Today, Fadi Chehadé was announced as the new CEO of ICANN (The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers). The announcement came two days prior to the start of ICANN's 44th public meeting which will be taking place in the Czech Republic capital of Prague. Chehadé will succeed current CEO Rod Beckstrom.

"Fadi has an amazing track record of success and the obvious leadership qualities to help carry ICANN into the next stage of its evolution," said Dr. Stephen Crocker, Chair of the Board of Directors, ICANN. "His international background and multi-linguistic skills will help to make ICANN an ever more globally oriented organization. It’s hard to imagine how we could have found anyone better suited for the top position."

The appointment of a new ICANN CEO had been expected after it was announced that Beckstrom would leave at the end of his term on July 1st 2012. Beckstrom had held the position since 2009, with notable achievements during his tenure including the negotiation and signing of the Affirmation of Commitments and the 2009 agreement with the US Government which moved ICANN’s oversight from one government to the world.

Chehadé takes over as CEO at an exciting time for the internet and domain names with ICANN's New gTLD program in full flow and with New gTLD applications having just been announced. Chehadé was born in Beruit, Lebanon and is a citizen of Lebanon, Egypt and the United States. He has recently served as CEO of cloud-based administrative software company Vocado LLC and was previously CEO of RosettaNet, a globally supported standards organization. Prior to Vocado, Chehadé served as General Manager of IBM’s Global Technology Services in the Middle East and North Africa.

Akram Atallah, current Chief Operating Officer will operate as CEO of ICANN in the interim from July 1st until October 1st at which point Chehadé will be taking over the reigns.

All here at Domainmonster.com wish Fadi Chehadé the best of luck as new CEO of ICANN.