- Valerie Aurora
- Alexander Azimov
- Chris Buckridge
- Harri Cross
- Sardar Kamal
- Dmytro Kohmanyuk
- Hanna Kreitem
- Franziska Lichtblau
- Kevin Meynell
Valerie Aurora
Biography:
Valerie Aurora first began working in networking in 2000, writing drivers for obscure supercomputing network interconnects. She collected questions for a TCP/IP trivia game, maintained several Linux network drivers, and implemented PLPMTUD in a VPN client. She also co-founded a non-profit that drove adoption of codes of conduct and similar methods to increase DEI in open source software and other open technology fields. Valerie has served on several program committees, including the USENIX conferences FAST, ATC, and HotOS.
Alexander Azimov
Biography:
Alexander Azimov is the head of Network R&D at Yadnex. He focuses on network monitoring tools, SDN controllers, routing security, and transport layer architecture.
Alexander has an active role in the IETF where he co-authors several internet drafts and RFCs devoted to BGP security.
Statement of Interest:
I have been participating in the RIPE meetings for more than ten years. During this period I learned that RIPE is not just a meeting of network engineers but a family that grows together addressing challenges and supporting each other. I would be glad to devote my expertise to building the plenary program.
Chris Buckridge
Biography
Chris Buckridge is an independent consultant in the Internet governance and digital policy space. He worked for more two decades with the Regional Internet Registries (APNIC and the RIPE NCC), and helped to drive the RIPE NCC’s engagement on issues of public policy and Internet governance. He has worked closely with intergovernmental organisations including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the OECD, and the United Nations, as well as the institutions of the European Union.
Chris currently serves as a member of the ICANN Board of Directors, a member of the board of the EuroDIG Association, and a member of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG) of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum. He also acts as an advisor to the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) and Access Partnership.
Statement of Interest
Having worked for the RIRs for the past 20 years, I would very much appreciate the opportunity to contribute to RIPE as a member of the community. The RIPE Meeting remains one of the most interesting and productive events on the Internet community calendar, and I believe that with my experience in the Internet governance and digital policy area, as well as in the RIR space, I could contribute to maintaining the high quality and diversity of presentations included in the RIPE Meeting programme.
Harri Cross
Statement of Interest:
Harri (preferred name, they/them) currently on the Programme Committee for UKNOF (the United Kingdom Network Operators Forum), where I helped to coordinate speakers for our meetings which have obtained very positive reviews from attendees by ensuring talks fit the scope of the audience.
Their job history started as an IT apprentice, then they joined the CDN support and networking world for 7 years before taking their current position at GitHub. Although they may not be directly employed in the networking community, it is still something that they are hugely passionate about. They are really keen to give back to a community that has been so helpful and useful to them.
Sardar Kamal
Biography:
I, Sarder Kamal, had been involved in academia supporting various research and teaching for quite some time now. Originally from Bangladesh, I had been living in the UK since 2006. After doing my Masters in Information Security, my affection for Academia increased due to the high volume of possible research scope, which can only be compared to a Pandora’s box. And that brought me to the academic sector professionally.
Together me and my team support a wide range of research area for the Faculty of Science and Technology. Our primary task is to extend technical support, helping the researchers from bio-informatics to computer science and everything in-between. We help build their research environment using appropriate technology. While building and supporting the necessary environments, we have to do our own micro research to accommodate the specified requirements given to us, creating the opportunity to learn-before-deployment and gathering the necessary knowledge on a wide variety of topics ranging from bio-informatics to big data and anything and everything in-between.
As part of my drive to help the community grow; in my free time I indulge into Amateur Radio. I am a member of RAYNET (https://www.raynet-uk.net/), which is the UK’s national voluntary communications service. We provide communication support to various blue light services including the local government (Councils) during emergencies. This has put me in the unique position whereby I get to see the various priority/perspective of different agencies, while realising the importance of contributing back to the society to make it a better place for our next generations.
Statement of Interest
Even though the world is seeing a drastic shortage in IPv4, most major ISPs in the UK, and more importantly the Academic sectors, are still very slow in adopting IPv6. We, from our faculty, think that we need to play a better role in both encouraging and also adopting the IPv6, which brought me to my first RIPE meeting in RIPE86. My experience convinced me that RIPE meetings are the source of information and drive I need to both convince and encourage the team, help them find the path forward, through considered planning and operational strategies. I am therefore very much convinced to be in the future RIPE meetings and also by contributing through the RIPE PC with my wide variety of knowledge on various fields that I have gathered over the time at my professional levels.
Thank you for your kind consideration.
