Frankfurt am Main, 1 October 2021 The management team of the central registry and technical operator of the German country code Top Level Domain .de, DENIC, is regrouping: With effect from 1 October 2021, Thomas Keller joins the DENIC Executive Board as new full-time member. Already appointed in June by the Supervisory Board and the DENIC General Assembly, Thomas Keller succeeds Dr. Jörg Schweiger, who will terminate his contract as of 31 December 2021. The other full-time member of the Executive Board remains Andreas Musielak, the Executive Board’s honorary members continue to be Martin Küchenthal and Sebastian Röthler. Thomas Keller brings in to the new position long years of comprehensive experience and expertise in the international domain industry: As Director Domain Services of 1&1 IONOS SE he has helped to build up and been responsible for the domain business of today's largest Internet service provider in Europe since 1997. In this position, he also established good connections to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), where he represented the European registrars in ICANN's sub-organisation GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization) from 2003 to 2008. Thomas Keller already is well familiar with the special characteristics and challenges of DENIC eG as the manager of the German namespace on the Internet (.de) from the perspective of the DENIC Supervisory Board, of which he was a member from 2007 to May 2021, holding the position of chair since 2013. The Chairman of the DENIC Supervisory Board, Dr. Johannes Loxen, expresses his thanks in the name of the Cooperative to the Executive Board member Dr. Jörg Schweiger, leaving at the end of the year, and welcomes his successor Thomas Keller: "I am pleased that with Tom Keller we were able to win an experienced expert of the domain industry for DENIC. He will easily integrate into the Board team without much induction being required." The new member to the Executive Board Thomas Keller is looking forward to his new challenge as part of the management of DENIC eG: "As the operator of an indispensable basic infrastructure for the Internet in Germany, a vital resource of the future, DENIC is an important cornerstone for ensuring that the digital transformation of society in this country can succeed on a sustainable basis. I am very proud to now share this special responsibility in a leading position and to play an active role in shaping DENIC’s further future-oriented development. For me, this includes a clear commitment to continuously strengthen DENIC's business excellence and thus ensure the maximum availability and utmost security of all our services and systems for the German and the international Internet community on a permanent basis." Kind regards Susanne Knauf-Hochvárt Public Relations --DENIC eG | Kaiserstraße 75 - 77 | 60329 Frankfurt am Main | GERMANY E-Mail: [email protected] | Fon: +49 69 27235-274 | Fax: -235 https://www.denic.de