Candidate Biographies

Osama brings extensive experience from the Middle East's Internet landscape. Since 2007, he has been instrumental as a founding organiser, program committee member and trainer of the Middle East Network Operators Group (MENOG), fostering collaboration and growth in the region's internet community. He also served on the RIPE Program Committee for seven years (RIPE 65 to 79). He helped established the first Internet exchange in Saudi Arabia and is a founding member of the Saudi Internet Society.

Osama's journey began as a networking engineer in Saudi Arabia's early Internet era. He played a crucial role in establishing one of the country's first university Internet nodes, laying the groundwork for public Internet availability in 1997. At the Information Sciences Institute (ISI), renowned for its pioneering work on Internet protocols, he contributed to experimental protocols. Subsequently, he became an Internet Technologist in one of the early local Internet service providers, SAUDINET, before its integration into Saudi Telecom (stc).

His commitment to supporting the Internet community grew from his first attendance at APRICOT in 2004. Experiencing first-hand the open and supportive mentality of the community ignited a passion within him, and he continues to embody that ethos.

Osama's career path led him to prominent roles at leading technology multinationals where he continued to be involved and advance adoption of Internet working technologies, such as in Cisco Systems and VMware. His tenure as an advisor to the Minister of Communications saw him spearheading pivotal initiatives, focusing on bridging the digital divide and advancing Internet exchange platforms. Transitioning to the executive realm, Osama served as the President and CEO of Salam (Integrated Telecom), overseeing operations as a fixed-line and MVNO operator in Saudi Arabia.

His academic credentials include a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from King Saud University, a master's degree in computer networks from the University of Southern California, and a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors (IoD).

Outside his professional endeavors, Osama remains deeply committed to advancing the region's Internet ecosystem through volunteer roles with organisations like Saudi Internet Exchange (SAIX), and the Saudi NREN (Maeen). Additionally, he contributes his expertise to a Middle East cybersecurity forum. As a day job, Osama currently lends his advisory acumen to entities like t2.sa, a SaaS and Internet service provider, and Altman-Solon, a multinational telecom and technology advisory firm.

Motivation

Vint Cerf’s timeless reminder that "The internet is for everyone" is a principle that forms the cornerstone of my commitment to cultivating a healthy internet ecosystem and fostering inclusivity and collaboration within our community.

As an executive board candidate, my mission is to ensure the Internet's stability and vitality through an agile and effective RIPE NCC. I am equally passionate about championing minority communities and engaging the next generation of Internet stakeholders. I firmly believe in creating avenues for all members to contribute meaningfully, thereby shaping the future of our digital landscape.

With a diverse background spanning technical operations, community building, executive leadership, and governmental policymaking, I offer a holistic perspective to the board. I understand the complexities of our ecosystem and the importance of balancing technical excellence with effective governance, regulatory compliance, and stakeholder collaboration.

Moreover, my firsthand experience in managing organisations with limited budgets and cashflows equips me to address financial challenges pragmatically.

Being from the Middle East, I enrich the executive board's diversity, fostering the potential advantages stemming from varied perspectives. My cultural background should enhance the richness of discussions and amplifiy our capacity to address wider issues with nuanced understanding and inclusivity.

If elected, I will prioritise optimisation and efficiency of RIPE NCC's core services while ensuring equitable representation of all members. I am committed to enhancing RIPE's relevance within the wider community and attracting future talent to sustain our growth and innovation. Together, let us build a stronger, more resilient internet and community for generations to come.

Higher education:

• Tula State University: "Software for Computer Technology and Automated Systems" (2007-2012)

Specialised education:

• ANO DPO CPK "AIS": "Information Security"
• EY Academy of Business: "Finance for Non-Financial Managers 1: Accounting, Analysis, Budget" and “Mini MBA”

Professional career:

2012 - 2016: I began my career by founding and leading the company LLC "SEOCREATION", where I served as the founder and CEO. This was my first experience as a leader and manager, allowing me to bring my ideas to life.

2016 - 2022: CEO of LLC "Servicepipe", where I developed innovative products for DDoS attack protection, managed a team, and ensured the company's successful operation in a dynamic environment. My experience in this role helped me become a more experienced leader and create innovative cybersecurity products.

2017 - present: Board member of ACISO (Association of Information Security Service Managers).

2021 - present: Member of ISDEF (Independent Software Developers Forum).

2022 - 2023: During my time at EdgeCenter (formerly G-Core), I led the strategic development of the cybersecurity direction. We developed innovative information protection strategies and managed a team of cybersecurity experts.

2023 - present: Product Director at the LLC “Solar” group of companies. In this role, I participate in the development and management of a product line of cloud services, helping our clients effectively use innovative ML-based solutions.

