Our Leadership
John McElwaine
John McElwaine is the President of the IPC. John is also a Partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP, where he practices in the field of Internet law and trademarks. He has held that position since February 2000. He is the Vice Chair of the Internet Committee of INTA, involved with ICANN through NomCom and the Commercial Stakeholder Group. He has represented the IPC on the GNSO Council since AGM 2020. He is a former treasurer of the IPC.
David Hughes
David Hughes is the Co-Chair of the IPC. He supports the strengthening of online transparency and accountability by working to ensure that domain name and IP address WHOIS databases remain publicly accessible, accurate, and reliable as key tools against online infringement of copyright, as well as to combat trademark infringement, cybersquatting, phishing, and other fraudulent or criminal acts online. David is also a music industry executive.
Michael Graham
Michael Graham is the treasurer of the IPC. He is also the former Senior Corporate Counsel, Global Director of Intellectual Property for Expedia, in Bellevue, Washington. He is an active member of the International Trademark Association (INTA) and has written and spoken widely on a range of trademark, copyright, and Internet IP topics before Intellectual property organizations, business groups, and companies.
Jan Janssen
Jan Janssen is IPC Secretary. He coordinates members’ participation in the development of policies for the protection of IP rights within the Internet’s naming and numbering system. Jan is a senior dispute resolution lawyer with an interest in complex regulatory matters and technology. Jan specialises in commercial and international arbitration with a focus on intellectual property, information technology and sector liberalisation.
Margie Milam
Margie Milam is the IPC participation coordinator. She joined ICANN in 2009 and subsequently became the Vice President of Multistakeholder Strategy and Strategic Initiatives. She worked on policy initiatives for domain names, and supported the GNSO policy developments. She departed ICANN in 2017 to join Meta as IP Enforcement and DNS Policy Lead. She is a Member of the OPOC Working Group and Internet Security Ops.
Damon Ashcraft
Damon Ashcraft is an IPC GNSO council representative and submits comments to ICANN on the IPC’s behalf. He is a partner for Snell and Wilmer, LLP, and does the preparation and prosecution of patent and trademark applications. He handles the preparation and negotiations of IP license agreements while representing a variety of clients in intellectual property disputes. He identifies and protects new companies’ Intellectual Property assets.
Susan Payne
Susan Payne is a GNSO Council Representative for the IPC. Susan left her position as Head of Brand Protection for BBC Worldwide in 2014 to work for Com Laude Group as Head of Legal Policy, where she advises and advocates on legal and policy matters, including working with corporate domain registrants and new gTLD registrants, including dotBrands. Susan is a GI committee member for the International Trademark Association (INTA).