Nominet UK

Last updated

Nominet UK
Formation24 May 1996;28 years ago (1996-05-24) [1]
Type Nonprofit
Legal statusCompany Limited by Guarantee
Location
  • Oxford, United Kingdom
Region served
United Kingdom
ServicesccTLD registry, cyber security
Membership (2020/21)
2500
Chair
Andy Green
CEO
Paul Fletcher (effective February 2022)
Elected Non-Executive Director
Simon Blackler
Elected Non-Executive Director
Ashley La Bolle
Subsidiaries Nominet US Inc.
Website www.nominet.uk

Nominet UK is currently delegated by IANA to be the manager of the .uk domain name. [2] Nominet directly manages registrations directly under .uk, and some of the second level domains .co.uk, .org.uk, .sch.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk. [3]

Contents

Nominet also manages the .wales and .cymru domains. [4]

As of February 2021, the .uk register held 10,922,477 .uk domain names. [5] This represents a year-on-year downward trend, when compared to February 2020, this is mainly due to the lapsing of the recently launched .uk domain names. [6]

Nominet was founded by Dr. Willie Black and five others on 14 May 1996 when its predecessor, the "Naming Committee" was unable to deal with the volume of registrations then being sought under the .uk domain. [7] Nominet is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. It has members who act as shareholders, but without the right to participate in the profits of the company. Anyone can become a member, but most members are internet service providers who are also registrars.

Customers wishing to register a domain can approach Nominet directly but will generally register the domain via a domain registrar – a business entity authorized by Nominet to register and manage .uk domains on behalf of customers. Registrars for .uk domains were formerly known as "tagholders".

Nominet also deals with disputes about registrations of .uk domain names, via its Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) [8] which is similar to the UDRP system used for generic Top Level Domain Names,[ further explanation needed ] but with certain innovations such as a free mediation service.

In 2008 Nominet launched a charitable foundation, the Nominet Trust, and contributed some of its profits to it. [9] In May 2018 Nominet relinquished control over the organisation, [10] which was renamed Social Tech Trust [11] and announced a "strategic partnership with Social Tech Business". [12] By 2020 the income of Social Tech Trust had fallen to £99,000 from £5.6 million in 2018. [13]

In February 2021 over 140 members requested an extraordinary general meeting to vote on removing five board directors, including the chair, and to appoint Michael Lyons, former chairman of the BBC, and Axel Pawlik, former Managing Director of RIPE NCC. The EGM was held on 22 March 2021 and the five directors were removed. [14] Rob Binns, a former Group Treasurer at HP Inc. and then CFO at The Access Group, was appointed as acting chair. [15] [16]

History

Most countries have their own top-level domain (TLD). The .uk TLD was first used in 1985. [17] and at that time a voluntary group called the "Naming Committee" managed the registration of .uk domain names. This consisted of members of LINX as full members (the main ISPs in the UK), and their resellers as guest members. By the mid-1990s, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who registered domains for their customers were joined by a new breed of domain name specialists who had an entrepreneurial attitude to domain names. The Naming Committee operated a ruleset that forced all name registrations to 'exactly' match the name of the registering company and also limited all companies to a single domain name. The growth of the commercial internet soon brought these restrictions into close focus. As demand for domain name registrations grew, it became clear that a voluntary group could no longer cope with the volume of registrations being requested. [18] It also became clear that the existing ruleset was not sustainable and the Naming Committee was going to break down under the pressure of registrations.

Forming of Nominet UK

When it became clear that a new organization with a new approach was needed to manage the .uk TLD, the Naming Committee mailing list had mutated into a discussion group for domain name issues and many discussions about what type of corporation the Registry should be were held. Meanwhile, at UKERNA, Dr. Willie Black and John Carey were watching the situation and in 1996 John Carey wrote a proposed plan for a new organization to be called Nominet. This was distributed widely, and a meeting to discuss ways forward was held at a hotel at Heathrow Airport on 11 April 1996.

