Setting Standards & Creating Community.

Eli D. Scher was most recently the founder and CEO of two greater Chicago digital infrastructure assets: New Continuum Data Centers and United Internet Exchange before selling those businesses to SBA Communications in July 2019. In that role he re-developed a high-performance data center, constructed a fiber network and internet exchange fabric and grew critical load to over 1MW. Scher continues to consult SBA Communications while actively seeking new digital infrastructure investments.

Prior to New Continuum, he worked as an analyst at prominent New York hedge funds where he analyzed corporate securities. Previously, Mr. Scher co-founded and served as CEO of GSME Capital Partners, a private, early stage investment partnership, and GSME Acquisition Partners I, a publicly traded acquisition vehicle.

Additionally, he was Chief Financial Officer and director of MCG Group a Shanghai-based LED-advertising company, and was the co-founder, President and CFO of Fundamental Films. He currently serves as on the board of directors of HMMI, a specialized manufacturer of extremely large and complex steel components.

Eli serves as the Chairman of the Board for the Open-IX Association and previously served as the Chairman of the Data Center Committee.

Mr. Scher received his AB from Princeton University.

Brad Raymo is a veteran interconnection specialist and currently is the Vice President of Network Strategy at StackPath. He has served on other community organizations, including NANOG and PeeringDB. In 2020 during the pandemic, he completed his bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership and is exploring returning for his MBA. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/braymo

Matt Griswold is a founder of United IX, an Internet exchange in Chicago, runs a software company, 20C, and serves on the board for Open-IX. He has been instrumental in launching several technology companies, playing key roles in development, networking and system administration.

Mr. Griswold is passionate about peering and Internet communities and has volunteered for many organizations including Euro-IX, NANOG, Open-IX and PeeringDB. He has also been known to enjoy automating everything he can find. He served on the board for the last couple years, before that as Chairman for the IX Group.

"I'm excited about all we've accomplished and would love to continue to help the organization to move forward."

Chris Grundemann is a passionate, creative technologist and a strong believer in technology’s power to aid in the betterment of humankind. In his current role as Managing Director at Grundemann Technology Solutions he is expressing that passion by helping technology businesses grow as well as by helping any business grow with technology.

Chris has been using technology, marketing, and strategy to build businesses and non-profit organizations for two decades. He holds 8 patents in network technology and is the author of two books, an IETF RFC, a personal weblog, and a multitude of industry papers, articles, and posts.

Chris is the lead research analyst for all networking and security topics at GigaOm and is the creator and co-host of The Imposter Syndrome Network Podcast. He is also a co-founder and Chair Emeritus of IX-Denver and Chair of the Open-IX Marketing committee. Chris has given presentations in 34 countries on 5 continents and is often sought out to speak at conferences, NOGs, and NOFs the world over.

Phillip Koblence is a strategic executive and thought leader in the data center and network space. He co-founded NYI (www.nyi.net) in 1996 and has successfully navigated through an ever-shifting infrastructure landscape, growing the company from a single data center in Lower Manhattan to a robust network with executional capabilities in key national and international markets. His leadership, focus on customer experience, and ability to cut through complexity and hype, has positioned NYI as an industry leader in high-touch infrastructure solutions. Phillip is the Chair of the IX Committee of the Open-IX Association and sits on the DE-CIX North America Customer Advisory Board. Phillip is also Co-Founder of the Nomad Futurist Foundation and Podcast, designed to demystify the world of critical infrastructure and inspire younger generations to join the industry. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and has been profiled by Data Center Knowledge, TheWHIR, MSPMentor, and NJ BIZ. He has an engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Mona is currently active as a Consultant in the Digital Infrastructure business; her most recent past includes her role as the VP, Real Estate Sales and Marketing for Digital Crossroads at Lake Michigan, a mission critical Data Center Development in the NW corner of Indiana, servicing Chicagoland. She was also a Director at Colliers International, a global Commercial Real Estate firm, where she worked for the Management team of 60 Hudson in New York and most specifically supported the largest Tenant, DataGryd Data Centers. Mona Weisberg launched her Real Estate career in the late 1980’s and partnered to launch the Philadelphia tri-state area’s first and most successful on-going Retail Tenant Representation firm, Solomon Associates (now part of CBRE). Ms. Weisberg moved to Manhattan and became Director of Real Estate for Eureka Broadband Corporation, where she originated and maintained relationships with national and regional commercial real estate owners representing over 100 landlords, 200 million square feet/3000 commercial office buildings in five markets including New York, PA, Miami, TX and SoCal responsible for managing in-building services division for this leading provider of integrated communication services. Later, as Director of Real Estate for RCN Business Services, a tier one fiber provider, she was responsible for gaining the “access rights” for advanced and dedicated data, voice and video services. Ms. Weisberg graduated from Drew University and has been an active member of both ICSC and REBNY; she has been an active member for Open-IX, as a volunteer on the Marketing Committee, the board liaison/chairperson of the Marketing Committee and currently sits on the Board; she also sits on the Board of JSA and Associates.

Shawna Bong is currently CEO of 20C, a software development company specializing in automation software. She is new to the computer networking field and became part of the industry a few years ago when she began working with United IX, an internet exchange in Chicago IL.