Fadi Chehadé (Arabic: فادي شحادة) (born 1962) is an information technology executive, founder of RosettaNet and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ICANN. Through Ethos Capital, he unsuccessfully tried to gain control over the .org internet domain.
Fadi Chehade | |
|---|---|
فادي شحادة | |
 Speaking at ICANN's 45th Public Meeting in Toronto | |
| Born | 1962 (age 61–62) |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | New York University |
| Known for | Former CEO of ICANN |
Early life
editChehadé was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to Egyptian parents.[1][2] In 1985 he received his bachelor's degree in computer science from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. The following year he completed his master's degree in engineering management at Stanford University.[3] He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1986.[2]
Business career
editChehadé founded Nett Information Products (aka Connectica) in 1987, a company to create and develop an Internet-based content management and sharing solution.[4] Nett was acquired by Ingram Micro and Chehadé became their vice president in charge of customer information services.[4]
In 1997, while at Ingram Micro, Anthony Mesaros was managing the development of an eCommerce website for Ingram Micro and discovered that there was no standard for product descriptions and started the internal Ingram Micro project called Rosetta Stone to establish such standards in the technology industry. Later that year after sitting down with Mesaros to review the project, Chehadé conceived of expanding on that project as a stand-alone not-for-profit organization that would coordinate and develop standards for Business-to-business (B2B) communications.[5] He successfully convinced businesses, including Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, SAP, Nokia and Oracle Corporation, to back the program and the result was RosettaNet where he became its first CEO.[4]
In 1999, Chehadé founded Viacore Inc. a B2B services provider, which was acquired by IBM in 2006. At which time he became IBM's vice president for global business development followed by general manager of their global technology services for Middle East/North Africa region. He then took over as CEO of CoreObjects Software, Inc., a developer of new product management software for businesses. CoreObjects was acquired in 2010 by Symphony Services.[6]
For the next two years Chehadé was CEO of Vocado LLC, a provider of cloud-based software for educational institutions to manage administrative and student services.[7]
ICANN
editIn June 2012 he was picked to head the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).[8][9] Among his first duties was overseeing the TLD Registry expansion program.[10]
In August 2014 ICANN announced that it had extended Chehadé's contract and given him a pay raise of 12.5%.[11] That year he oversaw the initiation of the process to transfer of IANA functions from the United States to the global Internet community.[12]
Post ICANN
editIn August 2015 Chehadé announced that he would take the position of Senior Advisor on Digital Strategy for ABRY Partners after the end of his ICANN term.[13] In December 2015 he announced he would also become co-chair of a newly formed advisory committee to the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen. The first meeting of the committee was scheduled to take place in mid-2016.[14] In January 2016 it was announced that Chehadé would become a senior advisor to Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum starting April 1, 2016.[15]
In 2020, an honoree of the Great Immigrants Award named by Carnegie Corporation of New York[16]
In July 2020 Chehadé was listed as the co-CEO of private equity firm Ethos Capital on its website. Ethos Capital tried to buy Public Interest Registry, the non-profit that runs .org domains, but ICANN denied the transaction. Chehadé’s name was nowhere on Ethos’ website when it announced the .org transaction. His involvement became public because of WHOIS data for one of Ethos Capital’s domain names. The private equity company admitted that Chehadé was an advisor on the deal.[17]
In 2021, Ethos Capital completed an investment to acquire a controlling interest in Donuts, a domain name registry which had just taken over Afilias, the registry service provider that had to that point been running the registry as well as DNS for .org, effectively resulting in Ethos still gaining a foothold on the .org TLD.
References
edit- ^ Anderson, Porter (21 August 2001). "Fadi Chehade: 'Deep, clear visibility'". CNN. Archived from the original on 9 December 2015.
- ^ a b "Bio Information on New ICANN CEO, Fadi Chehade". ABC News. Associated Press. 22 June 2012. Archived from the original on 25 June 2012.
- ^ Lillington, Karlin (15 October 2015). "Fadi Chehadé, overseer of the global internet piazza". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 16 October 2015.
- ^ a b c "Fadi Chehadé: President and CEO". ICANN. June 2012. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012.
- ^ Cover, Robin. "RosettaNet PIP Milestone". xml.coverpages.org. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
- ^ Staff (9 September 2010). "Symphony Services acquires CoreObjects". CXOtoday. Archived from the original on 13 September 2010. Retrieved 23 June 2012.
- ^ "Alumni Community Archives: Class Notes 2011: Fadi Chehade". Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
- ^ Staff (22 June 2012). "Icann hire Fadi Chehade as new chief executive". BBC News.
- ^ Jesdanun, Anick (23 June 2012). "Internet group picks little-known executive as CEO". The Austin Statesman. Austin, Texas. Archived from the original on 23 June 2012.
- ^ "Net coverage: gTLD Applicant Strategy: 2013 The Make or Break Year for Applicants". ICANN. 19 March 2013. Archived from the original on 25 December 2015.
- ^ "Board Extends Term of ICANN President". ICANN. 1 August 2014. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014.
- ^ "Fadi Chehadé, President And Chief Executive Officer Of ICANN, Biography". ICANN. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015.
- ^ Chehadé, Fadi. "My Transition from ICANN CEO". 17 August 2015. ICANN. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015.
- ^ Chehadé, Fadi (23 December 2015). "My Transition from ICANN CEO, an Update". ICANN Blog. ICANN. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
- ^ Mathuros, Fon (22 January 2016). "FADI CHEHADÉ ANNOUNCEMENT". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 22 January 2016.
- ^ "Chehadé Fadi | Ethos Capital". Retrieved 2024-06-26.
- ^ Chehadé, Fadi (16 July 2020). "Fadi Chehadé is now co-CEO of Ethos Capital". Retrieved 18 July 2020.