announced the appointment of Edward G. Viltz as President and Chief
Executive Officer….
PIR was created to manage the .ORG registry by the Internet
Society, and is committed to setting a new standard for registry
services in its management of the .ORG top-level domain. PIR is
committed to meeting the unique needs and interests of the noncommercial Internet community around the world.
Viltz, a former IT industry executive and consultant, has been
involved in the establishment of school-based Internet and technology
partnerships between the United States and African Countries.
Previously, Viltz co-founded and served as President of Enterprise
Integration Corporation, an IT services company, was Chief Operations
Officer with Pulsar Data Systems, and held a variety of key management
posts at IBM. In addition, Viltz serves on several non-profit boards
including the One America Foundation and Progressive Life Center.
He also served on the White House council on closing the “Digital
Divide.”
“We are fortunate to have someone with Ed’s skill, insight and
commitment to public service spearheading our efforts at PIR,” said
David Maher, chairman of the PIR board. “His experience with both
technology and nonprofit organizations make him the perfect person to
fulfill our vision of making the .ORG domain to better serve
noncommercial organizations worldwide.”
“It’s exciting to be in a position of contributing to the
continuing evolution of the Internet in world-wide noncommercial
communities. We look forward to supporting the public interest through
Internet education initiatives, new services and the management of the
.ORG domain registry,” said Viltz.
The .ORG domain, which has come to be associated with
noncommercial activities, is the Internet’s third largest “generic” or
non-country specific top-level domain (behind .COM and .NET), housing
over 2.7 million domain names worldwide.
Late last year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors selected ISOC’s proposal from among
11 organizations bidding to operate the .ORG top-level domain.
VeriSign Global Registry Services’ contract as registry operator for
.ORG expired on December 31, 2002. PIR assumed control of the registry
on January 1, 2003.
ABOUT PIR
Public Interest Registry (www.pir.org) is a not-for-profit
corporation created by the Internet Society to manage the .ORG domain.
PIR’s mission is to manage the .ORG domain in a way that supports the
continuing evolution of the Internet as a research, education and
communications infrastructure, and educates and empowers the
noncommercial community to most effectively utilize the Internet.
PIR is based in Reston, Virginia.
PIR was created by the Internet Society (www.ISOC.org). ISOC a
not-for-profit, open membership organization founded in 1991 and is
dedicated to ensuring the open evolution, development and use of the
Internet for the benefit of all people.
It provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the
future of the Internet, and is the organizational home for the groups
responsible for Internet infrastructure standards.
For additional information on PIR and the .ORG registry please
visit www.pir.org.
