Member Spotlight: Kelly Hardy

The following is a guest blog post from Kelly Hardy of new i2Coalition member, Kelly Hardy Consulting.

Kelly Hardy Consulting is a small business (just me) working with all facets of the infrastructure community. For 9 years, KHC has specialized in domain registry, registrar, and ICANN issues focusing on policy, strategy, and communication.

Infrastructure companies become more effective when they communicate plainly and clearly with customers, regulatory bodies, and each other. I help guide them toward this through tailored projects ranging anywhere from drafting policy to PR management. The other component of that is to create corporate strategy plans to help lift infrastructure companies out of the rut of what is comfortable and help them prepare for the future. This can mean anything from creative approaches to infrastructural problems in developing countries to restructuring a marketing message to speak to emerging generations.

My consulting business stands apart as there is no single area of the internet infrastructure business that I am exclusive to. I work primarily with companies outside of the United States on a wide variety of issues, so keeping a global perspective is vital to my clients

I was originally introduced to the i2Coalition through my colleagues, and i2Coalition co-founders, David Snead and Christian Dawson. It can be very difficult to get involved in global issues on a meaningful level as a single person or small business. Many of the issues that this organization works on are important to my business and also to me personally. Joining a group like i2Coalition, and becoming an active member, makes it possible for a single proprietor like myself to affect change on an international level.

One such issue, the threat to Net Neutrality, concerns me as its impact will not only hinder online creativity, as well as scientific and technological innovation in the US; it will radically and negatively alter the course of the entire internet’s natural growth. I also feel strongly about the i2Coalition Gender and Diversity Equity committee as it tackles issues that should resonate with all companies in our space. When we only encourage one group of people to create and build the technology that we live by, we severely limit what we are capable of.

I hope to use the various skills I have honed as a former journalist and in working on international issues within the spectrum of the DNS community to help groups like the i2C educate our peers and the public on the issues that touch our industry and individual businesses.