ASHBURN, Va., Oct. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Internet
Ecosystem Innovation Committee (IEIC), an independent global
committee that promotes Internet diversity and resilience through
the formation of new global Internet nexus points, today announced
that Athanasios (Sakis) Kitsopanidis from Ford Motor
Company, Dr. Jason Black from
NVIDIA, and Sarah Keller from
Uber Technologies, Inc. have joined as Board Members.
"IEIC represents a global voice of the digital infrastructure
industry. Today, I am pleased to welcome three industry leaders to
IEIC. I look forward to working with them and advancing forward our
mission of Internet resilience and diversity," said Dr.
Vint Cerf, Chairman of IEIC and Vice
President & Chief Internet Evangelist, Google.
Athanasios (Sakis) Kitsopanidis has worked at Ford for the last
26 years and is currently the acting CIO and is responsible for
Ford's Technology and Software platform. As the head of the
Technology & Software platform, Kitsopanidis currently oversees
Ford's Information Technology; Global Data, Insight, and Analytics;
and Ford Business Services units. He is also in charge of the
Integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) program at Ford. A
technology enthusiast, Kitsopanidis is supportive of the resiliency
and diversity of the Internet. Kitsopanidis has a double Master's
Degree–MBA from University of Warwick –
Warwick Business School and Master Degree in Computer Science from
University of Essex; and a
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from University of
Essex.
Dr. Jason Black is the Director
of Cloud & Edge Datacenter Engineering at NVIDIA. He leads the
teams that are driving the delivery of NVIDIA's end to end
datacenter-related software and infrastructure that power today's
most comprehensive Cloud and Edge Datacenter deployments. Formerly,
Dr. Black served as Head of Global Network Infrastructure at Uber
Technologies covering Data Center, Backbone, POP, and Cloud for the
Production and Advanced Technology Group networks. Prior to his
time at Uber Technologies, he was the Sr. Director of Network
Engineering and Operations at Yahoo! He is a technology and
business visionary with hands-on experience in growing
multi-billion-dollar web scale companies as well as previous
start-ups.
Sarah Keller is the Head of
Global Technology Sourcing and Supply Chain at Uber and is
responsible for strategic sourcing and supply chain activities for
all Infrastructure, IT and custom Uber ODM products. In this
capacity, Keller develops strategies that support Uber's technology
platform which is at the intersection of lifestyle and logistics
that is revolutionizing the way people connect with their cities
around the world. An industry veteran with more than 15 years of
technology leadership experience, Keller has held numerous
positions managing global hyperscale infrastructure, supply chain
and supplier strategy. Prior to Uber, Keller served in
leadership roles in Operations and Engineering teams for companies
including Facebook, Workday and Google. Keller participates in
several industry initiatives related to Women in Technology, STEM
Mentorship and Innovation Forums. Keller is also on the Board
of Directors for Kids At Hope, a 501(c) foundation focused on
developing educational outreach and successful outcomes for
children.
"I am very proud to welcome these elite technology leaders from
different segments of the digital infrastructure industry. More
than ever before, the pandemic has highlighted the criticality of a
comprehensive digitization strategy," said Clint Heiden, Founder of IEIC. "Resilient
digital infrastructure is key for businesses, regardless of the
industry. I'm excited about moving forward with this diverse group
of IEIC thought leaders to make an even bigger impact on Internet
resiliency and diversity for generations to come."
"Diversity and Inclusion remains a key initiative for IEIC, and
I am very glad to welcome our second female Board Member to the
industry luminaries as part of the IEIC Board group. Diverse groups
are more innovative and create better business outcomes," said
Vinay Nagpal, Executive Director and
Founding Member of IEIC. "Sarah
Keller joins Dr. Barbara
Boyan, as we will develop additional programs around D&I
to continue to foster a diverse group of leaders to be the voice of
the industry."
The IEIC has concluded four installments of IEIC Virtual Summit.
The fourth webinar on the topic of Lessons Learned from COVID-19
and What Could be Next? included IEIC Founding Members Dr.
Vint Cerf/Google, Clint Heiden/QTS, Ivo
Ivanov/DE-CIX, Vinay Kanitkar
/Akamai and Vinay
Nagpal/InterGlobix. The next IEIC webinar will be held in
the coming months.
About the Internet Ecosystem Innovation Committee
The
IEIC is an independent committee that promotes Internet
diversity forming new global Internet nexus points. The mission of
IEIC is to partner with communities globally to create new Internet
nexus points through public and private partnerships with local
municipalities, academia and businesses. The Founding Members of
IEIC are industry luminaries from many of the world's most
respected companies and leaders including: Vint Cerf/Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Clint Heiden/QTS, Steve
Alexander/Ciena (NYSE: CIEN), Rafael
Arranz/Telxius, Jason
Black/NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA),
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Mark
Boxer/Cigna (NYSE: CI), Barbara
Boyan/Virginia Commonwealth
University (VCU), Andrew
Dugan/CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL), Staffan Göjeryd/Telia Carrier (VSE: TEL1L), Jon Greaves/QTS (NYSE: QTS), Asher Kagan/Blade, Vinay
Kanitkar/Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM), Sarah Keller/Uber (NYSE: UBER), Athanasios
(Sakis) Kitsopanidis /Ford (NYSE: F) Michael Leidinger/Hilton (NYSE: HLT), Vinay
Nagpal/InterGlobix, Frank
Nazzaro/FreddieMac and Anthony
Romanello/Henrico Economic Development Authority. For
additional information visit: www.ieicco.com
IEIC Media Contact:
Carter B.
Cromley
(703) 861-7245 | ccromley@cox.net
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SOURCE Internet Ecosystem Innovation Committee (IEIC)
