Roberts was the first President and CEO of ICANN, serving from 1998 to 2001.
His career in computing and computer networking began at Stanford University, where he was Deputy Director of the Stanford Center for Information Processing. In 1987, he joined EDUCOM, a consortium of American universities, as its first Vice President, Networking and Staff Director of its Networking and Telecommunications Task Force (NTTF). Located in Washington, DC, he worked with others from education and the private sector to secure passage of the 1991 legislation mandating the use of Internet TCP/IP protocols in the federal government. Subsequently, he was Project Director for the formation of Internet2, a new consortium of US research universities formed in 1997 to promote the design and deployment of high performance computer networks within the university community.
He was an active participant in the policy debates leading to the formation of ICANN in 1998.
He was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2014.
