Spam Con and suespammers.org founder Tom Geller Friday says he is stepping down from his post as president and Executive Director.

After nine months at the anti-spam nonprofit, Geller is leaving for personal reasons, but expects to remain involved as the group's Media Liaison and Secretary.

"I'm a startup kind of guy. I'm good at creating first-stage systems for businesses, but I know that others have the skills needed to get the Foundation to the next level," says Geller. "Most importantly, the Foundation should have an injection of new leadership and backgrounds to avoid the trap of being 'Tom's project'."

The San Francisco-based Foundation says Daniel J. Birchall has been taped to replace Geller as Executive Director, and Laura Atkins as president.

"I'm thrilled that we've been able to attract professionals of Dan and Laura's caliber to lead the work of the Foundation" says Geller. "Their involvement is proof of the strength of anti-spam forces. While spammers have to hide their identities and commit fraud in the face of overwhelming public opposition, those who oppose their acts continually gain in expertise and sophistication. I trust our new leadership to continue our work of coordinating marketers, technologists, legal professionals and ordinary people in fighting spam."

The group is dedicated to protecting email as a medium of communications and commerce by opposing unsolicited email, or "spam". According to various studies, spam is responsible for about 10 billion dollars of damages per year worldwide, spread among millions of unwilling recipients. Spammers commonly rely on fraud and deception to force their messages onto private computers, regardless of their owners' express wishes. Spam is responsible for approximately 10 percent of the average Internet service bill.