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196th Executive Board Meeting Minutes

23 September 2026, virtual

Author: Fergal Cunningham
Publication date: 30 September 2026
Status: Draft

Attendees:

  • Randy Bush (RB), Member
  • Ondřej Filip (OF), Chair
  • Maria Häll (MH), Member
  • Raymond Jetten (RJ), Treasurer
  • Lars-Johan Liman (LJL), Member
  • Sander Steffann (SS), Member
  • Piotr Strzyżewski (PS), Secretary

  • Mirjam Kühne (MK), RIPE Chair

  • Daniella Coutinho (DC), Executive Assistant, RIPE NCC
  • Fergal Cunningham (FC), Head of Membership Engagement, RIPE NCC
  • Athina Fragkouli (AF), Chief Legal Officer, RIPE NCC
  • Simon-Jan Haytink (SJH), Chief Finance Officer, RIPE NCC
  • Hans Petter Holen (HPH), Managing Director, RIPE NCC
  • Carolien Vos (CV), Chief Human Resources Director, RIPE NCC
  • Sjoerd Wolthers (SW), Chief Technology Officer, RIPE NCC

1. Welcome and Agenda

Ondřej Filip, RIPE NCC Executive Board Chair, opened the meeting at 17:00 UTC+2 and welcomed attendees.

1.1 Apologies, New agenda points

There were no apologies, and no new agenda points were proposed.

1.2 Conflict of Interest

No conflicts of interest were noted.

2. Draft RIPE NCC Activity Plan and Budget 2027 Approval

Hans Petter Holen, RIPE NCC Managing Director, explained that the Draft Activity Plan and Budget needed to be published for members by 30 September.

He said there would be income of EUR 42.5M, while we are budgeting for costs of EUR 44.2M, resulting in an operating deficit of EUR 1.7M. He said a budgeted financial result of 600 kEUR partly offsets the operating deficit, leaving an overall budgeted deficit of EUR 1.1M. And a combined FTE and Employer of Record (EoR) count is budgeted to increase by 2.5%, from 202.1 to 207.2.

Hans Petter said the office renovation needed more than EUR 1.5M to implement workplace analysis recommendations. He said that with the IT infrastructure investment, we could go with EUR 5M and have less resilience, but that is far from ideal. He noted that there was 500 kEUR spent per year in CAPEX for the past five years, resulting in two data centres that are dependent on each other. He said the goal was to have at least two that are fully independent. He said investing in servers, extra capacity and firewalls, where prices are very high, is driving the costs of the infrastructure investment upward. He said, in terms of the IT infrastructure investment, that 5-10 million is where the decision needed to be made.

There was a general discussion about the overall budget and the investments needed for IT infrastructure and for renovation of the office. It was said that while EUR 10M overall was a high price for investment, this was for two projects that were necessary, as all services depended on the infrastructure investment and the need for strategic change was driven by the need to be resilient in the face of geopolitical developments. It was also noted that the office investment was needed as things deteriorate over time, and not investing now would only mean higher costs in the future and would mean staff working in a substandard workspace.

A Board member commented that while the cost of investments is high, when spread over five years for the cost of the IT investment and spread over the duration of the office lease for the cost of the office investment, it could be seen as more reasonable.

Hans Petter asked the Board if they had comments on specific items in the Activity Plan. There were some comments on how the IT infrastructure project is described in the text, and Hans Petter clarified these and said amendments could be made to ensure the text is clear for members. There was also a comment on the importance of communicating cost optimisation to the members, and Hans Petter highlighted the parts of the document that dealt with this.

There was a comment that more automation could be included, and Hans Petter pointed out that there are plans in place in the Registry and in IT, but there are limitations to what can be done short term due to the technical debt. He said the IT infrastructure improvements should help us to realise better outcomes in the automation area.

There was a question about the costs for events increasing. Hans Petter said this was partly due to the rising costs of hotels and venues across the service region as well as travel costs. He said the RIPE NCC would continue to work with the RIPE Chair Team to investigate ways to control costs for meetings.

There was a comment that this was the first budget in a five-year strategy cycle, so while it seems high, it is important to look at it in terms of setting up the RIPE NCC to be resilient and to be able to meet its strategic goals.

Hans Petter then asked if the Board was ready to approve the draft document for publication.

The Board said that it approved publication of the draft document, noting that it would have preferred lower costs but the reality of the environment we lived in meant that this was not possible.

Resolution EB#196-R-01

The RIPE NCC Executive Board approves the publication of the Draft RIPE NCC Activity Plan and Budget 2027.

The RIPE NCC Executive Board unanimously adopted the resolution.

3. AOB

There were no other items brought forward for discussion.

Ondřej closed the meeting at 18:22 UTC+2.