With almost 20 years of Financial Services experience, Katie Richards joined FairWinds Partners as its Director for Europe, based in Zurich. Katie has lived in Switzerland for the last 16 years and works to strengthen current customer relationships in Europe and further extend the global reach of FairWinds’ services. Katie acts as the European liaison for FairWinds’ advocacy group —the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) — to promote the Coalition’s efforts.

Prior to joining FairWinds, Katie worked at Credit Suisse from 2000 to 2009 and served in a number of roles across bank divisions most recently as Director of Innovation and Implementation within Global Research. Previous positions in the bank include Business Risk Manager for Marketing Corporate Center for CS Private and Retail Banking; Risk Manager, Controls and Compliance for e-trading; Head of Web Identity and Usability at CS Group; and as a Senior Investment Manager for CS Private Banking. In addition to her wealth of experience, Katie is a certified financial risk manager by the Global Association of Risk Practitioners (GARP) and a certified Lean Sigma Black Belt in Operational Excellence. Before Credit Suisse, Katie was a financial risk management consultant for IBM Switzerland and worked in derivatives sales for Salomon Brothers in New York, London and Zurich.

Katie has a MPhil in International Relations from King’s College Cambridge UK and an MSc. in Shipping, Trade and Finance from the Cass Business School in London. She completed her Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing and International Business from McGill University and a Diploma of Collegial Studies in Commerce at John Abbott College, both in Montreal, Canada.

The Domain Name Space: Looking back - 16 years since .com. Key observations, problems and proactive solutions.

Cybersquatting--the bad-faith registrations of domain names that exploit trademarks of global brands—is about more than just pay-per click advertising scams. Those driving cyber-squatting are targeting consumers on a grand scale, with operations relating to spam, spyware, malware, phishing, diversion, and the sale of unwanted counterfeit goods.

According to recent metrics, the practice of cyber squatting costs brand owners worldwide over $1 billion every year as a result of diverted traffic, the loss of hard-earned trust and goodwill, and the increasing enforcement expense of protecting consumers from Internet-based fraud. Excluding less tangible costs such as lost goodwill and poor customer experience, the impact of cyber squatting on trademark holders is in excess of $1 million per brand, per year. Some well-known brand owners face losses many times this figure. Depending on the brand owner’s industry, the total impact of cyber squatting on a single brand could be tens of millions of U.S. dollars when factoring in the value of lost leads and sales, costs of brand dilution, consumer confusion, poor customer experiences and millions of lost unique visitors.

In light of this, companies face a host of issues when assessing their online presence, not least the categorization and centralization of their domain name program. For those that have undergone an audit process, the results can be a massive saving in costs, and a great deal more control over online real estate. However, new challenges are around the corner—ICANN is discussing a new range of TLDs that will massively increase the scope for abuse and multiply enforcement challenges. At the moment, it is unclear as to whether this move will be implemented, but if the past tells us anything, it pays to be prepared.


What you can expect to learn:

• What trends are the biggest players in the commercial marketplace witnessing in terms of the level, scope, and volume of infringement?
• How can businesses accurately quantify their position and gain a meaningful understanding of revenue and reputational impacts due to domain name abuse?
• Why are historic domain system challenges still nagging businesses and users, and which ones are the most prevalent?
• Future challenges businesses and users face. The squatters are evolving and so is the domain system, so what does the future hold?
• What proactive solutions that can be adapted to in daily business and across industry?