The options to set up as a profit-making company or a charity were rejected, and Nominet was established on 14 May 1996 as a private, not-for-profit membership company, limited by guarantee. [19] Whilst the move was generally popular, there was strong resistance from some parts of the industry. [20] Although formed with a board composed of Dr. Black (who became the first CEO of the new company), John Carey, and the four co-founders drawn from the internet industry, [21] elections were held by the new membership which resulted in the first elected board members to oversee the growth of the UK domain name industry. John Carey resigned before taking up his role following a disagreement over the creation of police.uk

Pre-Nominet domain names

From Nominet's inception on 1 July 1996 until 2002 domains registered pre-Nominet were provided free of charge. [22] In 2002, as had been hinted at its inception in 1996, [23] Nominet began a process over two years of migrating those domains onto Nominet standard terms and conditions and implementing charging. [22] Those domains can be identified within the whois results as having a registration date of before August 1996. [22]

Controversy

In 2011 The Independent published an article containing quotes about people trying to demutualize Nominet for their own benefit. [24]

Failure of investments

Under the tenure of Russell Haworth, a former mergers and acquisition specialist, Nominet invested heavily into autonomous vehicles, the Internet of things, and white-space spectrum management which did not pan out. Despite these outcomes, board salaries continued to rise. [25]

Structural issues

Nominet's success brought with it several structural concerns. Over time, it built considerable cash reserves. In 1999, candidates stood for the board on a platform similar to 'carpetbagging' attempts with mutual building societies; [26] whilst this was defeated, [27] following a financial report from Alex Bligh, one of the founders, covering the potential conflict between turning a profit to maintaining sufficient financial reserves and its goal of maintaining long-term profit and loss neutrality. [28]

Nominet has consistently increased the salaries of its employees, especially directors. Average salaries have increased from £28,542 in 2002 to £60,276 in 2014. In the same period, the highest-paid director went from £125,000 to £308,000. [29]

Closure of Members' Forum

Speaking at Nominet's 2020 annual general meeting (AGM), the organization's CEO Russell Haworth shocked members by announcing he was shutting down its internal web forum – the only means of independent communication between members – effective immediately. [30] [31]

Voting irregularities

Nominet admitted it wrongly calculated election results for its board of directors in 2018 and 2019. [32] [33]

Domain names

In 2019, customers of 123-Reg and Namesco were invoiced for domain names that were reserved for free by Nominet. [34]

.uk registry watchers noticed unexpected changes in ownership of various .uk names, including sunset.uk, waterfall.uk, pad.uk and trending.uk, all of which were sold by Fasthosts to one or more industry insiders in advance of the domains being released by Nominet rather than going through the proper public process. [35] [34]

Nominet introduction of .uk to compete with .co.uk and .org.uk has resulted in increased cost to UK brand owners and caused much confusion amongst registrants. [36] [37]

In July 2020 Nominet announced a new policy consultation for expiring .uk domain names, [38] but it has been mired with controversy as it seems not to be in the public's benefit. [37] [39] [40] [41]

2021 removal of directors

On 29 January 2021, an email request was made to Rory Kelly, the Nominet company secretary to provide a list of members of Nominet.

On 3 February 2021, Rory Kelly, company secretary responded to the request by printing out the Nominet members list on 575 sheets of A4 paper, omitting the contact email addresses of members, and posting the bundle to the registered company address of the original requester. In response, the recipient Krystal Hosting arranged for 575 trees to be planted "to offset Nominet's nonsense". [42]

On 2 February 2021, over 140 members wrote to the board of directors via Rory Kelly the company secretary calling for a general meeting to propose two ordinary resolutions: [43]

  1. Remove Eleanor Bradley, Russell Haworth, Ben Hill, Jane Tozer and Mark Wood as directors before expiration of their respective periods of office and despite anything in any agreement between them and Nominet UK; and
  2. Appoint Sir Michael Lyons and Axel Pawlik as directors. [44] [45]
Nominet members list, printed out on 575 individual sheets of paper, instead of being supplied electronically under the Companies Act 2006 Nominet-2021-egm-members-list-on-paper-575-pages.jpg
Nominet members list, printed out on 575 individual sheets of paper, instead of being supplied electronically under the Companies Act 2006

Rory Kelly, Company Secretary [46] stated that the number of votes each member was entitled to cast would not be released until the results had been published. [33]

Following the EGM the motion to remove the directors was passed, confirming the removal of the five board directors. Nominet stated that "Eleanor Bradley and Ben Hill remain in their executive posts." [15]

Voting pledges

Nominet announced that they would not release the number of votes each member is entitled to cast, including to the members themselves, until after the vote had taken place. [33] The voting rights of the members were subsequently released after the EGM. [47]

In the lead up to the vote at the EGM a number of Nominet members publicly announced their position on the resolution to be tabled at the EGM:

Publicly for:

