Paul Twomey was the Chief Executive Officer and President of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) from March 2003 to June 2009. ICANN is the chief rule-making body for internet policy worldwide.
Following a private-sector role as a consultant for McKinsey & Company, Dr Twomey held executive positions within the Australian Government's foreign trade organisation Austrade. His role there included working on strategic development and European markets.
He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) in 1997, a Commonwealth Government unit responsible for developing Internet policy. His involvement with ICANN began at this time. Subsequently he chaired the ICANN Government Advisory Committee,[1] which served as the organisation's liaison with world governments.
Following his departure from NOIE, Dr Twomey created a consultancy with Ira Magaziner (Domestic Policy Adviser to former US President Bill Clinton) called Argo P@cific.[2] He continued to serve on the ICANN GAC until November 2002, through an ongoing posting as external advisor to Australia's Commonwealth Government.
Dr Twomey is a member of the British-North American Committee. He also serves on the board of directors of the Atlantic Council of the United States and chairs the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Future of the Internet. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Queensland, a Master of Arts from Pennsylvania State University and a PhD from Cambridge University.
On 27 March 2003 he was elected to his current position at ICANN. On 2 March 2009, during the opening ceremony of ICANN's 34th international meeting in Mexico City, Dr Twomey mentioned that he would be leaving ICANN in June while remaining as Senior President until the end of the year.[3] His name has recently been mentioned in relation to the Commonwealth Government's proposed National Broadband Network.[4]