Candidate Statement
Paul Dunbar – Akamai
Hello, my name is Paul Dunbar, and I am happy to be running for the board this year. I am originally born and raised in England but moved over to Munich Germany mid 2001 and have stayed ever since. I am married, the father of two boys and enjoy mountain activities with or without snow!
I made the transition from transmission to internet networks internally with Cable & Wireless when moving to Germany. I have worked in Tier1 backbone networks, regional ISP networks and worked in professional services also. Internet exchange points therefore have been a natural part of my networking life throughout, and they continue to be with my present employer Akamai Technologies, who use exchange points as a key component to connect the Akamai CDN globally. In my role at Akamai, I am responsible for helping build internet ecosystems in various locations including UK and Ireland, the Nordics, and Central Asia.
I want to use my more than 25 years of experience from a range of organisations, job roles and geographies, to contribute to LINX’s continued success. It is motivating to see LINX’s development over the last 30 years, and I would like to be at the core of that to guide and ensure good governance to keep it on this course. I have been part of the LINX Scotland Steering Committee supporting the regional peering initiative there. As part of my interest in working in the internet community, I am an active member of the Programme Committee for NetUK.
I am a regular LINX meeting attendee, presenting at LINX meetings sharing Akamai’s interaction with the exchange and the UK networking ecosystem. Akamai’s ethos mirrors that of LINX; that low loss, latency and reliability are key deliverables for an improved internet experience both for LINX members and the end users they serve. Akamai Technologies are supportive of me standing for the LINX board.
LINX is an important part of many peoples’ lives providing services which affect their daily business. I believe in diversification as being a core strategy to stay relevant in the internet industry whilst at the same time maintaining core services which are vital to the day-to-day business and its members. This is why I support regional peering whether it be home-based in the UK or in geographically diverse locations spread globally, and why I support the diverse services that LINX offers in its product portfolio as long as the business case merits this. I do have industry relevant experience in driving technical projects considering the financial, strategic, and technical aspects and believe these attributes support my candidacy for running for the board.
You can contact me at pdunbar@akamai.com for any questions you may have.