  1. Tucows, the largest domain registrar, announced they would support the removal of the directors. [48] [49]
  2. Namecheap [50]
  3. LINX, the UK's largest Internet peering point, following a unanimous board decision. [51]
  4. Krystal Hosting, the company whose owner started the campaign. [25] [52]

Publicly against:

  1. Blacknight [25]

Publicly abstained:

  1. Google announced that it did not intend to vote on the motion. [50] [53]

Result

The Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) was held on 22 March 2021. [54] The motion to remove the five directors from the board was carried with 53.5% of the votes for the motion, and 47.26% against. [55] [56]

Five of the original Nominet founders (Richard Almeida, Willie Black, Alex Bligh, Keith Mitchell, and Nigel Titley) pledged their "commitment to support Sir Michael Lyons and Axel Pawlik if they are appointed to the board of Nominet UK, in whatever way we reasonably can with matters relating to the future of Nominet". [57]

Response

By 31 March 2021, Nominet had made four internal appointments: [58]

  1. Rob Binns, as acting chair of the Board (a previous board member) [58] : 3 
  2. Eleanor Bradley, as interim CEO (Nominet COO, and former board member) [58] : 3 
  3. Rory Kelly, as board member (Nominet Company Secretary) [58] : 2 
  4. Adam Leach, as board member (Nominet Chief Information Officer) [58] : 2 

Appointment of Kelly and Leach to the board had occurred on 22 March 2021, corresponding to the date of the EGM. [59] [60]

On 7 April 2021, Bradley, as interim CEO, stated that Nominet would begin to regularly publish the voting rights of members. [61]

On 12 April 2021 Sir Michael Lyons and Alex Pawlik sent a joint letter to the acting Chair Rob Binns. [62] The remnant board of Nominet subsequently announced: "After much careful consideration, the board has decided not to invite Sir Michael to be acting chair". [63]

By 13 April 2021 Nominet had selected Russell Reynolds Associates to seek a replacement chair of Nominet on an initial three-year term. [64]

By 15 April 2021 survey responses from 200 Nominet members that had supported the earlier EGM, showed 97% support for calling a second EGM, with confidence in the board decreasing to 1.3 out of 10. [65] [66]

On 22 July 2021, Nominet stated that Andy J. Green CBE had been appointed new chair of the board, along with Eva Lindqvist as a new independent director, from 21 July 2021. [67] Priorities would be reduction of costs and executive pay, re-building of trust with the membership, and restoration of Nominet's public benefit purpose and charitable proceeds. [67]

2021 Annual General Meeting

Nominet's Annual General Meeting (AGM) was scheduled for 18 November 2021. Prior to the AGM, elections were held to appoint two new member-elected non-executive directors to the Nominet board. Public Benefit candidates received the highest votes, having Simon Blackler elected immediately with over 50 percent of first-preference votes, followed by Ashley La Bolle of Tucows taking 35% of the vote. [68] Blackler and La Bolle replaced out-going directors James Bladel of GoDaddy (who had not stood for re-election), and David Thornton, who "defended the previous management's actions", had received six percent of the votes. [68] It was announced that BCS CEO Paul Fletcher would takeover as Nominet CEO from February 2022. [69]

Votes held at the 2021 AGM formally appointed Andy Green and Eva Lindqvist, both for three years, with over 94% of votes. Stephen Page (who "was opposed by the Public Benefit campaign") received 51.4% of weighted votes for an extension of one year as a director. [70] [71]

2022

Paul Fletcher was appointed as replacement CEO of Nominet starting in February 2022. In the first days Fletcher joined the board and held a meeting with members. [72]

On 10 March 2022, Nominet announced [73] it would be "not accepting registrations from registrars in Russia – we are suspending the relevant tags" and in doing so became the first previously neutral ccTLD in history to reposition itself as non-neutral.

Non-core activities

Nominet also delivers the National Cyber Security Centre's Protective Domain Name Service (PDNS) [74] since 2016, protecting the UK public sector's internet traffic.

