WG Chair Biographies

Rob Evans is chief network architect in the infrastructure division of Jisc, where he works on Janet, the UK's Research and Education Network. He has a diverse network engineering background with experience in a number of institutions. From 2014-2016, he served as a member of TERENA Technical Committee and also served as a member of UKNOF Programme Committee from 2005-2012. He was also a member of the programme committee for The Networking Conference, the flagship event at Géant.

From 2006 to 2016, Rob was the RIPE NCC Routing Working Group co-chair. As of 2019, he now serves as co-Chair of the RIPE NCC Services Working Group.

János Zsakó is currently the IT and business adviser at ISZT Nonprofit Kft., the Hungarian ccTLD Registry (.hu). He was the Managing Director from 2014 to 2021, and the Development Director between 2011 and 2014 at the same company. He contributed to DNSSEC deployment and towards establishing a reliable environment for authoritative secondaries for .hu. As the Technology Director of 3C Kft, from 2005 to 2011, he acquired a vast experience in satellite communications, network security, Internet-related services like DNS, mail and routing. 3C offered Internet access services over ADSL countrywide and over microwave in the Budapest area in Hungary.

János has regularly attended RIPE Meetings since RIPE 21, Rome. He was a member of the editorial committee of the RIPE address policy document ripe-136. As a member of the Database Security Task Force, he summarized the results in RFC2726. Later, he was a member of the RIPE Data Protection Task Force, and a member of the ad hoc group for DNS WG 67.1. He gave a presentation on IPv6 penetration in Hungary at RIPE 68. In 2017, János acted as the host for RIPE 74 in Budapest.

As a member of the RIPE NCC Executive Board, János served as the Treasurer between 2001 and 2010. He contributed to the safeguarding of the assets of the RIPE NCC during the financial crisis and provided transparency regarding the financial situation. He acted as an adviser to the RIPE NCC Executive Board between 2010 and 2015, and he was a member of the Executive Board once again between 2015 and 2018.

János played an active role in the formation of the Council of Hungarian Internet Providers (CHIP). He assumed several roles in CHIP over the years: Chairman of the Registration Committee (1998); Vice-President (1999); Chairman of the Network Security Committee (2001-2016); member of the Board (2015); member of the Supervisory Board (2005-2013, 2016); member of the Supervisory Board of the .hu ccTLD Registry from 2000 to 2011. János is a member of honour of CHIP since 2013.

Stefan has been actively contributing to the Internet community for many years, leveraging his extensive experience and extensive network. As the CTO of route128 and an international consultant through his own firm, he specialises in IT, data centres, networks, Internet exchange points (IXPs), the broader Internet ecosystem, and has a strong focus on the telecommunications industry and public sector.

He plays a pivotal role in various organisations. Stefan is actively involved in Euro-IX as a board member, contributes to the IXPDB, and serves as the co-chair of the RIPE NCC Services Working Group. His commitment extends to regular engagements at conferences, where he frequently presents on current topics relevant to the Internet infrastructure community, with a particular emphasis on IPv6 deployment and its significance in both the telecommunications sector and public sector networks.

Stefan emphasises the importance of working together with different groups of people to keep the internet healthy and growing. It’s crucial that the RIPE community and the RIPE NCC get along well. By collaborating and sharing their knowledge, they can make the internet ecosystem even better.