Chris Buckridge Leaving the RIPE NCC

After having been such a big part of our organisation and the RIR system for many years, Chris Buckridge will be leaving the RIPE NCC on 30 June.

After starting his career with APNIC in Australia, Chris joined the RIPE NCC in 2006 and quickly found his niche in supporting, and later leading, our engagement efforts with governments and regulators across our service region, as well as the various Internet governance forums we participate in. He was promoted to External Relations Manager in 2015 and then Head of External Relations in 2019. Since 2021, Chris has been Advisor to the Managing Director on Global Strategic Engagement, focusing on issues relating to the wider multi-stakeholder governance model, including sanctions, where he developed contacts with governmental officials and created opportunities that helped to support better understanding of the impact of sanctions on the Internet.

As many who have crossed paths with him will attest, Chris has been a great ambassador both for the RIPE NCC and the RIPE community during his time here. He played a key role in developing the strong external relations capacity we have at the RIPE NCC, benefiting us and the technical community in many ways. Chris helped to ensure a strong presence at the IGF and EuroDIG communities and made many contributions to these events over the years. He supported our efforts to engage on various EU legislative proposals, ensuring that the role of the multi-stakeholder model, as enshrined in the Tunis Agenda, was recognised in legislation. He also made a meaningful contribution towards work on the IANA Stewardship Transition, which was successfully completed in 2016.

Chris is currently serving on the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG), a position which is independent from the RIPE NCC. As Chris will remain in this role, and will no doubt find new avenues to explore within the Internet governance space, we expect and hope that he will remain a familiar face in the years to come. All of us at the RIPE NCC wish him the very best.

The RIPE NCC’s work in the public policy and Internet governance arena continues as part of the organisation’s external engagement and community activities led by Hisham Ibrahim, our Chief Community Officer. The Public Policy and Internet Governance team can be reached at [email protected].