I was born in 1977 in Yazd in the center of Iran, which is of one the most ancient cities in the world. My entrance into the IT world was with a Commodore 64 and I started basic programming as soon as I learned the English alphabet when I was 11 years old and continued with Pascal programming in school. I continued my education in IT and finally graduated in Software Engineering (BS) from Azad University - Tehran North Branch in 2003. I also studied Management of Information Systems (MS) in Shiraz University but I quit before graduation.
But my networking experience started in 1997 when I established a BBS (bulletin board system) named ISATIS and in those years there were only a few Internet Service Providers. I also worked in several ISPs with dial-up services in different positions.
In 2004, some broadband licenses were granted to the private sector and I started working in Pishgaman for the ADSL project and I worked as Technical Supervisor, Regional Office Manager, Project Manager, Vice President, CEO and right now I am working as the Chairman of the Board as well as board member of different ICT companies.
In these years, I experienced many things about broadband services, Internet IP transit and carrier grade international voice gateways, both in the national and international markets.
I have been cooperating with NGOs for 11 years and I tried to reflect the issues of the private sector to try to establish a win-win relationship between the IT/ICT industry and other organizations and regulatory bodies that have an effect on our business and public services.
And I am one of the board members of the Tehran ICT guild and also the Director of the Internet and Data Transition Committee of the ICT guild.
Motivation
The fact that less than 7% of RIPE NCC members are participating in General Meetings, and there are silent members on the mailing list, makes me think that there should be something we can do to bring all members together and improve our communications with each other to build a better community.
I started my telecom career at Global TeleSystems in 1999. My role was to be the interface with the RIPE NCC, and to set up new relationships with ccTLDs.
In 2003, I founded an Internet Service Provider for the B2C market. It was first started as a community of families (tribes), each family member receiving an email address for life. We were the first to propose unlimited data volume on ADSL lines in Belgium.
Six years ago, I co-founded a (B2B) telecom operator, now deploying its own fiber-network.
I am a self-learner, a problem-solver, and I am concise. Living in Belgium, I am used to negotiating with people of different cultures. I speak French and English fluently, a bit of Dutch and Luxemburgish too.
Since 2015, I hold an Executive Masters in Management from Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management.
I would be honoured to serve the community as a board member.
Remco van Mook is currently an independent consultant, involving himself with network architecture challenges, the European datacenter market, Internet exchanges and regulatory affairs. Until mid-2015, he was director of interconnection at Equinix, where he looked after the company's global interconnection strategy as well as the company's Internet Exchanges. While at Equinix, he got involved with all sides of the company - from engineering to marketing and acquisitions.
He was the original CTO and co-founder of NDIX, responsible for architecture and technical strategy, from 2000 until 2009. NDIX was the first Internet Exchange spanning across an international border, and it has evolved into an exchange platform connecting a diverse range of companies across a multitude of cities in the Netherlands and Germany. During that same time, he was founder and manager of Virtu, a Dutch datacenter company that got accolades for being one of the fastest growing technology companies in the Netherlands for three consecutive years.
After he sold Virtu to Equinix in 2008, he was country manager for Equinix in the Netherlands for the remainder of that year. He is co-author of a few RFCs, including RFC 5452, to upgrade the security of current DNS (non-DNSSEC) implementations against Kaminsky-style attacks and the widely used RFC 2322.
He is a regular speaker at conferences and currently serves as the co-chair of the Connect Working Group within the RIPE community and is a member of the RIPE NCC Executive Board.
When Remco is not sitting on a plane, attending conferences or taking over the world, he lives near Deventer, the Netherlands with his wife and two daughters.
I graduated from Oxford University in Engineering Science and Economics, more years ago than I care to remember, and started work at British Telecom's research labs in Martlesham Heath in Suffolk, UK, where I worked for a number of years on several different projects, eventually gravitating towards the new-fangled Internet protocol in the late 1980s.
I played a part in the bringing of the Internet to the UK, and Europe, by arranging for BT to be a substantial player in the early days and by designing and operating the first (unofficial) BT email relay, shifting email between BT's internal systems and the Internet.
After helping to design and operate BT's first commercial Internet service I left to design and oversee the applications services (DNS, Email, NTP and Usenet news) in Level 3's new European network. The advent of ethernet over IP led to my becoming one of the founders of PacketExchange, a company which set out to exploit the technology. From there I went on to become peering manager for FLAG Telecom and then finally to Easynet, where I remained until early 2014.
My current job involves the development of my long-time small business designing and selling environmental logging equipment and specialist electronic components. On the way I found time to help found the London InterNet eXchange (LINX) and serve on its board for 12 years, to found Nominet (the UK registry), to act as co-chair for the RIPE Database Working Group, to launch 6UK (an organisation dedicated to encouraging IPv6 use by businesses in the UK), and, of course, to serve on the RIPE NCC Executive Board, where I am currently the Chairman and which takes roughly two days a week of my time.
I have worked hard to ensure that facilities are available to as many members as possible to vote and take part in the governance of the RIPE NCC. I have been active in the RIPE community for many years, having co-authored a number of policy proposals related to transfer policy, fair run-out, certification, and recovery and re-use of IPv4 resources.
My private interests are fairly wide-ranging: gardening (especially herbaceous peonies), choral music, campanology, breeding grand-children and building home automation systems are just a few.