very moving with partners prime movers
all over the world as exhibited
exemplified by our host here this is
what makes the internet work this is
what makes a global community and it is
i think if you share the same feelings i
have the same things that drive all of
us and motivate us to be involved i
guess i should also add a word of
appreciation as well to the people that
we don't name and give honorific titles
to who do all the work i was flashing
back to a time about 30 years ago when i
put a 2 years into helping organize a
meeting in 1985 and the amount of work
that goes in behind the scenes is
absolutely incredible meetings all the
time or a continuous basis and then
holding your breath to make sure that
all the pieces come together so personal
thanks to the host to the sponsors and
to the to echo the words that you've
just heard to all of the teams of people
and its multitude of teams it's not just
one set of people it's not just a small
set that take care of every element of
making it possible for us to get
together and do the work that we have to
do here today so thank you again
well it was mentioned that this guy
named chehade is going to leave pretty
soon I think that makes us all quite sad
actually so while we welcome in a new
era we think I man who's been
instrumental making all of this happen
it's been quite a ride I have to say
again personally this is fadi chehade is
last I can meeting as a CEO it's not
really an understatement to say that he
has transformed I can to a degree that
no one imagined possible when he first
came on board almost four years ago and
let me make that let me emphasize that
personally he often refers to me as his
boss which I always had kind of have a
smile because I don't think that it's
possible to keep up with it much less be
in charge of him but I have had the
privilege of having a front-row seat and
and pretty good access to him even
though he runs at light speed and the
earliest conversations that I had with
him as he came on board as here's the
situation we're in it I can we have we
have started in 1998 there's a small
detail that we have a contract with the
US government see if you can do
something about that had no idea the
kinds of things that we're going to come
from that and I try to think as broadly
and out of the boxes i can and i still
have been surprised in a very positive
sense Julie it's been extraordinary and
that's not all so I have a list of
accomplishments which I'm obliged to go
through he oversaw the largest-ever
expansion of the domain name system by
implementing the new generic top-level
domains program yes that had been in the
works for several years but the
execution of it was challenging
nonetheless and we have pulled it off
and I can tell you that even though he
spends almost all of his time on
airplanes he still managed to get some
things done at home and this took quite
a lot of work
he's made us a truly international
organization instituted the concept of
what we call tricorders sort of Smashing
our headquarters in 23 and opening up
hubs in Singapore in Istanbul in
addition to the existing Los Angeles hub
to be fair they are not yet totally
symmetric and balanced but we're getting
there and a set a direction that i think
is vital for our mindset and our
operation in the coming years and in
addition to these hubs we have
engagement centers all over the world
and I expect more to come and yet living
within our resources I expect it will be
a balanced operation that takes care of
the things that are happening at
breakneck speed on a day-to-day basis
he's all fur coats also oversaw the
formation of a five-year strategic plan
give me that translates into stability
and resilience for both I can and the
DNS the bottom line is that he didn't
just expand the organization but he
oversaw its maturation the list of
accomplishments goes on and on but
perhaps the most valuable contribution
to this organization is something that
does not fit easily into a recitation
like this or on to powerpoint slides
he's brought humility and passion to I
can in a remarkable manner and he's
framed it with a sense of human decency
that is simply unmatched what I'm
talking about now is not fatty the CEO
but Fadi the man like to show you a
brief video that I believe captures
vaghti the man