YNOT – Only months after launching dot-xxx, Stuart Lawley has stepped down as chairman of the International Foundation for Online Responsibility, the nonprofit organization tasked with setting standards and practices for the dot-xxx domain space. He will remain chairman and chief executive officer of ICM Registry, the for-profit company accredited to oversee dot-xxx domain registrations.

Clyde Beattie, CEO of Yorkland Investment Corp. and former chairman of the Canadian Internet Registry Authority, has been named to replace Lawley as IFFOR chairman. Beattie has served on the inaugural IFFOR board of directors since June.

Lawley stepped down before the first meeting of IFFOR’s Policy Council, which was created to provide input to IFFOR’s board of directors as the board defines and begins to enforce responsible business practices and conduct within the dot-xxx space. He has taken some heat from the adult entertainment community over helming both IFFOR and ICM, which he has said were designed to operate independently of one another.

“IFFOR is specifically structured to ensure separation from ICM Registry,” Lawley said Thursday. “But with my name front of house for both organizations, I felt it appeared to many there wasn’t enough of a clear separation between the two.

“On top of that, it has become clear through the recent success of the dot-xxx sunrise period that I would be hard-pushed to give both organizations my fullest attention.”

With Lawley’s departure, the IFFOR board will consist of Beattie, Sebastian Bachollet, a Frenchman who is CEO of BBS Consulting and a member of the board of directors for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and ICM Registry General Counsel Sheri Falco.

“I’m delighted to be in a position to lead IFFOR,” Beattie said. “It is going to be a major global contributor to the protection of children online, internet safety and the support of free expression. While we are losing an extremely talented and forward-thinking innovator in Stuart, with the quality of people we have on both the board and the Policy Council, IFFOR will go from strength to strength.”

Photo: Stuart Lawley, left, and Clyde Beattie