The Board of Directors of Public Interest Registry (PIR) unanimously selected Jonathon Nevett as president and chief executive officer, effective Dec. 17.
Reston, Va.-based PIR is the nonprofit operator of the .org domain. With deep expertise in the domain name industry, Nevett will guide the growth of the .org domain while advancing advocacy efforts in support of collaboration, safety and security on the internet.
“Jon’s combination of industry expertise, commercial experience, ethical values and commitment to our nonprofit mission means we will continue our leadership as an exemplary registry,” Lise Fuhr, chair of the Public Interest Registry Board of Directors, said via a press release announcing the appointment.
Board member Jay Daley had been serving as interim CEO since May when Brian Cute resigned as CEO after seven years leading the organization. Cute succeeded Alexa Raad, who was CEO for more than three years.
Nevett will spearhead PIR’s strategy to expand the reach of the .org domain, strengthen security and resiliency, and advance outreach and education to the millions of forward-looking organizations and individuals that rely on Public Interest Registry’s domains.
Nevett co-founded Donuts Inc. in 2010 and helped to raise in excess of $150 million to form a registry of more than 240 top-level domains. He served as Donuts’ executive vice president for corporate affairs and on its Board of Directors. Nevett is also a founding board member of the Domain Name Association, the domain name industry’s trade association. Previously, Nevett was senior vice president at Network Solutions, where he was responsible for policy, government affairs, registry relations, and the corporate ethics office. He also served as chair of the board of NameJet and Central Registry Solutions.
Nevett has served on numerous task forces, working groups and panels for ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). He is a member of the ICANN Nominating Committee and served on ICANN’s IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group, the group tasked with steering the move of this function from the United States Government to the global multi-stakeholder community. In 2009, he was appointed to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Online Safety and Technology Working Group related to issues of child safety and the internet.
Nevett received his Juris Doctor cum laude from Harvard Law School and his undergraduate degree with honors from Binghamton University. He serves as a member of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the Green Acres School, a progressive school in Rockville, Md.
