Re-elected Chair and New Members for GÉANT Board of Directors

At the November GÉANT General Assembly (GA) meeting our members voted for the position of Chair of the Board and for four open GÉANT Board Member positions.

We’re delighted to announce that Andreas Dudler of SWITCH has been re-elected for a further 1-year term, having served as Chair since his election to a 1-year term in November 2020 and having served on the Board since 2016.

New Board Members

Three new Board Member positions arose as a result of the terms of office expiring for Raimundas Tuminauskas (PSNC) who has served on the Board since 2015, Valter Nordh (SUNET) who has served since 2015, and Paul Feldman who has served since 2017 in his previous role as Jisc CEO. Following the resignation of HEAnet CEO Kerrie Power earlier this year, a fourth position was vacant.

We are pleased to now announce the following Members have been elected to the GÉANT Board of Directors​ following the voting process:

• Lars Fischer – NORDUnet (elected for a 3-year term)
• János Mohácsi – KIFÜ (elected for a 3-year term)
• Eric Durieux – RENATER (elected for a 3-year term)
• Paul Feldman – independent member (elected for a 2-year term)

Lars Fischer – NORDUnet (elected for a 3-year term)

Lars works with Nordic and European partnerships as well as with key research community stakeholders at NORDUnet, with a focus on long-term strategic evolution. Lars is a long-standing member of the GÉANT GA and NREN PC, and has served the GÉANT community in many ways, including the GN3plus Executive Committee, the GN3 Proposal Review Board, special interest groups and taskforces, as chair of the TNC program committee, and as member of the GPPC for the past seven years. Before joining NORDUnet in 2004, Lars spent ten years in the Internet and telecommunications industry as Technical Director at Tele2 Denmark and COLT Telecom.

János Mohácsi – KIFÜ (elected for a 3-year term)

Janos has been involved in numerous national and international projects related to advanced network development in high-speed networking, IPv6, Trust and Identity, and Open Science. Between 2008-2012, as head of the HBONE+ program developments (2008-2012) he managed building of the CEF-based new 100Gbps hybrid backbone in Hungary, HPC facility and federated T&I infrastructure. Later in the Sulinet+ program (2013-2016) he drove the renewal of the Hungarian School Network (5000+ sites) getting 100Mbps-1Gbps to every school, and rollout of new services including eduroam, eduID and multimedia services. He was elected as a GPPC member in 2015 and has been a member of the GÉANT Community Committee since 2019, as well as being selected as the Hungarian Governance Board Member of EOSC in 2018. Since 2016, after the merger of NIIFI to KIFÜ, he has represented KIFÜ in several H2020 projects and various organisations, and in Hungary he is equally responsible for the development of T&I services. Janos is also the Hungarian infrastructure member of the e-IRG group. He is an active member of several advisory groups of NRDIO (the Hungarian Research Funding Organisation), an e-infrastructure member of the Hungarian Research Infrastructure Committee, and a member of the Open Science Advisory Group.

Eric Durieux – RENATER (elected for a 3-year term)

Having completed his PhD in Physics at CERN where he experienced massive data transfer through mailing hundreds of magnetic tapes to partner Universities across Europe, Eric moved to a position at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology to apply his expertise in real time data acquisition, storing, transferring, processing, analysis, and modelling in the field of experimental atmospheric transport and physico-chemistry. After 12 years as an academic, he graduated at the University of Chicago in business management, and then entered a period of 12 years as consultant and Program Director for Corporations and Public Institutions engaged in value creation out of the first wave of e-business models. After five years as Deputy and the CEO for Engineering Schools in the Industry and Digital sectors, Eric engaged in start-up projects, directly as well as through investment evaluation and entrepreneurial training. Eric was appointed RENATER CEO on 1 September 2020.

Paul Feldman – independent member (elected for a 2-year term)

Paul has served on the GÉANT Board since 2017 as CEO of Jisc. Now recently retired from that position, he is in a portfolio space as board member and advisor. Prior to Jisc Paul was a senior executive mainly in CIO/CTO roles, but also running product P&Ls. About half his 40-year career was in financial services and the rest in a broad range of commercial sectors, with some time in charity and government. He has operated in many countries across Europe, as well as USA, Africa, and Asia. He is currently a board member at two UK higher education institutions, at HEAnet, and on the audit committee of the UK’s Science Museum Group (its largest museum organisation).

The four new Board Members join existing Board Members:

• Ana Tavares Pinto of FCCN | FCT
• Floor Jas of SURF 
• Federico Ruggieri of GARR
• Kristina Lillemets of the University of Tartu.

The GA is GÉANT’s highest governing body, in which representatives of its 39 member organisations meet at least three times a year and is also responsible for electing members to the GÉANT Board of Directors.