Brian Cute – Appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry.ORG, The Public Interest Registry (PIR)—manager of the world’s third largest generic top-level domain—today appointed Mr. Brian Cute as chief executive officer. With more than 12 years of experience in the Internet and communications industry, Mr. Cute will assume his leadership position on February 1, 2011.

Prior to joining PIR, Mr. Cute served as vice president of discovery services for Afilias, the world’s leading provider of Internet infrastructure solutions that connect people to their data and registry systems provider to PIR for the .ORG domain. His experience within the domain name system (DNS) runs deep, having had management positions in both a leading domain name registrar, Network Solutions, as director of policy, and a leading registry, Verisign, as vice president of government relations until 2003. He has led initiatives on wait-list service, private domain registrations, the elimination of Bulk WHOIS, and numerous other ICANN policy matters and has a keen interest in the development of the Internet of Things.

“PIR’s core mission is to serve the public interest and provide a safer, more secure Internet. Those primary values echo throughout Brian’s work and general approach,” said Maarten Botterman, chairman of the board and interim chief executive officer. “As Chairman of the Accountability and Transparency Review Team at ICANN, Brian has constructively advanced the ongoing debate of getting the Internet industry to function more explicitly and effectively. We at PIR are pleased to have him on board, and we look confidently towards a future in which PIR will continue to step up in the public interest.”

Mr. Cute added: “I have long admired the work being accomplished by PIR and am eager to work alongside its team to promote and achieve a safer Internet as well as advance .ORG’s position as a leading domain among registries, for registrars and as a trusted resource for Internet users. I welcome the opportunity to build on PIR’s impressive and successful track record.”

A lawyer by trade, Mr. Cute began his career representing the competitive telecommunications service providers. He subsequently served as senior counsel at Teleglobe Communications, advising country managers on the expansion of Teleglobe’s submarine cable, satellite and terrestrial network in Europe and Asia. For more information on Mr. Cute and .ORG, The Public Interest Registry, please go to www.pir.org.