Motivation

• Successfully resolve current situation with "unfair high" membership fee for small LIR members.
• Make the RIPE community more inclusive by language and correcting the language discrimination what is now present.
• Make the RIPE community more cohesive and active, increasing the number of community active LIR members and also increase the total number of LIR members.
• Accelerate the process of ubiquitous implementation of IPv6 in the region.
• Improve the work of RIPE in context of security research and development in the whole region.

Pavel was born in the Soviet Union in a town called Kuibyshev (modern Samara) in a family of engineers. His journey in the world of the Internet started after his grandparents got a digital phone line which was able to sustain as much as 28.8 kbit/s.

He landed his first full-time job during his third year of University (studying computer science). It was a Perl developer position at domain name Registrar REG.COM. Due to his previous experience with Linux, which he accumulated on multiple short term projects he was promoted to Chief Technical Officer of the Hosting department when the company decided to separate domain and hosting business directions into different departments.

In the search for a project to apply his new engineering and management skills, Pavel accepted an invitation from his friend and they founded a cloud computing company FASTVPS.HOSTING where he gained first-hand management experience in running a business which covered the whole of Europe and had a presence in the US. FastVPS Eesti OU was recognized as one of the most successful companies in Estonia in the Internet field twice.

In parallel with running FastVPS, Pavel started an open source project called FastNetMon Community which had the goal of offering free DDoS protection for companies of any scale. As of 2024, FastNetMon Community serves users in 148 countries worldwide. It’s available in repositories of all major operating systems.

To learn more about large scale distributed systems, Pavel applied for the position of DNS engineer at a very ambitious San-Francisco based startup called Cloudflare. Pavel was part of a very small team of 2 led by prominent DNS expert Olafur Gudmundsson. The team was tasked with a complete rewrite of Cloudflare Authoritative DNS with the goal to scale to 100 millions of domains. The project was delivered in a record timeline and the same software still empowers Cloudflare Authoritative DNS these days.

Due to his contribution to the open source community with FastNetMon Community, his technological innovations at Cloudflare and his business experience at FastVPS, he was selected as Exceptional Talent in the Digital field by the British Government in 2020 and later became a permanent resident of the UK and was naturalized as a British citizen.

Pavel’s current title is CTO and Co-Founder of British DDoS detection vendor FastNetMon with headquarters in Central London. the company provides on premise DDoS detection products to companies on all continents (with the only exception of Antarctica) and funds the development of an open source edition of their product called FastNetMon Community.

Pavel’s share in FastNetMon LTD is 50% and his annual salary is 100,000 British Pounds (before tax).

FastNetMon LTD is a RIPE NCC member, has an IPv6 address space (single block of /29) and is in the waiting queue for IPv4 address space.

Pavel's LinkedIn profile, public CV and personal blog.

Motivation

• I will represent the interests of all Members of association (RIPE NCC) from all the countries in the RIPE NCC region fairly and equally.
• I will work hard to make RIPE NCC’s financial reporting as detailed and transparent as possible. The financial reporting has to be crystal clear for all members and should not require specialized financial education to understand it.
• Many countries in the RIPE NCC region are lagging with IPv6 deployment and I’ll focus on providing all the possible assistance with IPv6 deployment in the region.

Sander has been involved in the Internet since 1995, when he helped a friend with starting a small ISP. He has been an involved member of the RIPE community since RIPE 49 in Manchester (2004). He has been one of the RIPE Address Policy Working Group Co-Chairs from RIPE 54 in Tallinn (2007) to RIPE 76 in Marseille (2018).

He is currently part of the RIPE NCC Arbiters Panel, a position he will of course give up if elected to the RIPE NCC Executive Board. Sander has also been a founding board member of the Netherlands IPv6 Foundation, NLNOG and the Global NOG Alliance.

Sander's background is in Computer Science with a Master Degree from the University of Twente. He focussed on communication related topics such as Protocol Design, Implementation and Validation, as well as some Graph Theory. Since 2010, Sander has been an independent consultant with a focus on advising enterprises and service providers on network architecture and the deployment of IPv6. He has done everything from short training sessions, to explaining to management why IPv6 is important, to designing and implementing a network automation workflow for an ISP.

Motivation

My motivation for running for the RIPE NCC Executive Board is to be a voice for the RIPE Community inside the board. These are very complex times for the RIPE NCC in terms of how its membership base develops, how its activities are being funded and which activities and roles it takes in the broader Internet community and ecosystem. In this transition I want to make sure that we remember that we are an association with a very diverse composition.

Besides all the governmental and financial responsibilities that the board has (which are extremely important!) the board also has a responsibility to the community for which it is the secretariat and more. With all the current focus on the financial side, I want to ensure a healthy balance with the community side.

