Hello Community IX Members,
This is an update on the Community IX Board of Directors Election.
On May 14th, 2021, we sent notice to our members of the impending election for our Board of Directors that are held every 3 years and asked for anyone interested in running to complete a Declaration of Candidacy. The deadline to complete the declaration was June 1st and an election was to be held on June 5th and to conclude on June 8th.
On June 1st, we closed the the declaration form to allow responses and notified the current Board that we only received 5 candidates for 5 open seats and to clarify if an actual election was necessary or if we can accept the slate and seat those candidates immediately. The Board unanimously resolved to accept the uncontested slate in lieu of an election and to seat the new Board as soon as possible.
We are excited to announce the new Community IX Board of Directors for the term 2021 through 2024:
Executive Director and Corporate Secretary:
Randy Epstein
Elected Board:
Ryan Woolley - Chair
Tyler Coates - Co Chair
David Temkin - Treasurer
Michael Costello - Member
Graham Paul Wooden - Member
Welcome back David, Ryan and Tyler and welcome to the Board, Michael and Graham.
We would also like to offer much gratitude on behalf of the Board to our outgoing Board Member Marco Medugno for his contribitions during the 2018-2021 term.
So that members have an opportunity to get to know the new Board, we're including their details and candidate statements below:
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Name: David Temkin
Affiliated Organization: Community IX
Candidate Statement:
I co-founded Community IX and helped to grow it to what it is today - the largest member IXP in the Southeast US headquartered in Miami and a compelling alternative to commercial options such as TIE / NOTA. We have also recently launched a new exchange in Atlanta that is quickly gaining traction, providing connectivity to old and new sites alike.
Over the course of my service to CIX, I have served as Chair and Treasurer and would like to continue providing my skills to the membership at large.
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Name: Ryan Woolley
Affiliated Organization: Netflix
Candidate Statement:
My involvement with Community IX started in 2015, when I traveled to Miami to meet up with Randy Epstein and install the hardware that became FL-IX. Since then, I have been continually involved in the organization via the Technical Committee and, starting in 2018, as a member of the Board of Directors and the corporate Secretary.
My personal experience with internet infrastructure started 25 years ago, building a small local ISP, and later as part of the network engineering team at a national NSP (XO Communications). Since 2013, I have been employed by Netflix, currently as Director of Network Architecture, where I lead a team that handles routing, switching, and optical networking for one of the world’s largest CDNs. My position gives me insight into the interconnection needs of ISPs and CDNs, as well as exposure to trends in network architecture, hardware, and IXP operations, which I am able to use to inform offerings and operations at Community IX. I previously served two terms on NANOG’s Program Committee, including a year as the Chair.
During the last 5 years, under the guidance of myself and the other Board members and volunteers, FL-IX has grown to 10 sites, 106 members, and over 700 Gbps of traffic.
In 2018, we launched CIX-ATL in Atlanta, which has now grown to 6 sites and 37 members. As a 15-year Atlanta resident, I am especially pleased to have had the opportunity to bring a non-profit, multi-site IX to one of the fastest growing markets in the US.
Organizationally, I and the rest of the Board have guided CIX to become financially self-supporting, and we have recruited several new members with considerable industry experience to the Tech Committee. Additionally, we recently appointed an Executive Director (Randy Epstein) to ensure that our members have a professional staff to support them and to represent the organization to our vendors and donors.
On the technical side, we have replaced the donated first-generation infrastructure with current-production switches with vendor support contracts, giving us adequate capacity to support our members as they migrate to 100G. This hardware will also enable us to migrate to 400G on the busiest of the inter-site links, as well as to support members who wish to connect at 400G.
Despite this growth, we have continued to keep port prices far below the industry average and grow a reserve to ensure the long-term viability of the exchanges and the organization.
I am seeking to continue my involvement as a Board member for another term. If re-elected, I will work to maintain the resiliency of the infrastructure, ensure the viability of the organization, and continue to offer our members an unrivaled value in
interconnection. I will continue to be accessible and available as a resource to our members and the internet community.
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Name: Tyler Coates
Affiliated Organization: Zayo
Candidate Statement:
Current Co-Chair founding member and have served on the board since inauguration. Spent the last 10 years at Zayo in Product, Operations, and Sales in executive roles. Currently also serve on the board of Advisors for the University of Colorado Denver.
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Name: Michael Costello
Affiliated Organization: Netflix
Candidate Statement:
Background
I am a Director of Engineering at Netflix where I lead the team responsible for the management platform for CDN, corporate, and studio networks as well as studio server infrastructure. Prior to this role at Netflix, I was an engineer on the CDN Reliability team.
Prior to Netflix, I held various network engineer and systems administrator roles, and I conducted offensive and defensive security research and development for embedded devices.
Outside of Netflix, I serve two roles within NANOG. I am finishing my second term as a member of the Program Committee. Additionally, I am Chair of its Hackathon subcommittee. I also serve as the Vice Chair of the newly formed Education Committee as we seek to develop curricula to help new engineers enter the industry as well as help current engineers and leaders advance in their careers.
Since March, I also have served on the Community IX Technical Committee, improving the reliability, maintainability, and security of our server infrastructure.
I hold a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and a B.A. in Physics from Bucknell University and an M.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University.
Motivation
I became involved in the networking industry during college through a chance meeting of a friend of a friend. Networking provided a passionate, practical outlet among interesting, yet dry, coursework. That was 22 years ago, and I have been involved in the networking industry ever since. Even when I began to steer away, concentrating on security in grad school, I was quickly pulled back, building rootkits for intrusion detection in the firmware of the same Cisco routes I had spent the previous decade dutifully configuring on their command lines.
As I continue to develop in my career, I am interested in giving back to the communities that supported me to this point, and challenging myself in new ways. I have helped to build and lead teams, but never an organization. Board service provides such an opportunity.
I believe in Community IX’s mission to improve interconnectivity and reduce costs between networks in the locales in which we operate. I seek to serve as a Board member, helping the organization maintain long term viability and grow.
I have no conflicts that would prevent me from serving on the Board. I only hope and work for the betterment of the internet, and lending my time in providing better interconnection would be a worthwhile endeavor.
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Name: Graham Wooden
Affiliated Organization: Uniti Fiber
Candidate Statement:
I would be honored to serve in any capacity for Community IX and its members. I have an extensive and excellent relationships with many members' organizations, as well as being an advocate of the use of Internet Exchanges. I have been the driving force in the last 5 years for Uniti Fiber's IX growth in the Southeast as well as participating in multiple year's NANOG and being a social sponsor for one of the (#77, Austin TX). My career started back in 1997 running a small dial-up ISP in Mobile, Alabama, so almost a solid 25 years of Systems and Networking experience. So with that, I believe I have the knowledge to share and the ability to learn from the other Directors and Members, in order to continue to grow the Community IX. Thank you.
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Regards,
Randy Epstein
Executive Director
Email: randy(a)fl-ix.net
Mobile: +1 561-756-4475
Office: +1 888-925-4678
Fax: +1 561-431-0437
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