll forget what we were angry about. They are going to just keep churning out the tlds because without them they can’t keep the salaries up.
You just ruined my top ramen dinner!!!
Thanks a lot!!
I made $4.26 at DotWeekly yesterday… well, that is before taxes! 🙂
Michael,
You have to understand, when someone works for a not-for-profit organization they are giving up making a nice salary in the corporate world so they can help their fellow man.
(sarcasm)
Ironically, Beckman is very wealthy from selling a number of start-up companies. I’m surprised he takes any salary.
Lets not forget their expense account for attending Icann meetings.
I’m sure they travel first class, stay at the best hotels, eat at the best restaurants all at our expense.
I guess that is why Icann’s budget has gone up drastically over the past couple years.
And, they don’t want to have any oversight control by the U.S. gov’t?
They got all this money… Gotta spend it one way or another 😉
If ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom went on Survivor, and won the $1 million, it would be a pay cut! (considering the value of the bonus and the benefits)
It is, in fact, another installment in quite another American tradition: the exploitation of frustrated, desperate, and susceptible people by monied interests and profiteers.
Does anyone see a conflict of interest that they set a goal (new gTLDs) and will receive large compensation for the acheivement of that goal, regardless of whether it’s right or not for the industry?
No wonder they don’t listen to domain owners.
“Ok so you might be asking what is this “at risk bonus compensation program” everyone seems to be in on.”
“The program is described by ICANN as one designed “to provide incentives to staff for the accomplishment of specific goals and objectives throughout the year that have been identified as being of significant importance or adding value to the overall ICANN effort.”
LMAO, A Non Profit organisation paying themselves all that money and they still feel they “NEED AN EXTRA INCENTIVE” to work hard !
What a total rip off, no wonder they are in such a hurry to push all these new gTLD’s through at breakneck speed regardless of any problems it may cause business owners……$$$$$$$$$$
Polite version > The words “feathering their own nests” springs to mind!
Hmmm, maybe their roll models are UK Bankers & Politicians perhaps ?
they have to pay high salaries, fly first class and stay in the best hotels, otherwise they would make a profit and they are a not for profit organization, thus they do their best to maintain the status.
On a more serious note, why should the CEO work for less. He himself is not a charity and for sure he can get a job in related industries paying at least the same amount his is making now. I am not concerned about their salaries but the money wasted on the ICANN meetings…
I agree with Snicksnack on the last part there.NON PROFIT DOES NOT EQUIAL CHARITY and the Ceo’s of many non profits and charities make big money the people who are the CEO for United Way, Red Cross, American Heart Association etc… do not work for peanuts. They look at the position of CEO,as CEO, whether it is a non profit company, paper company, software company etc…
Now the second part Michael you brought up is the fuel for outrage. Incentive ? No, that’s where the part of being outragesous and where being a non profit should come into everything.
Maybe this will give groups like CADNA more fuel. They oppose the new Gtlds and now they can show that there are financial incentives to push these through.
Hi Michael,
I just want to know where can I fill out an application???
I’ll fill out one for Judith also, we can work together and get things done!
I was with Beckstrom 2 weeks ago in Washington.
Very sharp guy.
Great personality.
He loves his job.
I bet he would pay Icann to be the CEO.
http://beckstrom.com/Bio
Their parents must be very proud of them…LOL
Act Now
If I had a job I made a $1M++++ a year doing, I would love it too
Barbara
Get in line.
Hell I want that gig too
ICANN is unfortunately very effective in having an “overly buddy-buddy” relationship with Verisign and has been allowing (actually enabling)them to persist with their monopolistic & self serving pricing practices on the base prices of domain registration & renewal fees. Although this is apparently legal currently, it should Not be… swift and serious anti-trust legistation is very much warranted here.
Domain space will change continuously after ICANN starts allocating new TLDs, even though there will hardly be any effect on the dominance of .com extension.
@ ActNow – interesting Bio
“Rod co-authored four books including:
The Chocolate Starfish and the Domainer: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, a best-selling model for analyzing organizations, leadership styles, and competitive strategy.”
I wonder if all ICANN’s strategy comes straight from his book? Looks like it.
“The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations.”
Chapter 1) MONEY IS KING – It’s good to be King !
Chapter 2) Charity begins at home…and don’t you forget it.
Chapter 3) How to Ignore other peoples opinions and stick to your own agenda…because you DO know better!
Chapter 4) Get the Best Bang for your Buck – How to Hire people who tell you exactly what you want them to say.
Chapter 5) Compensate said people tons of dosh to keep them sweet (and fully compliant)
Chapter 6) Minimise company profits by increasing your expenses.
Chapter 7) How to Maximize your returns with risk bonus compensation.