A £4 million investment into registry services was announced in February 2020 [75] alongside the acquisition of US-based cyber security company CyGlass. [76]

Registry

Top-level domains

Nominet manages the registry of the following top-level domains:

Second-level domains managed by Nominet

Nominet manages the following second-level domains:

Second-level domains managed by other organisations

Quasi second-level domains

The following are widely used as second-level domains but are registered with Nominet as top-level domains:

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "NOMINET UK - Overview (Free company information from Companies House)".
  2. ↑ "IANA — .uk Domain Delegation Data". www.iana.org. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  3. ↑ "Rules of Registration" (PDF).
  4. ↑ "Additional Domains". Nominet. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  5. ↑ ".UK Register Statistics - 2021". Nominet. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  6. ↑ ".UK Register Statistics - 2020". Nominet. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  7. ↑ Mansell, Robin; Mansell, Dixons Chair in New Media and the Internet Interdepartmental Programme in Media and Communications Robin (2002). Inside the Communication Revolution: Evolving Patterns of Social and Technical Interaction. Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-829656-0.
  8. ↑ "Introduction to .uk domain disputes". 30 January 2012. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  9. ↑ "We are pleased to announce the creation of the Nominet Foundation" . Retrieved 15 July 2009.
  10. ↑ "Cessation of Nominet Uk as a person with significant control on 9 May 2018" . Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  11. ↑ "Summary – Open Tech Trust". opencorporates.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  12. ↑ "Nominet Trust becomes Social Tech Trust". Nominet. 23 May 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  13. ↑ "SOCIAL TECH TRUST - Filing history (free information from Companies House)". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  14. ↑ McCarthy, Kieren. "Nominet faces showdown with British internet industry: Extraordinary vote called to oust CEO, board members". The Register . Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  15. 1 2 "Nominet EGM Result". Nominet. 22 March 2021. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  16. ↑ Field, Matthew (22 March 2021). "Nominet bosses voted out in row over rising pay". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  17. ↑ Yu, Peter K. (19 March 2003). The Neverending ccTLD Story (Technical report). Cardozo Law School. Public Law Research Paper No. 65; MSU-DCL Public Law Research Paper No. 01-22.
  18. ↑ "Nominet UK". Nominet. Archived from the original on 3 May 1999. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  19. ↑ "Nominet history (from archive.org)". Archived from the original on 2 June 2002. Retrieved 15 July 2009.
  20. ↑ "UK Web site owners to be charged for co.uk address, Network News". Archived from the original on 14 November 1999.
  21. ↑ "Nominet original memorandum of association" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 July 2008.
  22. 1 2 3 "Nominet UK - Pre-Nominet Domain Names". 28 June 2002. Archived from the original on 28 June 2002. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  23. ↑ "NOMINET UK". 24 June 1997. Archived from the original on 24 June 1997. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  24. ↑ Mullins, Andrew (22 October 2011). "Network: Nominet set to de-mutualise" . The Independent . Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. Retrieved 23 March 2021. Ivan Pope … a founding director of Nominet UK, said: 'My immediate response is that the carpetbaggers are among us. I suppose it's inevitable. It is an issue that has been raised before.' But Pope is against the plan. 'It would be dangerous to do this ...'
  25. 1 2 3 Francisco, Kieren McCarthy in San. "With Nominet's board-culling vote just days away, we speak to one man who will publicly support the management". The Register. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  26. ↑ Mullins, Andrew (5 July 1999). "Nominet set to demutualise" . The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  27. ↑ "A Report on the 1999 Annual General Meeting". 26 February 2000. Archived from the original on 26 February 2000. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  28. ↑ "A Report on the 1999 Annual General Meeting". 26 February 2000. Archived from the original on 26 February 2000. Retrieved 4 February 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  29. ↑ McCarthy, Kieren (25 November 2015). "Nominet to hike price of UK web domains by 50%". The Register . Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  30. ↑ ".uk registry operator Nominet responds to renewed criticism – by silencing its critics". The Register. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  31. ↑ Kevin Murphy (23 September 2020). "Nominet shuts down 'hostile' discussion forum". domainincite.com. TLD Research Ltd. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  32. ↑ ".UK overlord Nominet tells everyone not to worry about 'distorted' vote allocations in its board elections". The Register. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  33. 1 2 3 Francisco, Kieren McCarthy in San. "Big problem: Nominet members won't know how many votes they're casting in decision to oust CEO, chair". The Register. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  34. 1 2 Francisco, Kieren McCarthy in San. "What the hell is going on with .uk? Dozens of domain names sold in error, then reversed, but we'll say no more about it, says oversight org". The Register. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
