About: Michael M. Roberts is a policy consultant in the field of Internet technology, services and product development, with a specialization in research and education.

Most recently, he was the first President and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), serving from its inception in 1998 until March 2001. ICANN is a non-profit corporation which was formed at the request of the United States Government to serve as the means for privatizing, managing and protecting the stability of the Domain Name and Address systems of the Internet.

From 1986-96, he was Vice President at EDUCOM, a consortium of 600 universities and colleges with interests in information technology, where he was responsible for networking and telecommunications programs, including the development of public policy positions in information technology on behalf of EDUCOM members. He was for a number of years staff director of the EDUCOM Networking and Telecommunications Task Force, a group of sixty universities and corporations with common networking interests.

In 1996-97, he was a founder and the first director of Internet2, a project of more than two hundred American universities to plan, integrate and deploy an advanced broadband network and applications for research and education.

In 1990-92, he was a Co-founder, Trustee and the first Executive Director (seconded from EDUCOM) of the Internet Society, whose purpose is to promote the use of the Internet and guide its further development for both public interest and private enterprise purposes

Prior to joining EDUCOM, he was at Stanford University where he was Deputy Director of Information Technology Services, with executive responsibilities in Stanford’s computing, communications, and information systems programs. During 1983-86, he directed the university’s telecommunications modernization project, which provided a comprehensive campuswide fiber optic based network and digital voice facilities.

Mr. Roberts is a liberal arts graduate of Stanford and holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has been a consultant and advisor to many institutions of higher education, to the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, and to the Navy Department. He is a retired Captain in the United States Naval Reserve. He is a member and has been an officer of a number of professional societies and organizations in computing and communications, including ACM and IEEE

He is author, co-author and editor of numerous publications on networking and wrote the Introduction to “Campus Networking Strategies”. He has presented testimony to the U.S. Congress on several occasions dealing with aspects of the Internet, the National Research and Education Network (NREN), and ICANN.