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Press Release: Tripti Sinha Reappointed Board Chair and Sajid Rahman Appointed Vice Chair of ICANN Board of Directors

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DUBLIN – 30 October 2025 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is pleased to announce the reappointment of Tripti Sinha as Chair of the ICANN Board of Directors and the appointment of Sajid Rahman as Vice Chair. Three new Board members will also be seated during the ICANN84 Annual General Meeting in Dublin, Ireland, 25–30 October 2025.

Sinha, who joined the Board in 2018, was reappointed as Chair of the ICANN Board of Directors for a fourth term. She brings more than three decades of experience in Internet infrastructure, research networking, and global coordination. Sinha currently serves as President and CEO of Internet2, a leading nonprofit and member-driven advanced technology corporation. Previously, she was Assistant Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at the University of Maryland in the Division of Information Technology, where she led Advanced Cyber Infrastructure and Internet Global Services, and the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads.

"I am honored to continue serving alongside such a talented and globally diverse Board," said Sinha, ICANN Board Chair. "This year marks an important moment for ICANN as we implement the next Strategic Plan and strengthen our role in a changing Internet governance landscape. Our focus remains clear: ensuring the security and stability of the Internet's unique identifier systems, advancing the next round of new generic top-level domains, and deepening collaboration across our global community."

Rahman joined the ICANN Board in 2022 and currently serves as Chair of the Board Finance Committee. He is a business and technology leader whose career spans digital services, emerging markets, and governance. Rahman is currently managing partner of a fund investing in late-stage technology and renewable energy infrastructure projects. He previously served as Managing Director at Standard Chartered Bank, and as Group CEO of Telenor Health, where he built and scaled a global digital health care business.

"ICANN's Board reflects the diversity and collaboration and shared purpose that define the global Internet community," said Rahman, ICANN Board Vice Chair. "As we navigate unprecedented technological and societal shifts, I look forward to working with my fellow Directors as we advance ICANN's mission and strengthen engagement across all regions."

ICANN also welcomes three new members to its Board: Constance Bommelaer de Leusse and Raúl Echeberría, selected by the ICANN Nominating Committee, and Greg DiBiase, selected by the Generic Names Supporting Organization. Their combined experience in Internet governance, policy, and technical operations will further strengthen the Board's ability to advance ICANN's mission of ensuring a secure, stable, and interoperable global Internet.

The Chair and Vice Chair of ICANN's Board of Directors serve one-year terms; voting Board members serve three-year terms. The Board is made up of 20 members (16 voting members and four nonvoting liaison representatives), representing diversity in geography and professional expertise, demonstrating ICANN's dedication to global representation and technical skill in Internet governance.

For more information about the ICANN Board of Directors and to view member biographies, visit https://www.icann.org/en/board/directors.

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure, and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address – a name or a number – into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a nonprofit public benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world.

Media Contacts

Luna Madi
Senior Communications Director, EMEA
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
Mobile: +90 (533) 031 35 05
Email: luna.madi@icann.org
or press@icann.org

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."