Former .uk Domain Registry Director Bounces Back
NOT SO DOWNCAST - Phil Buckingham is all smiles as he's seen photographed with Helmuts Meškonis attending ICANN79, Puerto Rico, in the Caribbean, last Monday.
Wednesday 6 March, 2024
Despite his abrupt resignation from the Nominet board last July, Phil Buckingham, 66, appears to have landed on his feet. His presence at the ICANN79 event, sporting a noticeable suntan, gives the appearance of a positive outlook for him.
DomainCrawls had previously covered Buckingham’s resignation as a non-executive director (NED) at Nominet UK, an organisation responsible for overseeing the .uk domain name registry. His decision to resign from the board last July was unexpected.
Nominet publicly announced on 5th July 2023 that “Due to personal circumstances, Phil Buckingham is stepping down from the Nominet board with immediate effect. We thank Phil for his service to the company as a member-elected non-executive director and wish him well for the future. Phil is approaching the end of his 3-year term and will not be taking part in this year’s director elections, which will continue as planned.”
Buckingham's sudden resignation, with no personal statement and his last public communication on X.com (formally Twitter) dating back to September 2020, sparked curiosity and speculation. Buckingham still seems to run a website with a copyright statement dating back to 2011. However, it appears that the website has not been updated for quite some time and does not mention either his past role at Nominet or any role since.
DomainCrawls highlighted the absence of any disclosed issues during Buckingham's tenure, noting the peculiarity of Nominet's announcement of his non-participation in the upcoming 2023 board elections before the candidate list was made public.
Later revelations suggest Buckingham's resignation was tied to a discovered County Court Judgement (CCJ) against him, a detail that may have been particularly galling for Nominet given his role on the Investment Committee, a committee which hadn't made any notable investments since he joined it. There is no suggestion that either Buckingham or Nominet were aware of the CCJ at the time he joined either the Board or the Investment Committee.
According to a DomainCrawls source, after his departure last July, Buckingham is said "to have been given a three-month severance", which DomainCrawls understands would total approximately £6000 after tax, an unusual departing perk for non-executive directors. Any decision to award Buckingham a payout "would have been made solely at the board's discretion" and "would have no doubt spared them from the ignominy had details of the matter become public knowledge at the time."
An attendee who asked to remain anonymous told DomainCrawls that "Buckingham was observed discussing his reasons for leaving Nominet" at a domain name summit, organised by Helmuts Meškonis in London last August. This openness contrasted with Nominet's decision to skip the event, which was sponsored by IT.COM, a domain acquired by Intis Telecom for $3.8 million.
Intis Telecom's unique approach to offering third-level .it.com domain names rather than using the domain for its brand sparked interest, with DomainCrawls previously seeking insights on the strategy's effectiveness and market demand, however DomainCrawls has not received answers to the questions that were put to Meškonis by us about this last August.
Buckingham, Meškonis and Nominet have been contacted for comment.
Tuesday 12 March 2024
This article has been updated to provide additional clarity.
DomainCrawls Newsroom