Dmytro Kohmanyuk
Biography:
Dmytro Kohmanyuk graduated in 1992 from the Cybernetics Department of Kiev Taras Shevchenko University in Kiev (then Soviet Union, presently Ukraine), receiving a Masters Degree with honors.
He now resides in Kyiv, Ukraine and works as Chief of Strategy of Hostmaster Ltd, the registry for the .UA domain. He actively participates in the Internet community, attending local, regional and international forums, including RIPE, CENTR, ICANN, IGF and other meetings.
Dmytro speaks Ukrainian, Russian, and English (with a small set of Dutch words if needed.)
Dmytro has direct operational experience with networked Unix systems and router equipment, co-founding and running one of first Ukrainian ISPs back in 1991 (Communication Systems). His work included several technology start-up companies in the United States in the role of systems administrator, developer support and operations. He can write code and shell scripts, was a co-author of RFC 2319 and participated in the Ukrainian Unix Users Group.
He has been directly involved with Ukrainian ccTLD registration and operation since 1996, in both non-commerical and commerical forms, and continuously represented ccTLD with IANA. He sits on the board of Hostmaster. In the last two years, the local policy development process has restarted, community service has improved, IDNs have launched and operational migration to IPv6 was completed, as well as DNSSEC launch in March 2012.
Non-profit work includes IPv6 as well as DNSSEC promotion in the region, participating in UA-IX as a member of the technical committee and speaking with press to communicate about Internet technology, security and privacy issues. Two IGF-UA forums in Ukraine in 2010 and 2011 were organised with support from Dmytro and Hostmaster.
Statement of Interest:
Dmytro Kohmanyuk is a member of RIPE community since 1998, and attended lots of meetings, including virtual ones. He has served two terms on PC, as well as in NRO NC, and a Ripe chair NomCom. He founded and is now employed by Hostmaster LLC, a registry for top level domain of Ukraine.
Dmytro interests include DNS, IPv6, infrastructure resilience, and privacy on the internet.
Hanna Kreitem
Biography:
Hanna Kreitem holds a PhD in Media and Communication from Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK, where he studied Internet limitations and their impact on tangible outcomes of Internet use. Currently Hanna serves as the Senior Advisor, Internet Technology and Development for the Internet Society, where he focuses on peering infrastructure and artificial Internet limitations, including shutdowns.
Statement of Interest:
RIPE Meeting community is active and diverse, yet particular with its dynamics. I can provide a slightly different perspective to the programme community to engage the community even more. With my background and connections, I can help promote RIPE Meeting to academic and research circles. I can also further contribute to the programme by suggesting timely topics for issues related to peering infrastructure, measurements, and reliability of access in times where access is weaponized as a tool of control.
Franziska Lichtblau
Biography:
Franziska has a background in Internet measurement research with a focus on interconnection and BGP, and now works at SAP developing and supporting an internal infrastructure as a service cloud platform.
She joined the RIPE community 10 years ago, served three consecutive terms as part of the RIPE Programme Committee, two of them as PC chair.
Other community activities include serving on the Code of Conduct Team.
Statement of Interest:
The PC has been one of the most fun and rewarding ways to contribute to a great RIPE meeting experience. After a break from the PC work Franziska would love to help organising great plenary sessions again.
Kevin Meynell
Biography:
I worked for the Internet Society from 2015 until 2023, leading the MANRS Routing Security initiative, organising the Network & Distributed Security Symposium (NDSS), and working on IXP and Community Network development in the RIPE region. I previously ran its Deploy360 programme that encouraged deployment of IPv6, DNSSEC, DNS-over-TLS/HTTPS and RPKI.
I previously worked for APNIC as its Training Manager, and prior to that I worked for 16 years for TERENA (now the GÉANT Association) to develop R&E networks across Europe and beyond, deploy new services such as 6NET (IPv6), Eduroam, Shibboleth and PKIs, and running TF-CSIRT – the European Forum of CSIRTs. I’ve also worked for JANET (now Jisc), the UK’s National Research & Education Network, and CENTR on various networking initiatives and services.
Statement of Interest:
I’ve been involved with the RIPE Community since 1997 and it has always been at the forefront of network operator developments and discussions, so I would like to offer something back to the community. I’ve most recently been organising routing security sessions and BoFs at RIPE meetings, but was alsp one of the founders of the Virtual Peering Series Central Asia that evolved into the Central Asia Peering & Interconnection Forum (CAPIF) in 2022. I was previously a PC member of ENOG from 2018 to 2023, and recently joined the PC of the APRICOT Conference. Going back a long way in time, I was also the Co-Chair of the former RIPE Domain Name Registration Forum, so hopefully can continue to help put together useful and interesting programmes!