Logo
ICANN
ICANN
Filtered Search

Are you sure you want to sign out from http://www.vip.icann.org?

If you want to sign out from both http://www.vip.icann.org and ICANN Account, click here.

ICANN Blogs

Read ICANN Blogs to stay informed of the latest policymaking activities, regional events, and more.

Chair’s Blog: January Board Workshop Preview

21 January 2026
By
Tripti Sinha

Tripti Sinha

ICANN Board Chair

Tripti Sinha is the President and CEO of Internet2, where she champions the organization’s core mission of enabling U.S. higher education and research institutions to collaborate on mission-critical technology services and emerging technologies. Internet2 also works with global National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). Sinha has over three decades of progressive experience in Internet and Cyber-Infrastructure technologies. Her experience spans leadership roles in engineering, operations, finance, governance, advocacy, and policy.

Before joining Internet2, Tripti held two leadership roles at the University of Maryland: Assistant Vice President and Chief Technology Officer and Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX), a regional research and education network. In these roles, she supported advanced, high-performance networking and research technologies, including GPU compute infrastructure optimized for AI workloads and investigating evolving quantum networking technologies.

She has served on many non-profit and private sector technology advisory boards, and was past Chair of The Quilt’s Board of Directors and former Co-Chair of ICANN’s Root Server System Advisory Committee.

Tripti has a Computer Science degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and did graduate work in Computer Science at the University of Maryland. She holds executive education certificates from Harvard Kennedy School in Public Leadership and Policy, and in Global Innovation and Execution from Stanford University. She was born in India and lives in the United States. As a child and young adult, Tripti moved back-and-forth between the U.S. and India which gave her an appreciation for global pluralism. She is proficient in English and Hindi, and understands Punjabi, Urdu and the ancient Sanskrit language. Sinha has a keen interest in Information and Communication Technology innovation, entrepreneurship, governance and policy, and international affairs.

Tripti was nominated to serve on the ICANN Board of Directors by the Nominating Committee in 2018. Her term will expire at the Annual General Meeting 2027.

As 2026 gets underway, I want to wish everyone a happy new year! This week, the ICANN Board of Directors will meet in Singapore for its first workshop of the year. My Board colleagues and I are eager to engage with ICANN organization (org) staff at the Singapore Regional Office and meet with the community members in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

To that end, the Board will hold an online session on Friday, 23 January. We look forward to sharing updates on ICANN's work, answering your questions, and hearing your perspectives on the issues that matter most to the APAC community.

ICANN Board Public Engagement With APAC
23 January 2026 | 14:30–15:30 Singapore Time (6:30–7:30 UTC)

The workshop, which is taking place 23–25 January, will give the Board the opportunity to work on key matters of importance to ICANN. Here is an overview of the agenda:

2026 Round: The Board will receive an update on ICANN's progress toward launching the New Generic Top-Level Domains Program: 2026 Round, including the overall implementation of the program as well as its readiness to open the application window and subsequently process the applications. The Board also will receive an update on the status of application processing for the Applicant Support Program and the Registry Service Provider Evaluation Program. In addition, the Board will consider several 2026 Round vendor contracts.

WSIS+20: The 20-year review of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) outcomes concluded successfully at the U.N. General Assembly High-Level Meeting in December. The Board will discuss the Outcome Document, which reflects ICANN's core objectives of reaffirming the multistakeholder model of Internet governance, recognizing the technical community as a distinct stakeholder group, and making the Internet Governance Forum a permanent U.N. forum.

Budget: The Board will review the year-to-date financials for fiscal year (FY) 2026, as well as the Draft FY27 Operating Plans and Budget for ICANN and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and ICANN's Draft FY27–31 Operating and Financial Plan. These plans are open for Public Comment until 12 February. Community input is vital for shaping these plans and ICANN's future, and we encourage you to participate in the proceeding.

Reviews: The Board will discuss the progress of the Review of Reviews Cross Community Group in assembling an initial design of what a refreshed ICANN Reviews system might look like. This potential design will be discussed during ICANN85 in March.

RDRS: The Board will review the community input received during the recent Public Comment proceedings on the Registration Data Request Service (RDRS) Policy Alignment Analysis and the Timeline for Urgent Requests for Lawful Disclosure of Nonpublic Registration Data. We also will discuss progress on related work by the Privacy and Proxy Services Accreditation Issues Implementation Review Team (IRT) and the Registration Data Policy IRT, which may impact our consultations with the Generic Names Supporting Organization Council on the next steps for the System for Standardized Access/Disclosure consensus policy recommendations.

RSS Governance: The Root Server (RSS) Governance Working Group is reviewing the community's inputs to the recent Public Comment proceeding and finalizing its proposal for a Functional Model for RSS governance. To prepare for its eventual consideration of the proposal, the Board is starting a series of sessions on RSS governance. This session will focus on an overview of the Root Server System Advisory Committee advice from 2018 that led to the establishment of the RSS Governance Working Group.

IT Strategy: The Board will receive an update on how ICANN's Engineering and IT function is evolving to support our mission in a sustainable manner.

The workshop also will include a Regular Board Meeting, and the agenda is available on the Board Activities and Meetings page. Following the workshop, I will provide an overview of the key takeaways. I look forward to working together this year to deliver our shared mission of ensuring a secure, stable, and unified global Internet.

Authors

Tripti Sinha

Tripti Sinha

ICANN Board Chair
Tripti Sinha

Tripti Sinha

ICANN Board Chair

Tripti Sinha is the President and CEO of Internet2, where she champions the organization’s core mission of enabling U.S. higher education and research institutions to collaborate on mission-critical technology services and emerging technologies. Internet2 also works with global National Research and Education Networks (NRENs). Sinha has over three decades of progressive experience in Internet and Cyber-Infrastructure technologies. Her experience spans leadership roles in engineering, operations, finance, governance, advocacy, and policy.

Before joining Internet2, Tripti held two leadership roles at the University of Maryland: Assistant Vice President and Chief Technology Officer and Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX), a regional research and education network. In these roles, she supported advanced, high-performance networking and research technologies, including GPU compute infrastructure optimized for AI workloads and investigating evolving quantum networking technologies.

She has served on many non-profit and private sector technology advisory boards, and was past Chair of The Quilt’s Board of Directors and former Co-Chair of ICANN’s Root Server System Advisory Committee.

Tripti has a Computer Science degree from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts and did graduate work in Computer Science at the University of Maryland. She holds executive education certificates from Harvard Kennedy School in Public Leadership and Policy, and in Global Innovation and Execution from Stanford University. She was born in India and lives in the United States. As a child and young adult, Tripti moved back-and-forth between the U.S. and India which gave her an appreciation for global pluralism. She is proficient in English and Hindi, and understands Punjabi, Urdu and the ancient Sanskrit language. Sinha has a keen interest in Information and Communication Technology innovation, entrepreneurship, governance and policy, and international affairs.

Tripti was nominated to serve on the ICANN Board of Directors by the Nominating Committee in 2018. Her term will expire at the Annual General Meeting 2027.

You May Also Like