Alan Woods

Alan Woods

Chief Legal and Policy Officer at CleanDNS
Joined on July 2, 2026
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About

Alan Woods is the Chief Legal and Policy Officer of CleanDNS, an anti-online harms company that supports registry, registrars, hosts, cybersecurity companies and brand protection companies in effective, evidence-based management of online harms. A professionally qualified Barrister (Ireland) with qualifications in data protection and e-law, Alan brings a distinctive combination of legal, compliance, and operational expertise to internet governance policy.

Alan has extensive experience in internet governance policy development, with particular depth in domain name system (DNS) policy, registration data privacy, and DNS abuse mitigation. He has held leadership and representative roles across multiple stakeholder groups, including serving as Vice Chair Administration of the Registries Stakeholder Group (2022-2023) and as a voting representative for one of the largest registry operators from the last round of new gTLDs. His policy work includes serving as a representative on the Expedited Policy Development Process on Registration Data, negotiating contract amendments addressing DNS abuse, and co-drafting data processing specifications governing obligations between contracted parties and coordinating bodies. He has also contributed to technical security advisory publications on interoperability in DNS abuse management and co-chaired a security framework initiative.

Beyond ICANN, Alan was appointed by the European Commission led .EU Multistakeholder Advisory Group in March 2025. As a former compliance and policy professional for one of the largest registry operators of the last round of new gTLDs, he has firsthand experience of the operational impacts of ICANN policy on registry and registrar operations.

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2026 - Jul 03 on What the Interisle Report Reveals, and What It Doesn't, About DNS Abuse