Piotr Strzyżewski is the owner of Internet Sailor, a private IT and cybersecurity consulting company. Previously, he worked for over 20 years in academia, at the Silesian University of Technology, where he headed the Security and Network Operations Department. After this period, he moved to the commercial environment where he worked and contracted for various companies.

In the past, he has been an active member of the PIONIER consortium community (Polish NREN) and a member of the Abuse-Forum, an informal community of anti-abuse teams in Poland. He was also one of the pioneers of the deployment of the eduroam project in Poland, one of the world's largest roaming access services for users in the research and education sector. He was also one of the core members of the Silesian Linux Users Group in the 1990s. As an advocate of "open knowledge", he has given lectures on Linux, networks and security.

Piotr has been an active member of both the RIPE community and the RIPE NCC for over fifteen years. In that time, he has served as Co-Chair of the RIPE Database Working Group and was a member of the RIPE Anti-Abuse Contact Management Task Force. He also delivered a number of presentations on policy proposals and their implementation. In addition, he was an active member of the RIPE NCC Charging Scheme Task Force, which contributed greatly to the creation of crucial documents such as the Charging Scheme and the Activity Plan and Budget.

Piotr has been serving as an Executive Board Member for the last 6 years, including the role of Secretary from 2019. Open, curious, and inquisitive, Piotr has made it his mission to meet and hear out members in each and every part of the RIPE NCC service region. He brings to the Board his expertise and extensive professional experience, particularly in the field of cybersecurity.

Piotr holds a Master's degree in Computer Science and an MBA. He also holds a number of high-level professional certifications. Piotr is an enthusiastic traveller, a keen learner and enjoys sailing in his spare time.

Piotr's LinkedIn profile

Motivation

When I stood for election three years ago, I promised to focus on three main issues:

• Further collaboration with underrepresented communities to ensure and maintain inclusiveness for all our members
• Cooperation with different stakeholders inside and outside our community
• Stability of RIR ecosystem

I believe I have kept my promise. By attending all regional meetings, Roundtables and events within our service region, I have collaborated with every part of our community. By cooperating with various stakeholders within and outside our region, I have worked towards the stability of the entire RIR ecosystem. Through my outstanding commitment as the Board Secretary, I have brought both stability and a quality element to the work of the Board.

I intend to continue along this path in the coming term. I will also undertake the following issues:

• Working on the future of RIPE NCC
• Maintaining the strong relationships with all parts of our community
• Increasing the community engagement

It would also be an honour for me to continue to serve as the Secretary of the Executive Board once elected.

Name: Alexej Volodin
Date of Birth: November 1970
Place of Birth: Moscow, USSR

Education:

Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman
Evropský polytechnický institut, s.r.o.: Specialised in GDPR and Personal Data Protection

Professional Background:

I first encountered the Internet professionally while working in law enforcement at the High Technology Crime Division in Moscow. This role provided me with invaluable experience in analyzing and preventing cybercrimes, developing information protection methods, and collaborating with IT specialists under stringent data security protocols. I was also involved in developing security measures against cyber threats such as DDoS attacks, phishing, and malware.

Leveraging my expertise and knowledge, I founded "Cherkizovo-Net," a regional Internet service provider in the Preobrazhenskoe district of Moscow. In this role, my responsibilities expanded to include managing the development of network infrastructure, implementing customer service protocols, and ensuring regulatory compliance. The success of this project led to its integration into NETBYNET Holding, where I assumed the position of Deputy Director of Security. Following the merger of NETBYNET with the mobile operator MegaFon, I relocated to the Czech Republic.

In the Czech Republic, I furthered my education at Evropský polytechnický institut, focusing on GDPR and personal data protection. Since the inception of Host-Telecom.com s.r.o., I have served as the Director of Operations and Data Protection Officer. My responsibilities over the past 12+ years include overseeing operational activities, ensuring compliance with data protection laws, strategic planning, and security management.

Motivation

• Improving communication between the Executive Board and the community. I aim to ensure that the Board not only listens to the views of community members but also actively responds to them, enhancing interaction and transparency in our actions.
• Addressing the issue of increasing membership fees. I plan to initiate an open discussion on the problem of rising fees to find fair solutions that reflect the interests of the entire community, especially in times of financial constraints.
• Accelerating the transition to IPv6. Given the limited resources of IPv4, I will encourage more active implementation of IPv6, which is critically important for maintaining the development and growth of Internet infrastructure.
• Supporting free access to the Internet. A staunch advocate of open Internet access, I believe that RIPE NCC plays a key role in supporting this idea. I am ready to contribute my knowledge and resources to develop this direction.