Speaker Biographies

Expertise: Internet measurements, IPv6, RIPE Labs, RPKI , data science, statistics, data storytelling, data visualisations

Emile Aben is a Senior Research Engineer for the Research and Development department. Prior to that role, he worked in the RIPE NCC Science Group as a research engineer since 2009. In the 10 years before that he worked as a web developer, sysadmin, security consultant and researcher. He is interested in Internet measurement and technology changes like the transition to IPv6. He frequently posts on RIPE Labs.

Emile has a MSc. degree in Chemistry from the University of Nijmegen, NL.

Expertise: Internet governance, RIPE NCC measurements and tools, IXPs, RIPE and RIPE NCC, RIPE Labs

Jelena joined the RIPE NCC as a consultant for the South East Europe region. As part of her role, Jelena works on supporting local communities and engaging stakeholders from the SEE region, including RIPE NCC members, governmental agencies, academic institutions and civil society organisations.

In addition to her work in the SEE region, Jelena is interested in Internet measurements and tinkering with RIPE NCC measurement tools like RIPE Atlas and RIS.

Prior to joining the RIPE NCC, Jelena worked as an Outreach Coordinator for Packet Clearing House. At PCH, she mainly focused on providing support to IXPs and expanding PCH’s global infrastructure.

Expertise: IXP, Internet Governance, Industry Development Organisations

Vahan Hovsepyan is an External Relations Officer (Caucasus and Central Asia) at the RIPE NCC. Vahan is in charge of developing cooperation and engaging stakeholders from these regions, including RIPE NCC members, governmental agencies, academic institutions and industry development organisations. Vahan graduated from the Armenian-Russian (Slavic) State University and completed courses at the Maastricht School of Management and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Vahan has extensive experience working in and with industry development organisations, IXPs and international organisations.

Ties is a software engineer with a master's degree in computer science focusing on the development of RIPE NCC measurement services (RIS and RIPEstat). Before this, Ties worked on RPKI. Working at a regional internet registry, he was involved in the operational aspect of running the RPKI certificate authority and the standardisation of RPKI.

Expertise: Internet governance, academic engagement, online learning, RIPE and the RIPE NCC, the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) system, RIPE NCC measurements and tools, RIPE Labs

Gergana Petrova is the Community Development Manager at the RIPE NCC. She is responsible for RIPE NCC's engagement with a broad range of stakeholders, including the RIPE NCC membership, the RIPE community, network operators, academia, government, law enforcement, and other Internet stakeholders. Her team organises regional events throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia, and sponsors and presents at technical Internet community events. Gergana helps develop national and regional Network Operator Groups (NOGs), Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), national Internet Governance Forums (IGFs), Internet Governance schools and other projects that benefit the Internet in the RIPE NCC's service region.

In her 10+ years at the RIPE NCC, Gergana has also worked in the Communications and External Relations departments. Originally from Bulgaria, Gergana studied for her Bachelors in Germany and obtained her Masters in Business Research in the Netherlands.

Alex ("Oleksiy") is an External Relations Officer for the RIPE NCC (Eastern Europe and Central Asia) and is based in Moscow.

As part of the External Relations team, he helps lead the RIPE NCC's engagement with membership, the RIPE community, technical bodies, academia, law enforcement and other Internet stakeholders. As Technical Advisor, Alex also follows Internet industry and government developments related to ICT, particularly in the former Soviet countries, monitors and attends industry conferences and meetings, representing the RIPE NCC, and works with internal stakeholders to enhance the RIPE NCC's training activities.

Expertise: RIPE Policy Development Process, IPv4 and IPv6, Regional Internet Registry (RIR) system and statistics, Abuse Reports.

Marco Schmidt is the Manager of Registration Services at the RIPE NCC. He is responsible for overseeing the registration and maintenance of Internet number resources in the RIPE NCC's service region. He also manages the implementation of accepted policies in RIPE NCC procedures and operations.

Marco first joined the RIPE NCC as an IP Resource Analyst (IPRA) in the Registry Services department, where he worked for five years. In that role, he gained valuable experience in evaluating IPv4, IPv6 and Autonomous System Number requests while providing support to the RIPE NCC membership. Later, he became the RIPE NCC's Policy Development Officer. In this position, he supported and drove the RIPE community's Policy Development Processes (PDP) both externally and internally.

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Expertise: RPKI, Measurements and Tools, RIPE NCC membership, community engagement, IPv4 and IPv6

Adonis is a Product Owner and part of the Software Engineering team at the RIPE NCC. He has worked in the RIPE NCC in various positions and has been involved with the core teams behind the technical tools and programmes such as RIPEstat, RPKI, RIPE Atlas and RIS.
He is also responsible for reporting the RIPE NCC's quarterly plans and driving community projects to strengthen the RIPE NCC's relationships with its members.

Adonis holds an honours degree from the University of Dundee in International Business with Marketing and a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) from Imperial College London in the UK.

Mikhail works with ICANN as a Global Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. For the last seven years, Mikhail worked in internet hosting and domain registration, holding various positions with Russia’s largest host providers and domain name registers. In 2013, as part of the Foundation for Assistance for Internet Technologies and Infrastructure Development, he played an active role in launching the .МОСКВА and .MOSCOW domain zones. In 2014 he joined the ccTLD team where he was working in press service and in staging industry events.