The RIPE Programme Committee is responsible for ensuring that the RIPE Meeting programme consists of interesting, relevant and inspiring content. We recruit, select and schedule the plenary of the RIPE Meeting.
Contact the RIPE Programme Committee: pc [at] ripe [dot] net
Biographies
Valerie Aurora
Term ends: RIPE 91
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.
Doris Hauser
Term ends: RIPE 90
Doris Hauser is currently working at nic.at, the Austrian registry, as a Linux sysadmin (mainly) with a bit of networking and scripting/programming (bash/python mostly).
She started getting into computers at a young age, starting with games on DOS computers, then joining a technical high school in Vienna when she was 14 years old. Afterwards she made her bachelor’s degree in IT Security at a university of applied sciences in lower Austria.
Doris’ bachelor thesis was about the security of smart sex toys (or rather the lack thereof), with a focus on privacy issues in the smartphone apps of said toys.
Pawel Kusmierski
RIPE Meeting Host Representative
Pawel got interested in computer networking in the 2000s while setting up a local non-profit ISP, using FreeBSD as the OS for CPU-based routers. He has since moved on to managing larger topologies, doing sysadmin work and software engineering. He helped introduce and scale Whitebox switches and routers into Akamai, running a custom network operating system developed by his team based in Krakow, Poland, serving hundreds of terabits of traffic across the globe. He currently works as Director of Networking Software and Hardware Engineering, overseeing software development in areas of routing and switching software development, load balancing and general traffic management.
Pawel has been serving on the PLNOG Program Committee since 2019.
Franziska Lichtblau
Term ends: RIPE 91
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.
Brian Nisbet
PC Vice Chair, RIPE Working Group Chair Representative
Brian Nisbet is the RIPE Working Group Chairs representative on the RIPE Programme Committee. He has been active in the RIPE community since RIPE 48 and he currently co-chairs the Anti-Abuse Working Group. His day job is Network Operations Manager for HEAnet, the Irish NREN, where he mostly makes sure the packets are flowing in the right direction.
Antonio Prado
Term ends: RIPE 89
An open source enthusiast, Antonio Prado is currently the Chief Technology Officer at AS59715, a local government body in Italy. He has been active in IT since 1993 and was an early adopter of IPv6.
A former MANRS ambassador and MANRS Steering Committee member, he recently co-authored the book “BGP, from theory to practice”, already available in Italian, to be published in English by the end of 2022.
Moin Rahman
Term ends: RIPE 89
Moin is currently pursuing his Masters Degree in Computer Security. He has 16+ years of professional experience running Network Operators in the Asia Pacific region. Before starting his Masters; he has been an active Community Member in the Asia Pacific region. He has joined and presented in multiple regional NOGs in AP region including APNIC, APRICOT, SANOG. He has also been a member of the PC for these conferences and recently have also chaired the APNIC54 PC. He is also an avid Community Trainer for APNIC and has conducted training on various topics including Network Security, System Administrations and IPv4/IPv6 Routing for the last 6+ years.
He is a big enthusiast and advocate of The FreeBSD Project. For more than 7 years now he has been a regular contributor and committer for ports/docs (bofh@). His primary interest is with ports but also contributes in the docs automation and the CI builds of the FreeBSD src tree.
When he is not doing anything he is in the mountains of Nepal for mountaineering or trail biking.
Khalid Samara
MENOG Representative
Khalid is a telecommunications and ISP expert with extensive experience in Internet, mobile, engineering and security technologies. He has acquired over a decade of experience in network planning, operations management, security and telecommunications policy development.
Khalid currently serves as PC Chair of the Middle East Network Operators Group (MENOG), an international forum dedicated to elevating communication and awareness about Internet best practices. Having been actively involved in providing consultation and advice to ISPs in the Middle East and Arab region, Khalid concentrates specifically on network strategies, design, Internet technology, and operations, as well as configuration and training. He has played a major role in training Middle East ISP and network engineers through MENOG roadshows and conferences.
Khalid is based in Jordan. Prior to his current role with ORANGE Telecom in the field of information security, he worked extensively with several regional and international telecom/ISP operators and has come to be considered a well-known face in the Internet industry in the Middle East.
Massimiliano Stucchi
PC Chair
Term ends: RIPE 88
Massimiliano “Max” Stucchi joined the Internet Society in 2019 as Technical Advisor for the European Bureau. His previous experiences are as a trainer and IPv6 Programme Manager at the RIPE NCC, and before that he was the founder and technical director of a small Internet Service Provider and Wireless Internet Service Provider in Northern Italy.
Max is a long time Unix fellow, with a specific love for FreeBSD and OpenBSD, which he’s been using for around 20 years now. His interest also cover BGP, Routing Security, DNS and of course, IPv6. If possible, he tries to contribute to the development of these technologies by participating in the IETF.
In his past, Max used to be an official football referee for the Italian Football Federation, but he quit when he moved to the Netherlands for work. Now, when he’s not in front of a keyboard, you can find him trying to get back in shape by running or racing remotely controlled cars.
Max speaks Italian, English, French, and is trying to improve his German.
He is based near Zurich, Switzerland.
Wolfgang Tremmel
Term ends: RIPE 88
After completing his degree at Karlsruhe University, Wolfgang started working as a network engineer in 1994. He went on to become head of network operations and peering manager at a range of ISPs.
In 2006, Wolfgang joined DE-CIX as Director Customer Support, a position he held for ten years. Since 2016, Wolfgang has been head of the DE-CIX Academy, making sure customers understand how BGP and other routing protocols work.
Clara Wade
Term ends: RIPE 90
Clara got introduced to the community five years ago in a peculiar way. She was only 22 years old, working at an online escrow company from its Buenos Aires office when IPv4 address transactions were becoming more urgent and frequent as the run-out was happening.
It became her passion project to make sure the process was as safe as possible and meeting people in the community that were committed to building a stable and sustainable Internet only emphasised the importance of the work being done here.
Since 2022, Clara has been helping develop the IP address strategy at AWS, where she is also an inclusion ambassador. Having attended multiple NOGs and RIR meetings across four regions, and being a member of the NANOG DEI committee, she loves connecting with people from different parts of the world and have seen first-hand the impact that contributing to this community can have.
Jan Žorž
PC Vice Chair, SEE Representative
Jan Žorž is a VP of 6connect Labs, working on the development of various protocols and network solutions to accelerate the global deployment of IPv6.
Active in the RIPE community as a RIPE PC member, Jan is also SEE RIPE regional meeting chairman and a founder and a chair of SINOG, the Slovenian Network Operators Group. Several IETF RFCs author and one of the founders and member of the board of GNA (Global NOG Alliance). Jan is also active in its “Keep Ukraine Connected” initiative.
Previously worked with the Internet Society and served as a CEO of Go6 Institute Slovenia. Jan is based in Slovenia, EU.