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Chair’s Blog: September Board Workshop Recap

24 September 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.

The ICANN Board of Directors’ latest workshop took place 4–6 September at ICANN’s headquarters in Los Angeles, California. While in LA, we also enjoyed spending time with ICANN staff.

The workshop concluded with a Regular Board Meeting, during which the Board adopted several resolutions. In addition to three vendor contract approvals, we resolved to keep the current ICANN Strategic Plan in force and unchanged. This decision was informed by ICANN’s Annual Strategy Review Program, which provides a structured approach to assessing whether the five-year Strategic Plan remains aligned with current trends that impact our environment.

The Board also made progress in several other key areas of our work throughout the three-day workshop:

2026 Round: The Board received an update on the status of the ongoing 2026 Round implementation and preparations for the upcoming milestones in the processing phase, including Reveal Day. In preparation for Reveal Day, the program team is completing the necessary administrative tasks and preparing the Application Publication System to publish the public-facing portions of the applications. Furthermore, the team is adjusting its implementation plan, which was based on the assumption of 2,000 applications, to reflect the actual number and types of applications received.

Review of Reviews: The Board discussed the progress of the Review of Reviews project, including the Reviews CCG’s notification to the Nominating Groups that it is revising its work plan to accommodate the publication of a Second Draft Report for Public Comment. The Board also discussed a response to the Reviews CCG’s notification and the interim steps required between the receipt of the Final Report and the refreshed Reviews system becoming operational.

ccPDP4: The Country Code Names Supporting Organization's Fourth Policy Development Process (ccPDP4) produced policy recommendations for the selection and deselection of Internationalized Domain Name country code top-level domains. The Board reviewed the staff assessment of the recommendations and their feasibility, as recommended by the Board ccPDP4 Caucus, and prepared to take formal action during the ICANN87 Annual General Meeting.

Latin Script Diacritics PDP: The Board received an overview of the Latin Script Diacritics policy development process (PDP) recommendations to help us prepare for their receipt and future consideration. The briefing highlighted how the Board and organization (org) liaisons collaborated with the PDP working group to navigate and address potential issues that could have raised complications during the Board’s future consideration. This is an excellent example of the Board, org, and community successfully working together to improve the timing and effectiveness of community-driven policy work.

RSS GWG: We received an update on the areas of alignment and unresolved differences between the Root Server System (RSS) Governance Working Group's (GWG) proposed functional model for RSS governance and the success criteria and advice from the Root Server System Advisory Committee. This prompted a discussion about how the Board can support the RSS stakeholders in resolving the outstanding matters, should it accept the GWG’s recommendations. We plan to continue this discussion in the coming months.

RIR Governance: The Board received an update on the development of the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) Governance Document. We look forward to ICANN’s continued engagement with the RIRs on this important framework, and to receiving further updates so that we will be prepared when the document is formally presented for Board consideration.

Finance: ICANN org staff provided an overview of ICANN’s financial results for fiscal year 2026 (FY26), which ended on 30 June. Staff provided the timeline for ICANN’s annual audit and noted that they will share the audited financials with the community through online publications and during ICANN87. They also presented the next steps in the process for allocating the FY26 surplus.

Internet Governance: The Board received updates on the regional preparations for the International Telecommunication Union Plenipotentiary Conference 2026, particularly the Internet governance-related topics under consideration. The Board also discussed ICANN's plans for the Internet Governance Forum in December 2026.

The Board will meet for its next workshop before the ICANN87 Annual General Meeting in Bali, Indonesia. We hope to see you at the Public Meeting!

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.

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