Blacknight CEO Michele Neylon has been elected to ICANN’s Generic Names Supporting Organisation, the group that co-ordinates the internet’s naming system for domains from .com and .org to .beer and more.

ICANN in October completed the transition of responsibility for internet addressing from the US government to an international community of stakeholders, the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO).

As such, the GNSO Council develops policy for generic domain names such as .com and .blog.

Involved with ICANN for many years, Blacknight CEO Michele Neylon recently completed three terms as chair of ICANN’s Registrar Stakeholder group.

At ICANN’s general meeting in Hyderabad, India, he took his seat as a representative of the registrars GNSO Council.

A domain name system that encompasses all regions and cultures

The council is responsible for top-level domain policies including .com and .org, but also country code domains like .ie or .co.uk.

This task has grown thanks to the explosion in generic domain names to include hundreds of top-level domains ranging from .live to .beer, .pizza and more.

“Blacknight is Ireland’s largest domain registrar, but we are small by US standards,” Neylon said.

“Also, European registrars operate under a different data protection regime, and cater for a more multilingual customer base.

“Part of my job is to make sure that we find solutions that work for registrars of all sizes and in all regions,” Neylon added.