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Executive Board Election

Candidates for the Executive Board have been nominated according to article [7] of the RIPE NCC Articles of Association.

A nomination for the appointment of a member of the executive board shall need the written support of at least five members. The deadline for nominations for the Executive Board was 02 October 2001.

A list of candidates is posted below.

Elected Executive Board members are Daniele Bovio and János Zsakó.

  • Daniele Bovio, AOL, France

  • János Zsakó, BankNet, Hungary

  • Alex Bligh, XO Communications Europe, United Kingdom

Biographies

Daniele Bovio, graduated in physics from the University of Milan in 1984, is the Manager of the European Network Operations for America Online, Inc., which he joined in 1995.

During his career, he has worked for the Computer Center of the Institute of Cosmic Physics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) between 1985 and 1990, initialy responsible for the Network Department and then as Technical Manager of the Computer Center.

He subsequently joined the European Academic Research Network (EARN) Association office in Paris, where he later became Technical Manager. In that capacity he chaired the EARN Network Operations Group and the EARN Network Performance Evaluation Group, represented the EARN Association in Ripe meetings since 1990, chaired a RIPE WG, and was member of the Internet Society Technical Advisory Committee.


János Zsakó, born 1960.

Diploma in Computer Science Engineering, Technical University, Cluj, Romania, 1986.

Certified Information System Auditor (CISA) by Information System Audit and Control Association (ISACA), Illinois, USA, since 1999. Master diploma in management (Maîtrise en Management des Organisations en Contexte International), Université de Picardie, Amiens, France, 2000.

Since 1998 Technical Director at BankNet Ltd, Budapest, Hungary. Joined BankNet, a data communication service provider, in 1992. Started commercial Internet services in Hungary late 1994 taking transit services from Pipex UK.

Attended most of RIPE meetings since RIPE 21, Rome. Member of the editorial committee of the RIPE document ripe-136 (which replaces ripe-104). Member of Database Security Task Force, summarized the results in RFC2726.

Active role in the formation of the Council of Hungarian Internet Providers (CHIP). Roles in CHIP: chairman of Registration Committee (1998), vice-president (1999), at present chairman of Network Security Committee.

Former work experience: systems programming in microcomputer environment (1986-1988), in industrial automation (1988-1990), in 4GL product (1990-1992).

Co-author of the book: "Tree structures and their applications", Technical Publishing House, Bucharest, 1990 (in Romanian).

Member of the third prize team at the Programming World Championship for 4GL held in Stockholm, 1991.


Alex Bligh

Alex holds the post of Chief Technology Officer at XO Communications Europe, a post he has held since September 2000. Reporting to the CEO, Alex has overall responsibility for all technology strategy, design, and architecture within Europe. As such, Alex has been responsible for generating and managing a substantial proportion of the multi-hundred million dollar capital budget within Europe, as well as the original European business plan.

Alex previously served as Vice President of Core Network at Concentric Network Corporation Inc, acquired by Nextlink Inc in May 2000, the combined entity later being renamed XO Communications. At Concentric, Alex was responsible for design, deployment, and operation of the global core IP backbone infrastructure. His main task during the year was a complete overhaul and replacement of Concentric's US IP backbone.

Prior to this, Alex held the posts of Technical Director, then Chief Technical Officer, at Internet Technology Group PLC (ITG), a publicly quoted company that operated two internet service providers, Global Internet Ltd and GX Networks Ltd. Alex had responsibility for all technical infrastructure, budget, staff and planning. Alex was a key member of the team that prepared ITG for sale, and in the same process itself, ultimately resulting in a sale to Concentric.

Alex was previously Managing and Technical Director at Xara Networks Ltd, which was acquired in April 1997 by ITG. He reported to the Board, and had overall responsibility for the day to day running of the company. Alex created the business plan, and built up the company and team, selected suppliers, developed supplier and customer contracts, and designed the network. Alex's role included close control of financial and product costing and marketing issues. He was also intimately involved with the preparation of the business for acquisition.

As a Product Manager at Xara Ltd, Alex took shared responsibility for conception, design, implementation and release of a software project involving a team of up to 20 programmers and over 100 man years of development effort; Alex reported to the Managing Director. His responsibilities were varied from scheduling and project management, through architectural design and systems documentation to performance optimisation and direct involvement in some of the harder areas of coding.

Alex is also a non-executive director of Redbus Interhouse PLC, an internet colocation company publicly quoted on the LSE. Alex helped found the original company, and helped guide it first through a reverse take-over to achieve a listing, and through a subsequent fund raising. Alex chairs the remuneration committee.

Alex is a founding non-executive director of the non-profit making industry body NOMINET UK, a non-profit redistributing company limited by guarantee, which is the UK Internet naming authority, administering all domain names ending in '.uk'. Alex played a large part in forming the original company, in the financial modelling mechanisms and the determination of charges, and in the legal structure and contracts. NOMINET has since become an internationally respected model for other country-code domain registrars. Alex also sits on NOMINET's Policy Advisory Board.

Alex is a founding non-executive Director XchangePoint Ltd, a provider of next generation interconnect services. Alex helped take the company through a successfully first round of financing, and recruit a senior management team.

Alex has a technical advisory role to i-Spire PLC, an internet and e-commerce investment company. Alex served as a non-executive director of the London Internet Exchange for 4 years, as well as the board of advisers of Remarq Communities Inc prior to its acquisition by Critical Path Inc, and also serves on several other industry bodies

Alex holds a BA in Mathematics and Management Studies from Queens' College, Cambridge.