Speakers 2024

Karin Ahl

Netnod

Before being appointed Interim CEO of Netnod, Karin spent two years as Head of Netnod Time and Frequency where she oversaw the expansion of Netnod’s time services for public and commercial use.

Karin has more than 20 years of experience in the fixed telecom network industry and has significant expertise with policy-related topics both in Sweden and on a European level. Prior to Netnod, Karin’s roles included: President of FTTH Council Europe, an industry association focused on advancing full fibre-based connectivity to the whole of Europe; Head of Sales and Marketing for the Technology and Infrastructure specialist Rala AB; and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Swedish Local Fibre Alliance.

Richard Petrie

LINX

Richard Petrie
Chief Technical Officer

Richard has been with LINX since 2014, running the technology group, responsible for all of LINX’s exchanges across the UK and in North America.

Previously, Richard has held senior operations and engineering positions with service providers, Colt Technology and IPC Network Services as well as within financial services companies such as Bloomberg and BGC Partners. He has over fifteen years experience in delivering high volume, low latency and agile network solutions.

Kaj Kjellgren

NetNod

Kaj Kjellgren, M.Sc.
Technical Ambassador of Netnod

Kaj Kjellgren is a seasoned expert in network architecture and interconnection, with over two decades of experience in the field. Since 2002, he has been working as a Senior Network Architect at Netnod, a leading Internet infrastructure organization in the Nordics. His primary focus is on peering and operations, and he is a regular speaker at international conferences, sharing insights on technical developments and the evolving landscape of global interconnection.

Kaj holds a Master of Science in Systems and Computer Science from Uppsala University. Prior to his work at Netnod, he served as Technical Director for KPNQwest Sweden, and has a diverse technical background that includes roles as a programmer at Ericsson Data and a Technical Support Engineer at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. He also runs his own company on the side, contributing further to the tech community.

Thomas King

DE-CIX

Dr. Thomas King has been in the IXP industry for more than ten years. As CTO at DE-CIX, he and his team are responsible for building and operating the Interconnection Platform worldwide, designing and introducing new Interconnection products, and keeping customers happy with swift service provisioning.

Ruben van den Brink

AMS-IX

Ruben is CTO at AMS-IX in 2021. With an academic degree in mathematics, he started his business career in media broadcast IT. He held several management positions at Technicolor and Ericsson, focussing on network and datacenter services. In 2016, Ruben joined the SURFnet executive management team, leading the network department. At SURFnet, the Dutch national research and education network, he was responsible for the development and automated deployment of SURFnet8, as well the innovation programme for network services.

Kamil Szczepanski 

Orange Polska S.A.

Kamil Szczepanski
Head of International Sales & Procurement

Arturo Servin

Google Inc

Arturo Servin
Interconnect and Edge Planning Technical Program Manager

Arturo L. Servin Niembro currently works in Google as Interconnect and Edge Planning Technical Program Manager. He has extensively work in recent years to improve routing security at Google and within their interconnection program. Previously joining Google he was Chief Technology Officer at the Internet Address Registry for Latin America and the Caribbean (LACNIC). Arturo also has worked as a research engineer, consultant and network manager at various organizations the UK and Mexico. He received his PhD from the Department of Computer Science at the University of York, where his research focused on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and network security. In addition, he holds a Masters degree in Telecom Management and a B.S. in Electronic Systems Engineering, both from ITESM Campus Monterrey, Mexico. Arturo has worked on multiple innovation projects, including the development of Internet-2 in Mexico, where he served as Chairman of the Network Development Committee and Coordinator of the working group on IP-Multicast.

Patrick Prangl

Arista

Patrick Prangl
Advanced Services Engineer

Mark Tinka

TransmissionCo

Mark Tinka
Managing Director

With nearly a quarter-century of immersion in the Internet engineering sector, my journey has led to co-founding TransmissionCo, where we specialize in high-capacity DWDM optical transmission services. At the helm as Managing Director, I channel my expertise in DWDM and IP/MPLS networking, network design, and engineering to empower and interconnect communities across Africa.