  35. ↑ September 2020, Joel Khalili 18 (18 September 2020). "Something strange is going on with .uk domains". TechRadar. Retrieved 6 February 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  36. ↑ "Whose side you on, Nominet? Registry floods .co.uk owners with begging emails to renew unwanted .uk domains". The Register. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  37. 1 2 "Fasthosts finally promises to stop pushing unwanted .uk domains onto irritated customers". The Register. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  38. ↑ "Nominet announces new policy consultation for expiring .UK domains". Nominet. 16 July 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  39. ↑ "Nominet backtracks on .uk domain expiration money grab, critics still fear sweetheart deal to come". The Register. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  40. ↑ "Nominet promises .uk owners it'll listen to feedback on plan to award itself millions... as long as it agrees with it". The Register. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  41. ↑ "Nominet shakes up system for expiring .uk domains, just happens to choose one that will make it £millions. Again". The Register. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  42. ↑ "Restoring Nominet's Purpose: update". Mythic Beasts. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  43. ↑ McCarthy, Kieren. "Nominet faces showdown with British internet industry: Extraordinary vote called to oust CEO, board members". The Register. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  44. ↑ Williams, Christopher (30 January 2021). "Former BBC chairman joins bid to oust board at web registry". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  45. ↑ Blackler, Simon (2 February 2021). "Notice to call a general meeting of the membership of Nominet UK" (PDF). Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  46. ↑ "Nominet UK - Officers (free information from Companies House)". find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  47. ↑ Bennett-Meere, Jason (22 March 2021). Nominet UK Voting Rights 2021 (PDF) (Report). pp. 1‒123.
  48. ↑ "Tucows throws weight behind Nominet (.UK) initiative". Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News. 18 March 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  49. ↑ "Tucows Votes in Support of the Nominet Public Benefit Initiative". OpenSRS. 17 March 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  50. 1 2 "Nominet (.UK) could be forced to change its focus after vote next week". Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News. 16 March 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  51. ↑ Hutty, Malcolm (18 March 2021). "Statement Concerning the Forthcoming Nominet EGM". LINX. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  52. ↑ Field, Matthew (14 March 2021). "Google dragged into Nominet boardroom row". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  53. ↑ Field, Matthew (14 March 2021). "Google dragged into Nominet boardroom row". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  54. ↑ Nominet EGM ‒ 22 March 2021 (length 50:29). Nominet Member's Channel. 22 March 2021. Archived from the original on 11 December 2021 – via YouTube.
  55. ↑ Davies, Alex; Civica Election Services (22 March 2021). Nominet UK Report of Voting (PDF) (Report). Nominet. p. 1.
    • Turnout: 1372 (out of 2564 eligible) (53.5%)
    • For: 740 (=2432105 weighted) (52.74%)
    • Against: 632 (=2179477 weighted) (47.26%)
  56. ↑ McCarthy, Kieren (22 February 2021). "Chairman, CEO of Nominet ousted as member rebellion drives .uk registry back to non-commercial roots". The Register . Senior management also booted off board in extraordinary vote … a single resolution to remove all five passed narrowly [PDF] with 52.7 per cent of the vote on a turnout of 53 per cent of members. The board members 'have left the board with immediate effect,' Nominet said in a statement. Current non-executive director Rob Binns will serve as acting chair.
  57. ↑ Blackler, Simon (22 March 2021). Letter to Remnant Board (letter). Special report (Report). Public Benefit UK. p. 3. We, the undersigned, being Founders of Nominet UK, hereby pledge our commitment to support Sir Michael Lyons and Axel Pawlik if they are appointed to the board of Nominet UK, in whatever way we reasonably can with matters relating to the future of Nominet.
  58. 1 2 3 4 5 Shaw, Adam; Binns, Rob (31 March 2021). Update from Acting Chair Rob Binns (PDF) (Report). pp. 1–3. Retrieved 31 March 2021. we have appointed CIO Adam Leach and Company Secretary Rory Kelly to the Board. ... offered Axel [Pawlik] a role as an advisor to the Board ... Axel has decided to decline this offer ... named Eleanor Bradley to the role of interim CEO for approximately 6 months ... we will draw on reserves for approximately £20 million for major investment in our technical registry infrastructure. ... We are acutely aware that the closure of the member forum was a flashpoint. ... search for a new head of member engagement
