Nominet names new CEO as new chair promises real reform
(2021/11/19)
- Reference: 1637329213
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/11/19/nominet_names_new_ceo_paul_fletcher/
- Source link:
Troubled .uk registry operator Nominet has named a new CEO to replace the one fired by members earlier this year.
At its annual general meeting (AGM) this week, the current CEO of the IT industry's chartered institute BCS, Paul Fletcher, was named as the permanent replacement for Russell Haworth, starting in February.
Fletcher will be joined on the board by two new non-executive directors [1]elected by members this week , both of whom have vowed to maintain reform efforts at the not-for-profit company.
[2]
In a further sign that members want wide-ranging reforms implemented, an attempt was made to vote off current board member Stephen Page with several members refusing to support an official resolution keeping him in place. At the time of writing results were still not in.
[3]
[4]
Page was seen as a key defender of previous CEO Haworth, who used the tens of millions of pounds in surplus from Nominet's monopoly on .uk domain names to help the body branch into commercial markets.
Despite the failure of each of those ventures, Haworth paid himself and his senior executives large salary increases and bonuses year-on-year, while members complained he refused to answer their questions over how those ventures were doing financially.
[5]
Page, Haworth and other senior execs including interim CEO Eleanor Bradley and CFO Ben Hill were also behind the [6]shutting down of Nominet's charitable arm , which had previously received a £5m annual budget. They also pushed and supported price increases in the [7]wholesale price of .uk domains , made with little or no justification. The additional revenues from those price increases were again pushed into their unsuccessful commercial ventures.
Asked specifically whether Bradley, as interim CEO, would be leaving Nominet when Fletcher takes over in February, new chair Andy Green refused to be drawn on the question and said it would be up to Fletcher to decide who was in his management team.
One-man band
At the AGM itself, Green took center stage with no executives speaking and only one board member, Rob Binns, giving a brief financial update. Green himself recognised that this was in large part because of the severe lack of trust that has built up between members and their representatives.
While Green made it plain that rebuilding that trust was his priority and vowed to move Nominet back to its not-for-profit roots, he refused to look at the exit payment to former CEO Haworth, [8]claimed by former Nominet director Jim Davies to amount to £300,000 , claiming that "the past is the past" and the organisation was in "a period of extreme stress" when the deal was cut.
[9]Chap who campaigned to oust Nominet's CEO and chairman and reform the .UK registry is elected as non-exec director
[10]Nominet chooses civil war over compromise by rejecting ex-BBC Trust chairman
[11]Big problem: Nominet members won't know how many votes they're casting in decision to oust CEO, chair
[12]Desperate Nominet chairman claims member vote to fire him would spark British government intervention
[13]Haworth resigned the day before he lost his members' vote, but members have noted that before he resigned, the board had decided to remove their right to fire him [14]without compensation .
Despite a vow to increase Nominet's transparency and accountability, Green also defended a decision to restrict the meeting to members only – something that required a convoluted registration process, login and password and two-factor authentication sent to a mobile phone to access the livestream.
In order to speak at the event, former Nominet director Davies needed a special dispensation from the board. And Green claimed that it had always been Nominet's policy to exclude the press from such events.
[15]
In fact, as numerous stories on The Register over the years will attest, the AGM has been repeatedly and openly attended by members of the press. Or, as previous CEO Haworth would no doubt say, that's [16]fake news . ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/17/nominet_board_elections/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YZfYPqAKWlBiPsEdAaKRCgAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YZfYPqAKWlBiPsEdAaKRCgAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YZfYPqAKWlBiPsEdAaKRCgAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YZfYPqAKWlBiPsEdAaKRCgAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/19/nominet_abandons_charitable_trust/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2015/11/25/nominet_raises_price_uk_domains/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/17/nominet_board_elections/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/17/nominet_board_elections/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/13/nominet_civil_war/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/18/nominet_voting_fears/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/16/nominet_government_intervention/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/22/nominet_board_sacked/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/22/nominet_board_sacked/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YZfYPqAKWlBiPsEdAaKRCgAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/06/nominet_uk_domain_names/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
At its annual general meeting (AGM) this week, the current CEO of the IT industry's chartered institute BCS, Paul Fletcher, was named as the permanent replacement for Russell Haworth, starting in February.
