WALNUT, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 8, 2019 - Open-IX, a 501(c)(6) non-profit association, formed to define and promote community-regulated interconnection standards for data centers and Internet exchanges, has appointed Valerie Wittkop as its new Executive Director. Open-IX is honored to welcome Wittkop, as she will surely provide execution and management of the board and community’s vision.
Valerie has been working with and managing non-profit organizations for over 20 years, honing the skills and experience she brings to the association. She became the Program Director for NANOG (North American Network Operators’ Group) in 2015 and continues in that role today. She also was lead coordinator at a high-tech conference center and directed marketing for an economic development group. This experience will help her to keep Open-IX focused on reaching its goals of continuing education and the support of standards of excellence within the Internet engineering community.
“I’m looking forward to working with this amazing group of people, and applying the experience I’ve gained over the years to keep Open-IX focused on serving the internet with solid standards,” says Valerie.
“We are honored to work with Valerie, a veteran in the community. Her unique experience in the industry will benefit the Open-IX community and we look forward to her leadership in executing the strategic plan. Among the list of things to execute, are to organize the implementation of the upcoming Edge standard (OIX-3) as well as support the Open-IX ongoing efforts to define and regulate top level interconnectivity standards. We believe the addition of Valerie to the Open-IX team will be extraordinarily valuable to the community and are excited to work with her.” said Aaron Hughes, Chairman of the Board.
Open IX is operated by a dedicated group of volunteers, bringing together a wide array of individuals from different facets of the internet industry. In order to organize the various committees and the Board of Directors a strong framework must be implemented and supported. Valerie was the clear choice to tackle that challenge.
The Open-IX community extends beyond its members to the greater industry engaging with individuals who observe challenges in the market based on the quickly evolving technology landscape. It allows industry members to define standards that provide synthesized knowledge of current, real-world interconnection practices and ensures they are developed under the constraint of four basic principles: Open, transparent, bottom-up, and on-going. This holistic collaboration enables the Open-IX Association to quickly adapt to implement industry acceptable, ANSI certified standards to create more resilient and efficient global Internet infrastructure.
Open-IX, a nonprofit member-based organization, encourages the proliferation of interconnection by the development, implementation, and certification of transparent technical and operating standards, to create a more resilient and efficient global internet infrastructure. More information about OIX can be found by visiting www.open-ix.org.