LINX Award

The LINX Conspicuous Contribution Award is a prize presented to an individual who has shown steadfast and continuous support in the development and growth of LINX

First presented in 2006, the LINX Award has so far been given to seven recipients: Nigel Titley, Dr Richard Clayton, Clive Feather, NIX.CZ and CZ.NIC for the BIRD route server project, Raza Rizvi, Grahame Davies for his service to LINX as Chairman, and most recently, to Michelle Reid of Telehouse.

At the landmark LINX100 meeting in February 2018, five of the award winners were present with fellow recipients Ondrej Filip of NIX.CZ and CZ>NIC and Dr Richard Clayton also sending messages of gratitude.

Further information on the terms of reference of the LINX Award can be found below.

LINX Award – Terms of Reference.

Roll of Honour

2017 – Michelle Reid

LINX launched its network services at Telehouse Europe in 1994, when the London Exchange was first formed. Michelle has worked closely with LINX during her entire career at Telehouse spanning more than 20 years, to further develop LINX’s network services at Telehouse London. As LINX has grown, so has Telehouse in London. Telehouse launched Europe’s first purpose-built carrier neutral colocation facility, Telehouse North in 1990. Since then, the Docklands campus has expanded with the addition of three data centres, including the new Telehouse North Two data centre which opened last year.

“It is to Michelle’s credit that she really understood the role that LINX plays generally, and how having LINX in their buildings plays such an important role in establishing the Telehouse Docklands campus into one of the most connected places on the planet. We are grateful for her faithful support, and think it appropriate to recognise her in this way.” – John Souter.

2014 – Grahame Davies

Grahame Davies served on the Board of LINX from February 1999 to May 2014 and was Chairman of the Board from 2000 to 2014. Grahame successfully steered the organisation through something of a crisis in 2000, when a proposal was made to de-mutualise LINX. His leadership during that time had a huge part to play in the ensuing reaffirmation of the mutual status of LINX, and our subsequent development as the world’s largest membership-based Internet exchange. After this testing initial time, Grahame went on to be our longest serving Chairman, being re-elected by the Board each year. In 2013 he initiated a wide-ranging governance review, which we are in the process of carrying through at the time of writing. Grahame’s individual contributions are many and various, and included being the face of the Board to the membership. Grahame supported the CEO and the staff in countless ways, suggesting many wide-ranging improvements in policy and practice, and always being there as a source of consultation and good advice. Outside of LINX, in his role of Chairman, Grahame was also an excellent ambassador for the organisation and represented us in many public fora. With great humour, a resolute belief in the ethos of LINX, and a personal style that endeared him to the wider LINX community, Grahame has given splendid service over the years.

2012 – Raza Rizvi

Raza served on the Board of LINX from 2002 to 2012 and was vice-chairman for 5 of those years. Raza was an exemplar non-executive director. Diligent, independent, patient, supportive and hard working, he produced many of the policy documents that the Board operates within. Outside of his direct role, Raza implemented the LAIT training scheme and managed projects for LINX as a consultant. He was also a tireless ambassador and faithfully represented the organisation whenever called upon to do so.

2010 – NIX.CZ and CZ.NIC for the BIRD Route Server Project

BIRD began life as a university project at the Faculty of Math and Physics at Charles University in Prague before going into full development under the support of CZ.NIC Labs at the end of 2008. It is an open source route server platform which has proved to have been of great benefit to LINX and other European IXPs. It is a fully functional dynamic IP routing daemon primarily targetted for UNIX-like systems. The BIRD team now consists of Ondrej Filip (pictured left), Libor Forst, Pavel Machek, Martin Mares and Ondrej Zajicek.

“The Conspicuous Contribution Award is presented to individuals or organisations who’ve demonstrated commitment to the development of LINX and the industry as a whole. There’s no doubt that BIRD is an important step forward in route server technology.” – John Souter

2009 – Clive Feather

Clive Feather served on the LINX Council for five years and through this took part in a number of strategic reviews. He contributed to LINX’s Best Current Practice documents, provided the software by which the LINX council elections results were computed and took on the role of Regulatory Officer for a period as a secondment.

“Clive has been attending LINX general meetings for well over a decade and could always be relied upon to provide support through objective questions and points of view. Over the years, he took a keen interest in our governance documents, and can be said to have played a key role in keeping them relevant and practical.” – John Souter

2007 – Dr Richard Clayton

An academic at Cambridge University, Dr Richard Clayton is also a consultant for LINX member, THUS plc (incorporating founding LINX member, Demon Internet). Richard has attended LINX general meetings for many years and can always be relied upon to provide support through objective questions and points of view. Also important is his contribution to many of LINX’s Best Current Practice documents which have covered everything from traceability to spam and have proved to be hugely influential.

“It is an exciting time in the development of LINX and Richard’s part in that growth cannot be overestimated. Being able to call upon his extensive experience and expertise is very important us and we are delighted to acknowledge his input in this way.” – John Souter

2006 – Nigel Titley

Nigel Titley of Easynet was a LINX council member from its 1994 formation through to 2006. Nigel played a pivotal role in ensuring that LINX became one of the world’s leading Internet exchanges and LINX owes much of its success to Nigel’s extensive Industry expertise and sound judgement.

“I’ve known Nigel possibly for longer than I’ve known anyone else in the UK Internet industry. In 1988 he was sanity-checking my TCP/IP code, but it was during my six years with LINX between 1994 to 2000 that his sanity-checking counted for rather more!” – Keith Mitchell