updated 3 September 2010
I am Vice President of Policy and Compliance for VeriSign, Inc. VeriSign is the registry operator for the .com, .net and .name gTLDs and also provides backend registry services in support of Employ Media for the .jobs gTLD. VeriSign is also the registry operator for two ccTLDs, .cc for the Cocos and Keelings Islands and .tv for Tuvalu.
As an employee who supports VeriSign’s naming services business, I do often have access to Registry Sensitive information including information about registrars. With regard to both our gTLD and ccTLD registration services businesses as well as other VeriSign businesses, our customers and business associates have interests in various ICANN policy issues and may be members of other GNSO constituencies and/or supporting organizations.
In addition to registry agreements with ICANN for .com, .net, and .name VeriSign also has obligations to the U.S. Department of Commerce through a cooperative agreement that was initiated in 1993 and has been amended many times since then. Those obligations include providing the A and J root servers as well as support to ICANN in implementing changes in the root zone file. As such, VeriSign is a member of the DNS Root Server System Advisory Committee and also works closely with IANA staff in the processing of root zone changes.
As a representative elected to the GNSO Council by the unsponsored gTLD registry members of the gTLD Registry Stakeholder Group; (RySG), I am required by the Stakeholder Group’s Articles of Operation to represent the views of those members and the full Stakeholder Group as applicable, not my own or VeriSign’s. In that regard, I will endeavor to always qualify any personal statements as such and will follow-up with the RySG to obtain their position.
I own shares of VeriSign stock and hold options to purchase additional shares, but the amount of shares I currently own plus the potential shares I could possibly own if I exercised all options is a miniscule number relative to the total number of VeriSign shares.
Regarding the pending introduction of new gTLDs, VeriSign may apply directly for new gTLDs and also may serve as a registry services provider in support of other applicants for new gTLDs.
Declaration of Interest: 15 July 2010
Disclosure of Interest from Chuck Gomes regarding agenda Item 7: Resolution on New gTLD String Similarity Evaluation:
VeriSign plans to apply for multiple IDN versions of its .com and .net gTLDs and as such has an interest in this agenda item.
Archived SOI (23 December 2008)