Former ICANN CEO is now a co-CEO of the private equity firm that tried to buy .org.
Former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé is currently listed as the co-CEO of Ethos Capital on the firm’s 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 quickly 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.
For months, the Ethos Capital website listed only two employees: CEO Erik Brooks and Chief Purpose Officer Nora Abusitta-Ouri. Abusitta-Ouri worked with Chehadé at ICANN.
The website change listing Chehadé as co-CEO appears to have happened very recently. The last Wayback Machine capture from June 15 did not show him. Elliot Silver spotted the difference today.
Many industry observers may wonder if Chehadé was pegged to be a co-CEO all along, only omitted from the website to avoid more controversy.
Ethos’ website now lists eight employees, three of whom are former ICANN employees. Allen Grogan is Executive Partner and is the former Chief Contract Compliance Officer at ICANN. Grogan’s LinkedIn page says he started advising Ethos last September; his involvement was disclosed after ICANN requested information on former ICANN employees involved with the company.
Chehadé’s LinkedIn page still lists him as a partner at Abry, the private equity firm that acquired Donuts. Brooks was formerly with Abry.
I’m sure he was behind the whole plan from the get-go. At least that is my opinion.
Definitely behind some of it.
ICANN=corrupt
Fadi=corrupt
PIR=corrupt
Ethos=a profiteer
Frankly, this is just a whole other insult to ICANN and how it “fakely” governs the Internet. Verisign and ICANN and Ethos all sleep in the same bed from what I see… And it is not a pretty sight.
That is very smelly news, I think many people suspected they were trying to hide something like this.
Yep!
Kinda funny how a domain name originally smoked him out in deal.
He was surely sitting on sidelines. I believe he originated idea/plan.
Lovely how industries came together to question deal. For once, “good guys: won.
When are they putting Cyrus and Maguy on the website?
I’m shocked, shocked.
Do we have any news on .Web?
I went to secure a .org I meant to set aside two years ago. The price then was under $100 I believe (I couldn’t justify it at the time). The price now is $1400, and no one seems able to tell me who owns it.
We still do not know the names of the secret Ethos investors with the BIG MONEY who sought to control .org.
Kinda funny how a domain name originally smoked him out in deal.
He was surely sitting on sidelines. I believe he originated idea/plan.
Lovely how industries came together to question deal. For once, “good guys: won.