Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
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Nick Ashton-Hart, Director for At-Large
Nick Ashton-Hart is Director of At-Large for ICANN, where he is responsible for assisting and supporting the community of Individual Internet Users engaged in ICANN represent their views and in providing the staf and technical infrastructure to help them do so.
Previously to his engagement to ICANN, he was engaged in providing specialised services to non-governmental organisations, civil society representatives, for-profit and non profit industrial representatives in coalition-building, multilateral treaty development and strategies for being successful in interaction with UN agencies and member states. He specialises in helping disparate groups find common ground on difficult issues and then helping take that consensus and effectively represent it to audiences across the spectrum, political, industrial, for-profit and non-profit.
He has served as a Director and Managing Director of various companies in various market sectors during his professional career, including as the Executive Director of the International Music Managers Forum (IMMF) the NGO representing the interests of music managers and their clients, the featured artist community, at the global level.
In the private sector he has led a successful IT consultancy, providing consulting services for companies in transition, or during reorganisations or periods of rapid growth. He has been engaged at various times as a temporary IT Director or CTO/CIO.
He has been a participant in multilateral negotiations in fields as diverse as sustainable unban development (UN HABITAT II Conference, Istanbul, 1996 and preparatory conferences), and Intellectual Property (WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, 2001) for more than 15 years, where he has traditionally helped coalitions of NGOs work together in affecting the multilateral outcomes of these process reflect their views and those of the constituencies they represent.
His business career began in the music industry managing the careers of performers such as the "Godfather of Soul" the late James Brown and Heaven 17, which involved the practical application of intellectual property law and the management of people of diverse skill sets and backgrounds, projects with multi-million-dollar budgets and revenues, as well as complex negotiations of long-term recording, publishing, sponsorship, and other contractual arrangements.