Rod Beckstrom in the opening ceremony at the ICANN conference this morning gave what I guess would be fair to call his farewell address as CEO of ICANN.
In pointing out the accomplishments of ICANN while Mr. Beckstrom has been CEO he said:
“When I came, ICANN had $57 million of funds under management.
Today, $444 million.
“We have seen real growth.”
Now last time I looked ICANN was a non-profit corporation whose mission was not to grow “funds under management”, but to serve the public interest.
The fact that he would list the financial growth of ICANN as an accomplishment during his reign was pretty shocking and IMHO unwise, especially considering the fact that $350 Million of the $444 Million came from application fees for new gTLD’s which are suppose to be cost recovery, meaning that ICANN is suppose to have to spend that $350 Million to process the applications.
I’ll try to get a full transcript of Mr. Beckstrom’s farewell address sometime today.
“Now last time I looked ICANN was a non-profit corporation whose mission was not to grow “funds under management”, but to serve the public interest.”
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YES!!! Correct you are…but that is NOT in the interest of THE.ECO.SYSTEM
The ISOC CEO banks over $600,000 a year doing largely nothing with a Staff to rival ICANN, which out-sources all “tasks” – like making cheese trays
You can summarize Vinton Cerf and Steve Crocker’s ECO.System on a Spread-Sheet and Follow the Money – the rest is a distraction
What ICANN needs 444M for?? Just for the pleasure of having it???
@ M.H.B.
” The fact that he would list the financial growth of ICANN as an accomplishment during his reign was pretty shocking and IMHO unwise, especially considering the fact that $350 Million of the $444 Million came from application fees for new gTLD’s which are suppose to be cost recovery, meaning that ICANN is suppose to have to spend that $350 Million to process the applications.”
Briiliant !
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
so, why not reduce ICANN fees ? Obviously they are making profit evenso they spent lots of money on first class flights and hotels.
It is not their missions statement to make money for ICANN, otherwise make an IPO.
what a frekin discgrace, they were formed for things like help stopping the illegal hoarding of client domains by NSI and other registrars (allow unpaid to delete/they dont have rights to auction them) and other useful purposes, no deal though, all a financial scam instead, if you dont fight you are asking for it
“so, why not reduce ICANN fees ? ”
If the fees are reduced, how would you pay the insiders $600,000+ Non.Profit salaries ? and also fly them around (first class) to all those 5+ star resorts ?
ICANN is only a small part of the story. Look at .ORG and ISOC. Where does $56,000,000 per year go ? to support Client-Server DNS and Whois ?
PIR collects the money and passes $34,000,000 to ISOC ? for doing what ?
@MHB,
Please ask the new CEO about what he thinks about the Verisign dot-COM monopoly and price increases.
Is he going to do something about it?
Thanks.
@ Mike Mann
You own some 300k domains, may e you should ask new CEO about Verisign monopoly and price increases.
You never know, may be the new CEO can help us all out for the greater good of the public (interest)?
Rod = Tool
“Please ask the new CEO about what he thinks about the Verisign dot-COM monopoly and price increases.”
@ RK
The only ones who are concerned about price increases and are impacted by them are domainers, and I don’t believe that ICANN is necessarily that much concerned about what happens to domainers.
I predict that in the near future .com prices might increase by several folds. If .com registrations drop to half or third of what they are now because of all theses new gTLDs that are coming out soon then .com prices will most likely be adjusted accordingly to compensate for the reduction on the number of registrations.
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“Under Management” the NEW Legal Spin
Clever – ICANN appears to now be using “Under Management” as their NEW Legal Spin – Loop-Hole – That may allow them to dodge the scrutiny of **Revenue to their Non-Profit**
ICANN has claimed in various court cases that they do not “engage in commerce” or “sell anything” – but they clearly Sell Franchises right under the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s noses – Someone looks the other way
“I don’t believe that ICANN is necessarily that much concerned about what happens to domainers”
The Card.Carrying Eco.System Members despise Domainers… but they are happy to enact domain taxes, collect them, and use those taxes to travel the world
He’s showing off peacock feathers about enlarging the ICANN bureaucracy ? What a total waste his tenure was at ICANN.
If he had done his job right he would have been bragging about downsizing ICANN or spending less and including the public, which he never did.
I will miss the Beckstrom – Kirikos slapfests. The new CEO looks too nice to be b*tchslapped.
Good post. On the money
how much due to new TLDs applications?
Beckstrom: “I Took ICANN From $57 Million Under Management To $444 Million”
That is some achievement for a non-profit corporation, cough cough wink wink say no more 🙂
Thank God there is no profit
Just watched the video. First 17 minutes was Beckstrom tooting his own horn. But I think the reference to the $$ under management was mostly showing how large the group has become and the complexity that adds.
Pay no taxes.
Pay no dividends.
Pay yourselves large salaries.
Pay little attention to reporting what your corporation actually does, while at the same time collecting millions, and now hundreds of millions.
This is what is know as a “not-for-profit” corporation.
How much did Beckstrom earn while as ICANN?
Someone is definitely profiting. It’s just not you, as a shareholder or as a fellow citizen.
It would be entertaining to see an accounting of how this 300 million will be spent.
Keep in mind they are charging all these fees for something that costs nothing to create (domain names) and under some pseudo-authority (they certainly do not “own” the strings they are selling… nor do they have any commercial rights to them, as do trademark registrants they are “selling” to).
We’re past the idea of “alternate roots”. Now what we need are “alternate registries”. Outside the corrupt ICANN system.
A
Beckstrom made just under a million for the tax year ending June 2011.
“It would be entertaining to see an accounting of how this 300 million will be spent”
BREAKING: The $350,000,000 ICANN funds “Under Management” are expected to be tied up by U.S. Federal Court CLASS ACTION lawsuits challenging ICANN Policies and the ORIGIN of THOSE FUNDS !!!
ICANN is expected to be “Appointed by the Courts” to be the Trustee of those “Funds Under Management” { ICANN will claim they did nothing wrong – pay no attention to the ICANN policies like UDRP or the Registrar-Reseller shell games }
SUMMARY: People who paid money into the $350M now “Under Management” and soon to be locked up by the Courts will be **investigated** by the ICANN self-appointed law-enforcement officials. The self-created ICANN Kangaroo Court System will then be able to pay money out of those “Funds Under Management” to harmed parties.
Anyone that did not take advantage of the 100% Refund will be .SOL and not .LOL
“what a frekin discgrace, they were formed for things like help stopping the illegal hoarding of client domains by NSI and other registrars (allow unpaid to delete/they dont have rights to auction them)”
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ICANN always “positions themselves” as White Hats that have done nothing wrong
ICANN is like the .CASINO – they are not responsible for the gamblers they attract
IF the gamblers (Registrars, Resellers, domainers) “CHEAT” then ICANN has to investigate and get to the bottom of it. IF the gamblers steal from innocent people then the ICANN Police have to investigate and pay money to the harmed.
So – ICANN has put a Police Force in place – with Investigators scouring Applicant’s details to find out where the $350,000,000 came from. The Applicants must have been cheating to have all that money – right ? 🙂
NOW – ICANN has the money to use as they please – Thanks for playing