…I hate to imagine what’s in the rest of it but I’m sure we will find out soon enough !
Hmmm…Non Profit organization… my starfish !
People that know my opinion, know that I’m the last person
that is going to defend Beckstrom and Icann’s actions.
Gazzip, very creative chapter titles.
Don’t give Beckstrom any ideas for his next book.
Michael, I would work for 1/3 of what Beckstrom is making.
🙂
Just in case people don’t realize it, Icann “bought” Beckstrom
for his influence in Washington. It would cost Icann 10-20 times
more in lobbying fees than what Beckstrom is making.
He is part of the Washington inner circle.
Why is Beckstrom working cheap?
How many people can say they totally control the internet?
In 10 yrs, the CEO of Icann will have the same prestige as the
president of the United States.
ActNow: Beckstrom has been on the payroll for more than 7 months. Name a single achievement he can be proud of, that has earned him his salary. 🙂 You said above “I bet he would pay ICANN to be the CEO” — I’d be happy to take the other side of that bet. 🙂 I’m sure a lot of people would pay ICANN to be the CEO, starting from VeriSign….that’s not a sign of “quality” or serving the public interest.
George,
I did not want DofC to loosen the oversight responsibility
over Icann.
But, I’m sure Beckstrom’s influence behind the scene helped
get it done last September.
Don’t you think he would pay to have the job if he knew one day
he would be the king of the internet working out of Switzerland?
Autonomous of any government control or accountability.
I’m sure they would not admit it but I believe Icann wants to be
a global virtual government.
In years past, I would say Verisign is pulling the strings.
But, I speculate that Beckstrom will use Verisign until it is
better for Icann to take the power back.
And, Beckstrom is strong enough to pull this off.
Real public service involves *sacrificing* self-interest, putting the needs of the public ahead of personal ambition. That’s the exact *opposite* of everything going on at ICANN.
Tru Dat George !!!
ICANNT seems to put more focus in to having their meetings/conferences in exotic and/or expensive locations….just look at the history of their gigs.
“Real public service involves *sacrificing* self-interest, putting the needs of the public ahead of personal ambition. That’s the exact *opposite* of everything going on at ICANN.”
Spot on George. ICANN do appear to have a one track mind…MONEY. What’s their “non-profit” corporate motto?
ICANN so I will …and you can take that to the Bank.
Apparently Kenya is one of the most corrupt nations in the world — perfect spot for an ICANN meeting, where the ICANN insiders will be teaching Ph.D.-level courses. 🙂 They’ll be cutting deals that would make the locals blush.
On the menu for new TLDs — .bribe .graft .payola .kickback .tip and .perks 🙂
DomainNameWire just posted a thread about personal security at the Kenya meeting.
A few of us have commented
“what is Icann thinking when they schedule these meetings?”
They dodged the bullet in Mexico City and Seoul.
Their luck is going to run out soon.
It’s not that unusual for nonprofit organizations to pay such grossly excessive salaries and benefits to their upper management and some of the staff. It happens most all the time at many non-profits.
Sometimes I see a domainer say a domain name which is a non-profit type of .org for example, saying it could not possibly sell for much money because nonprofits spend all their money on their non-profit activities with little money in the budget for anything else. That is far from true.
These kind of non-profit issues are a reason I do not contributeto to charities, no matter how good they seem.
David
“”It’s not that unusual for nonprofit organizations to pay such grossly excessive salaries and benefits to their upper management””
Including bonuses of up to 50% of base salary?
Thanks for pointing that out. My bad. I intended to say generally speaking the non-profits do that kind of thing but in the case of ICANN I am sure it’s much more of an extreme case than many other non-profits, especially when you take into consideration ICANN is likely smaller vs the major charitavle organizations.
Where does $56,000,000 in .ORG fees go each year ?
8,000,000 .ORG domains @ $6 each
ISOC CEO $500,000 ?
PIR CEO $500,000 ?
Afilias Finances ???
ICANN is spending too much fun money on their travel boondaggles …a nd certainly, their allowance and enabling of Verisign’s monopolistic domain pricing practices is unconscionable !
“enabling of Verisign’s monopolistic domain pricing practices”
====
In the Grip of the New Monopolists
://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704635704575604993311538482.html
“Today’s Internet borders will probably change eventually, especially as new markets appear. But it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that we are living in an age of large information monopolies. Could it be that the free market on the Internet actually tends toward monopolies? Could it even be that demand, of all things, is actually winnowing the online free market—that Americans, so diverse and individualistic, actually love these monopolies?”
://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704635704575604993311538482.html#ixzz15F3jsUqW
“It was we, collectively, who made Google and Facebook dominant.”
://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704635704575604993311538482.html