Candidate Statement
Pete Stevens – Mythic Beasts
I’ve been a LINX board member for five years, and a LINX member since 2012, regularly attending both board and member meetings. My employer Mythic Beasts (AS44684) are supportive of my re-standing.
I’m an active member of the wider community having attended and presented at multiple network operator groups, RIPE and the IETF. I also contribute to Raspberry Pi who provide computer science education for the next generation of engineers and I also lecture final year Computer Science at Cambridge University as part of the E-commerce course. My work at Mythic Beasts on IPv6 only hosting has netted me not only a profitable business that can continue to expand despite internet addressing constraints but I also received an award from the IPv6 hall of fame.
In my time on the LINX board I’ve become vice chair of the board and the chair of the Finance, Risk and Audit subcommittee. During my tenure on the board we’ve appointed a new CEO, CFO and changed our auditors to RSM. We’ve opened multiple internet exchanges around the world and now have five exchanges regularly pushing over half a terabit of traffic; one of which is less than twelve months old.
I have also served on the governance committee which has now completed revising all the founding documents of LINX. This is a necessary development to place LINX on a firm legal footing for the future whilst still protecting member interests.
All of these are hugely positive developments and move LINX to a much stronger position for the future. As a member led organisation LINX will continue to enable a level playing field for internet participants new and old. LINX has to be neutral and treat all of it’s members fairly. Fairness enables innovation because new innovative companies can access the same terms as existing players.
I have director level experience at Mythic Beasts and non-executive director experience at LINX. Mythic Beasts has been organically grown from a hobby project with no external financing. No longer a single server on a shelf we now offer virtual, dedicated and managed linx servers from six locations across three countries. We have a fully remote workforce across the UK and Ireland managing many thousands of clients. We built out a European network and are locally present at multiple exchanges in multiple countries. Consequently, I have some direct experience of almost all roles required to operate a successful business including HR, marketing, finance, legal, technical, strategy and public relations.
As part of this growth of Mythic Beasts, I’ve completed five acquisitions so have experience in business planning, accounting and due diligence.
Conflicts of interest: I am a significant shareholder and director of member Mythic Beasts Ltd (AS44684). Mythic Beasts Ltd operates customer facing LINX websites on a standard commercial contract on behalf of LINX. Mythic Beasts purchases internet exchange services from LINX and a number of other internet exchange providers.