ICANN's man in Europe bows out

July 2005

Internet overseeing organisation ICANN still has problems but it will come out of the UN's upcoming review into Internet governance with flying colours, the organisation's man in Europe, Paul Verhoef has predicted on the eve of his departure.

As the first staff member located outside of California, Verhoef has played a vital role in getting ICANN accepted globally. Seconded by the European Union in January 2004, he has been on the frontline as European governments have started to ask big questions about the Internet and domain registry owners continued to express their reservations.

With a very difficult patch coming up for ICANN, he himself admit that the timing is "far from perfect", but as from today he will head the European Commission's largest-ever project - the 3.5 billion euro Galileo satellite network, an upgraded version of the US' global positioning system (GPS). "Dream is a big word, but you can understand it's not something you really want to turn down," he modestly explained.