My tenure as Head of Engineering at SEACOM honed my ability to lead complex network infrastructure projects and foster innovation. TransmissionCo benefits from this rich background, positioning us as a key player in expanding Africa’s digital landscape. Our mission resonates with my personal commitment to quality, sustainability, and the advancement of regional connectivity.

Yolandi Cloete

Teraco Data Environments

Yolandi Cloete
Interconnection Solution Specialist

With 8 years in the peering industry, I have developed expertise in interconnection, IXPs, data centers, network engineering, and cloud concepts. My work involves cultivating strategic partnerships that drive revenue growth, and I am passionate about leveraging my expertise to uncover new opportunities. I thrive in strategic planning and data analysis, and I am dedicated to designing seamless user experiences. My role includes managing the product lifecycle of Teraco’s Africa Cloud Exchange and assisting with the operation and growth of the NAPAfrica IXP, ensuring that both meet our strategic objectives and deliver significant value.

I enjoy guiding teams and individuals towards achieving their objectives and finding innovative solutions to challenges. My focus remains on expanding business opportunities, advising on market strategies, and upholding the highest standards of infrastructure excellence. Looking ahead, I am excited about exploring new trends in the industry and continuing to contribute to impactful projects that drive success. I am involved in several industry committees, including PeeringDB, the Global Peering Forum, the ZA Network Operators Group, EURO-IX (Peering Toolbox), and AFPIF (African Peering & Interconnection Forum).

Aleksi Suhonen

TREX

Aleksi Suhonen
Chairman of the Board

Zbynek Pospichal

Quantcom, a.s.

Zbynek Pospichal
Network Architect

As he sent his very first IPv6 packet to the network in 1997, Zbyněk has
more than a quarter century experience in wide area networking, routing
protocols and also open source operating systems and network software.
From 2000, he is a network architect and peering coordinator in Dial
Telecom, now Quantcom, always looking for new routing and security
features making networks more resilient, more stable and more useful.

Simon Kuhn

nbip

Wouter Pegtel
Head of Engineering

Simon Kuhn has over 15 years of experience in networking and security in various roles at major telecom and cloud computing service providers. He is currently head of engineering at the largest not for profit DDoS scrubbing centre in Europe. During his talk at EPF 2024 he will elaborate on DDoS attacks that are specifically aimed at (core) networking infrastructure, how to detect them and what engineers can do to mitigate these types of attacks.

Andreas Polyrakis

Digital Realty

Andreas Polyrakis
Director, Strategy & Business Development, Network Service Providers

Andreas is currently with Digital Realty, a leading global data center platform and colocation provider. In his role, he is responsible for enhancing and expanding the robust connectivity foundation across Digital Realty’s data centers, which is essential for fostering the thriving and diverse ecosystem of connected communities within. Andreas oversees the global strategy and business development for Digital Realty’s partnerships with Internet Exchanges.

Prior to this role, Andreas served as a Business Development Manager for Digital Realty Greece (formerly Lamda Hellix), where he led strategic initiatives involving telecoms, carriers, ISPs, Internet Exchanges, CDNs, OTTs, and cloud services. Before joining Digital Realty, Andreas was the Head of the Greek Internet Exchange (GR-IX) and served as the Technical Head of the Engineering & Technical Operations department at the Greek Research & Technology Network (GRNET).

Andreas is an active board member of the Greek Network Operators Group (GRNOG) and is a passionate advocate for RPKI, MANRS, and IPv6. He has a strong interest in Internet and Telecoms infrastructure, data centers, Internet Exchanges, and IP Peering, and enjoys engaging in in-depth technical discussions on topics like BGP routing and network automation.