Fletcher will be joined on the board by two new non-executive directors [1]elected by members this week , both of whom have vowed to maintain reform efforts at the not-for-profit company.
[2]
In a further sign that members want wide-ranging reforms implemented, an attempt was made to vote off current board member Stephen Page with several members refusing to support an official resolution keeping him in place. At the time of writing results were still not in.
[3]
[4]
Page was seen as a key defender of previous CEO Haworth, who used the tens of millions of pounds in surplus from Nominet's monopoly on .uk domain names to help the body branch into commercial markets.
Despite the failure of each of those ventures, Haworth paid himself and his senior executives large salary increases and bonuses year-on-year, while members complained he refused to answer their questions over how those ventures were doing financially.
[5]
Page, Haworth and other senior execs including interim CEO Eleanor Bradley and CFO Ben Hill were also behind the [6]shutting down of Nominet's charitable arm , which had previously received a £5m annual budget. They also pushed and supported price increases in the [7]wholesale price of .uk domains , made with little or no justification. The additional revenues from those price increases were again pushed into their unsuccessful commercial ventures.
Asked specifically whether Bradley, as interim CEO, would be leaving Nominet when Fletcher takes over in February, new chair Andy Green refused to be drawn on the question and said it would be up to Fletcher to decide who was in his management team.
One-man band
At the AGM itself, Green took center stage with no executives speaking and only one board member, Rob Binns, giving a brief financial update. Green himself recognised that this was in large part because of the severe lack of trust that has built up between members and their representatives.
While Green made it plain that rebuilding that trust was his priority and vowed to move Nominet back to its not-for-profit roots, he refused to look at the exit payment to former CEO Haworth, [8]claimed by former Nominet director Jim Davies to amount to £300,000 , claiming that "the past is the past" and the organisation was in "a period of extreme stress" when the deal was cut.
[9]Chap who campaigned to oust Nominet's CEO and chairman and reform the .UK registry is elected as non-exec director
[10]Nominet chooses civil war over compromise by rejecting ex-BBC Trust chairman
[11]Big problem: Nominet members won't know how many votes they're casting in decision to oust CEO, chair
[12]Desperate Nominet chairman claims member vote to fire him would spark British government intervention
[13]Haworth resigned the day before he lost his members' vote, but members have noted that before he resigned, the board had decided to remove their right to fire him [14]without compensation .
Despite a vow to increase Nominet's transparency and accountability, Green also defended a decision to restrict the meeting to members only – something that required a convoluted registration process, login and password and two-factor authentication sent to a mobile phone to access the livestream.
In order to speak at the event, former Nominet director Davies needed a special dispensation from the board. And Green claimed that it had always been Nominet's policy to exclude the press from such events.
[15]
In fact, as numerous stories on The Register over the years will attest, the AGM has been repeatedly and openly attended by members of the press. Or, as previous CEO Haworth would no doubt say, that's [16]fake news . ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/17/nominet_board_elections/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YZfYPqAKWlBiPsEdAaKRCgAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YZfYPqAKWlBiPsEdAaKRCgAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YZfYPqAKWlBiPsEdAaKRCgAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/19/nominet_abandons_charitable_trust/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2015/11/25/nominet_raises_price_uk_domains/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/17/nominet_board_elections/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/17/nominet_board_elections/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/13/nominet_civil_war/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/18/nominet_voting_fears/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/16/nominet_government_intervention/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/22/nominet_board_sacked/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/22/nominet_board_sacked/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YZfYPqAKWlBiPsEdAaKRCgAAAEo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/06/nominet_uk_domain_names/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Nearly but not quite
Lon24
Stephen Page squeezed in a 1 year term by a narrow margin on the loaded vote measure but was clearly outvoted by members by 300 to 200. Hence he doesn't have the confidence of the membership as a whole.
Given that the key message of the AGM by the chair was for the board to regain the trust of the membership - is Stephen's responsible action to seek out the pearl-handled pistol that Haworth left behind?
A Nominet member
Anonymous Coward
How the hell did things get so bad? Perhaps the whole idea of a board, and executive team, is outdated, a product of Industrial Revolution thinking. Surely a domain registrar could operate as a DAO, with direct control by the members of any pertinent decisions by democratic vote.
The right direction, but a rocky road ahead
Every. Single. Board. Member.
All of them not just elected, need to resign and get the hell out.
THAT will restore trust.