The current term of Patricio Poblete, the ccNSO-nominated Director for ICANN Board Seat 11, will end at the ICANN87 Annual General Meeting (October 2026). The nomination period for this position will open on Wednesday, 2 July 2025 at 00:01 UTC and close on Wednesday, 23 July 2025 at 23:59 UTC.
By ICANN87, Patricio will have served two consecutive terms and is therefore eligible for reappointment, as the maximum allowed is three consecutive terms. In line with the ICANN Bylaws and ccNSO internal procedures, the ccNSO Council must select a candidate by 17 April 2026 - six months prior to ICANN87.
Voting will take place in November 2025, following the completion of due diligence checks by an external professional firm. A Q&A session with the candidate(s) will be held during ICANN84 (25–31 October 2025).
All relevant information about the nomination and secondment process, as well as future announcements, will be posted here: https://ccnso.icann.org/en/about/nominations.htm
How to nominate and second a candidate
Timeline of the nomination and secondment procedure:
- START: Wednesday, 2 July 2025 at 00:01 UTC
- END: Wednesday, 23 July 2025 at 23:59 UTC
You are kindly invited to follow these instructions closely. If you have questions, please contact the Nomination Process Manager, at ccnsosecretariat@icann.org
- Each ccNSO member may nominate one (1) person for a seat to be filled on the ICANN Board. If a ccNSO member nominates a second or further candidate, only the first nomination will be valid and published as such.
- Each ccNSO member can second one (1) or more persons for a seat to be filled on the ICANN Board
- Only ccTLD Managers who are a member of the ccNSO as of the publication date of the call for nominations, i.e. on 1 July 2025, can nominate or second a candidate
- All nominations must be seconded by another ccNSO member
- Nominations and secondments should be sent by e-mail to the Nomination Process Manager at the following e-mail address: ccnso-boardnominations@icann.org
To ensure adequate archiving, please do not use alternative email addresses. A record of who has nominated and seconded the candidate(s) is publicly available. - Templates for nominating and seconding nominations are provided below. Alternative templates should not be used, and nominations or secondings should be sent to ccNSO-boardnominations@icann.org only.
TEMPLATE | NOMINATION TO THE ICANN BOARD
(Please send to ccnso-boardnominations@icann.org )
- Your full name:
- Your email address:
- Your ccTLD:
- Full name of the person you nominate to the ICANN Board:
- E-mail address of the person you nominate:
- Country of citizenship or domicile of the person you nominate:
TEMPLATE | SECONDING A NOMINATION TO THE ICANN BOARD
(Please send to ccnso-boardnominations@icann.org )
- Your full name:
- Your e-mail address:
- Your ccTLD:
- Full name of the nominee you would like to second:
- E-mail address of the nominee you would like to second:
Consult here the archive for nominations and secondments.
Requirements for suitably qualified candidates: citizenship or domicile
Bylaw Article 7 – Section 7.2 (c) states:
"(c) In carrying out their responsibilities to nominate Directors for Seats 9 through 15 for designation by the EC, the Supporting Organizations and the At-Large Community shall seek to ensure that the Board is composed of Directors who, in the aggregate, display diversity in geography, culture, skills, experience, and perspective, by applying the criteria set forth in Section 7.3, Section 7.4 and Section 7.5. The Supporting Organizations shall ensure that, at any given time, no two Directors nominated by a Supporting Organization are citizens from the same country or of countries located in the same Geographic Region. For purposes of this Section 7.2(c), if any candidate for Director maintains citizenship or Domicile of more than one country, that candidate may be deemed to be from either country and must select in his or her Statement of Interest the country of citizenship or Domicile that he or she wants the Supporting Organization or the At-Large Community, as applicable, to use for nomination purposes. For purposes of this Section 7.2(c), a person can only have one Domicile, which shall be determined by where the candidate has a permanent residence and place of habitation."
Byron Holland, occupying Board Seat 12, has his domicile in Canada, North American region.