Patrick Christian

TeleGeorgraphy

Patrick Christian
Principal Analyst

Patrick Christian is a Principal Analyst with TeleGeography. Patrick has over 20 years of telecom market research experience. Patrick heads the Cloud and WAN Infrastructure research service. He also focuses on African and European markets specializing in international bandwidth markets and Internet infrastructure, WAN services, terrestrial and submarine cable systems, and international voice traffic analysis.

Jac Kloots

Kentik

Jac Kloots
Senior Solutions Architect

Jac has 20+ years of experience in Engineering, Operations and Product Management roles. He’s been involved in building and operating networks of all shapes and sizes from Research and Education networks to performance hosting and CDNs. He’s currently a Senior Solution Engineer at the network observability company Kentik. Where he is a trusted advisor for the enterprise and service provider customers in the EMEA region.

Klaus Darilion

nic.at

Klaus Darilion
Head of Operations

Klaus Darilion works for the Austrian top level domain .at and is one of the masterminds of RcodeZero Anycast DNS. Although he spends most of his time managing his team, he still loves to make BGP optimisations and debug network issues with tcpdump.

Jad al Cham

RIPE

Jad al Cham
Senior Public Policy Technical Advisor

A network engineer and cyber security enthusiast with extensive knowledge in designing, deploying and securing networks. Passionate about driving positive change in the telecommunications sector, Jad is currently serving as a Senior Public Policy Technical Advisor at RIPE NCC, the Regional Internet Registry serving Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. His role involves engaging in strategic policy developments and monitoring emerging technology trends. Jad also focuses on capacity building and community knowledge sharing through dedicated workshops and tailored activities for network operators, universities, law enforcement agencies, banking institutions and government regulators. Before joining the RIPE NCC, Jad was in charge of deploying IP networks for SMEs and service providers in Europe, Middle East and Africa. His experience spans the networking domain, IoT and mobile access technologies.

Harald Michl

VIX

Harald Michl

Harald joined Vienna University Computer Center (VUCC) in 1998 and
currently works as team leader in the department responsible for running
the Austrian Academic Computer Network “ACOnet” and Vienna Internet
eXchange “VIX”. He really enjoys the neutral University environment,
which is a very stable basis for maintaining open-minded exchange of
information and knowledge within and between the academic and the ISP
networking community. Harald is active in Euro-IX, RIPE and atnog
community and chairs the Austrian Academic Networkers group since 2014.

Filiz Yılmaz

Equinix

Filiz Yılmaz
Director of Business Development Interconnection EMEA

Filiz is the Director of Business Development Interconnection EMEA at Equinix, leading the development of long-term interconnection strategies, eco-systems of interconnection, identifying investment and partnership opportunities and technology trends driving the evolution of digital infrastructure in the region. 

Filiz has worked in the technology sector over two decades, beginning her career developing early internet services in her native Türkiye in late 90s, before moving to Amsterdam Netherlands. After holding senior roles at RIPE NCC, ICANN and Akamai Technologies, she took on consulting roles with a variety of Internet infrastructure providers and interconnection facilitators, including PeeringDB and Namex. 

Throughout her career Filiz has been an active contributor to the Internet community. She has held numerous volunteer positions relating to Internet governance, policy and coordination, including the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG), the ICANN Address Supporting Organization (ASO) Advisory Council (AC) and IANA Review Committee, the RIPE Programme Committee and the Türkiye Chapter of the Internet Society. Filiz is a regular Guest Colloquia lecturer in the System and Network Engineering Programme of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and is a former member of the programme’s Ethics Committee.

Dom Schaeffer

Nokia

Dom Schaeffer
Director IP Consulting Engineering EMEA

Dominique has over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry and joined the IP Consulting Engineering team in 2008. He’s now leading the Team in EMEA which is responsible for the introduction, design and engineering of advanced IP solutions for customers on the full Nokia IP portfolio. Before joining the team, he had different roles including support, professional services and CTO office. Dominique holds a Master in Computer Science from ESIEA in Paris and a Master of Business Administration from La Sorbonne in Paris, France.