  59. ↑ Mr Rory Brendan Kelly. Appointment of Director (Report). Nominet UK. Companies House. 22 March 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021. Date of Appointment: [2021-03-22]
  60. ↑ Mr Adam Harvey Leach. Appointment of Director (Report). Nominet UK. Companies House. 22 March 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021. Date of Appointment: [2021-03-22]
  61. ↑ Bradley, Eleanor (7 April 2021). "Delivering Change". Nominet web. Nominet. Retrieved 14 April 2021. publishing a full list of members and their associated voting rights on a routine basis throughout the year.
  62. ↑ Sir Michael Lyons; Pawlik, Axel (12 April 2021). Letter to Rob Binns, Acting Chairman of Nominet (PDF) (letter). Retrieved 13 April 2021– via Public Benefit.uk.
  63. ↑ McCarthy, Kieren (13 April 2021). "Nominet chooses civil war over compromise by rejecting ex-BBC Trust chairman". The Register . Retrieved 14 April 2021. 'After much careful consideration, the board has decided not to invite Sir Michael to be acting chair,' said Nominet's acting chairman Rob Binns
  64. ↑ Russell Reynolds Associates (12 April 2021). Applications are invited for Chair, Nominet (PDF) (invitation). Nominet. pp. 1‒2. Retrieved 13 April 2021. Nominet has retained Russell Reynolds Associates to advise on this appointment. ... appointment will initially be for a three-year term. ... closing date ... 29 April 2021
  65. ↑ Kundaliya, Dev (15 April 2021). "97 per cent of campaigners want second EGM to clear Nominet board". Computing . Retrieved 16 April 2021. Nominet's board achieved a confidence rating of just 1.3 out of 10 in Public Benefit's survey of its supporters, who include nearly 500 Nominet members, 74 per cent of UK top 50 members and 31 per cent of the voting rights.
  66. ↑ McCarthy, Kieren (15 April 2021). "Vote to turf out remainder of Nominet board looks inevitable after .uk registry ignores reform demands". The Register . San Francisco. Retrieved 16 April 2021. After Nominet rejected Pawlik, PublicBenefit.uk surveyed its supporters about the possibility of a second EGM, and 88 per cent of them supported it, with the board given a 2.4 out of 10 confidence rating. When Sir Michael was then also rejected, attitudes hardened and 96.62 per cent of them decided it was necessary to remove the rest of the board. ... Nominet has repeatedly failed to even respond to questions from The Register ... as well as appointing a removed board member as interim CEO
  67. 1 2 "New Nominet Chair sets out change agenda". News & Insights (Press release). Nominet UK. 22 July 2021. Retrieved 23 July 2021. 'I start my term as Chairman committed to: controlling costs (including executive pay); delivering value to Members; restoring Nominet's reputation for great Public Benefit work at scale and; communicating transparently with members about the future direction of Nominet. Nominet is a public benefit company, and that must be our North Star. The work we do and the way we use the proceeds of that work, must align. Trust must be rebuilt and the next phase of change will address the fundamentals that will shape the company's future.'
  68. 1 2 McCarthy, Kieren. "Chap who campaigned to oust Nominet's CEO and chairman and reform the .UK registry is elected as non-exec director". The Register . San Francisco.
  69. ↑ Hurst, Aaron (18 November 2021). "Nominet appoints Paul Fletcher as CEO". Information Age. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  70. ↑ McCarthy, Kieren (19 November 2021). "Nominet names new CEO as new chair promises real reform". The Register . San Francisco. Retrieved 29 November 2021. Updated to add: The results of five resolutions reappointing Nominet's chair, two directors and auditors are now in. They all passed almost unanimously (94‒99 per cent approval) with the exception of the reappointment of Stephen Page, which was opposed by the Public Benefit campaign. Page squeaked in, with just 51.4 per cent of Nominet members approving his reappointment and 48.6 per cent opposing it.
  71. ↑ Civica Election Services (19 November 2021). Report of Voting (PDF) (Report). Nominet UK AGM 2021. Nominet. p. 2. Retrieved 29 November 2021. Resolution 5 [Stephen Page] ... For: [weighted votes:] 1,200,297; [head count votes:] 207; [% of valid votes:] 51.41%. Against: [weighted votes:] 1,134,289; [head count votes:] 307; [% of valid votes:] 48.59%.
  72. ↑ Meet Paul Fletcher, New CEO of Nominet. Nominet. 10 February 2022. Retrieved 25 February 2022– via Vimeo.
  73. ↑ "An update on Ukraine". Nominet. 10 March 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  74. ↑ "Protective DNS (PDNS)". National Cyber Security Centre. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  75. ↑ "Nominet announces strategic investments in registry and cyber". Nominet. 20 February 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  76. ↑ "CyGlass - Network Defense as a Service". CyGlass. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
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