IFFOR Taps Kieren McCarthy as New Executive Director

LOS ANGELES — IFFOR, the nonprofit organization tasked with making policy for the .XXX TLD and now gTLDs, made several key front-office moves this week.

Joan Irvine, who became the group's executive director in Spring 2011 after leading the ASACP for nine years, is taking on a consulting role with IFFOR.

Irvine lead the organization, formally known as the International Foundation for Online Responsibility, in its first two years of operation. IFFOR gets $10 for every .XXX registration in order to fund itself.

Her position will be filled in April by IFFOR's current manager of public participation, Kieren McCarthy, who also will take on the role of executive director at the organization.

IFFOR in a release said that McCarthy has "immense experience in the Internet infrastructure industry having reported on and worked within the industry for over a decade."

When reached Friday, Irvine said that she is excited about being able to focus on IFFOR's new Policy Engine Service and that she "looks forward to making it a success."

IFFOR last month said that it would expand its .XXX policy services to applicants of new generic top-level domains due to be approved this year and go live in 2014.

The group, wanting to broaden its reach, said there is a significant policy gap for new Internet registries.  

"One of my passions has always been to help people and make the world a little better,”  Irvine said. "I consider myself fortunate that I get to do this while working with some amazingly smart people and developing realistic self-regulation.

“I’ve been having a terrific time doing what I most enjoy at IFFOR and prior to that at ASACP — taking someone’s vision and building pragmatic working solutions."

Commenting on Irvine's departure, the group said she "successfully established IFFOR as a nonprofit organization, recruited  and maintained the organization's nine-person Policy Council, established its ombudsman capabilities, as well as overseen the creation and maturity of IFFOR's compliance reporting and auditing systems."