This is simply getting ridiculous now.
Judging from his LinkedIn profile above, long standing senior auDA Executive Paul Szyndler has “left the building”. Whether this was his choice or auDA’s, either way it is very concerning. I’m sure many people would want to know why he has left (or was perhaps forced to depart)?
Based in Canberra, Paul is a very well respected and highly experienced person within the internet industry both in Australia and overseas. His contacts alone would have to be worth their weight in gold.
He represented auDA and “.au” on ICANN’s Country Code Name Supporting Organisation (ccNSO), where he contributed to a wide range of policy processes, including serving as Chair of the ccNSO’s Country and Territory Names Study Group.
Some Of His Contributions
Paul was the co-ordinator of the 2012 Industry Advisory Panel – one of the main issues under consideration was the extension of the registry contract with AusRegistry (I was also a member of this Panel).
He also commented on the governance of .au in this article dated 15 December 2011. This was about the Westlake Report which has since been trashed and replaced by the Cameron Ralph Report.
Now I don’t wish to be a conspiracy theorist, but perhaps Paul’s opinions and advice were no longer valued by the current CEO and Board? Perhaps they thought they could do it better? Hmmm.
Implications
His departure is yet another worrying indicator that the current CEO (appointed in August 2016) appears to have “lost control” – or at the very least is operating under crisis management mode. Who can forget the recent disgruntled resignation of premium recruit Rachael Falk (and the subsequent spin that auDA came out with after I broke the story).
The attrition rate of staff and Directors since Stuart Benjamin suddenly took over the chairmanship of auDA in December 2015 (that’s perhaps a story for another time!) has been horrendous given the size of the organisation.
It’s one thing to try and “clean up” an organisation (as Benjamin once described it to me) – but sometimes you can simply go too far. Then everything collapses spectacularly. And who counts the human cost?
In my humble opinion.
Ned O’Meara – 13th June 2017
Disclaimer
Another one bites the dust.
When is this madness going to end?! An astonishing amount of talent and experience has left auDA.
When will the board do something? How far do things need to go?
A desperate need for change.
Some directors must surely be worried by this scorched earth policy?
See no evil
speak. No evil
hear no evil
that is what happens when politicians make decisions