Requirements for suitably qualified candidates: employment by a ccTLD
As per 3.4 of the ccNSO Guideline: ccNSO Nominations process ICANN Board seats 11 and 12 :
"Candidates are not required to be employed by a ccTLD Manager to be eligible for nomination. Still, if there is an employment or other relationship, the candidate should disclose it as part of their Candidate Statement."
Accepting nominations and due diligence verifications
After closure of the nomination period, the Nomination Process Manager will ascertain whether the nominee(s) formally accept their nomination(s), and ask them to complete a nomination form. The deadline to accept nominations is 31 July 2025 (23:59 UTC). By 1 August 2025 (23:59 UTC), the Nomination Process Manager shall provide a list with the name(s) of the candidate(s) who have accepted their nomination. Also, a record of who has nominated and seconded the candidate(s) is publicly available.
By acceptance of the nomination, a nominee warrants, is aware of, and consents to:
- The Country of Citizenship or Domicile included in the nomination form;
- The additional qualifications as per ICANN Bylaws Section 7.4(a), 7.4(b), 7.4(c), 7.4(d)
- Fully cooperate to undergo a due diligence screening by an external provider, which includes providing necessary consent to ICANN to transmit personal data to the due diligence provider.
Candidates need to be aware that they will be approached by the external due diligence provider to sign a consent form before the actual due diligence will begin. The scope of this background check is described here. In the event a candidate does not provide consent or rescinds the consent to undergo the due diligence process, the Council will be informed, and the candidacy of that person will be ended. After completion of the due diligence process, the Chair of the ccNSO Council will be informed of the outcome and inform the Council (with the exception of potential candidate(s) who are Councillor), i.e., only whether concerns have surfaced, which warrant further consideration and decisions.
Candidate Statements
The Nomination Process Manager will ask candidate(s) to provide a written candidate statement. A Q&A session with the candidate(s) will be held at ICANN84. The Q&A session gives the ccNSO members and broader ccTLD community an opportunity to interact with the candidate(s). In preparation of the Q&A session, the written candidate statements will be posted on the ccNSO website.
Elections
Bylaw Article 10 – Section 10.3 (i) states:
"(i) The ccNSO Council shall nominate individuals to fill Seats 11 and 12 on the Board by written ballot or by action at a meeting; any such nomination must have affirmative votes of a majority of all the members of the ccNSO Council then in office. Notification of the ccNSO Council's nominations shall be given by the ccNSO Council Chair in writing to the EC Administration, with a copy to the Secretary, and the EC shall promptly act on it as provided in Section 7.25."
Even if there is only one candidate that accepted nomination for ICANN Board seat number 11, an election will be held, to allow the ccNSO members to either cast their vote for the candidate, or to select the option "none of the above". The ccNSO Council and ccNSO members have agreed that the ccNSO members shall propose and elect candidates for the two ICANN Board seats allocated to the ccNSO, and that the winner of said election - i.e. the candidate that receives the majority of the votes cast - shall in turn be nominated to the ICANN Board seat by a majority vote of the ccNSO Council. The timeline for the elections is posted in the links-section below: further instructions will be provided by the Nomination Process Manager closer to the start of the elections, in November 2025.
Links
- Announcements on ccNSO website related to the ongoing nominations: https://ccnso.icann.org/en/about/nominations.htm
- Archive for nominations and secondments:
https://lists.icann.org/hyperkitty/list/ccnso-boardnominations@icann.org/ - ICANN Bylaws:
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en - ccNSO Internal Rules:
https://ccnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/field-attached/internal-membership-rules-26oct22-en.pdf - ccNSO Guideline Board seat 11 and seat 12 nominations:
https://ccnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/field-attached/ccnso-nominations-icann-board-guideline-15dec22-en.pdf - Timeline as adopted by ccNSO Council during meeting 218:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bkmj0dmDAuO92Muek6lv4wNbgzujPHrtelFdX4YlQRY/edit?usp=sharing