Our People
Board of Directors
Staff
Business
Bill Woodcock is the executive director of Packet Clearing House, the international non-governmental organization that builds and supports critical Internet infrastructure, including Internet exchange points and the core of the domain name system. Since entering the Internet industry in 1985, Bill has helped establish more than two hundred Internet exchange points. In 1989, Bill developed the anycast routing technique that now protects the domain name system. In 1998 he was one of the principal drivers of California 17538.4, the world’s first anti-spam legislation. Bill was principal author of the Multicast DNS and Operator Requirements of Infrastructure Management Methods IETF drafts. In 2002 he co-founded INOC-DBA, the security-coordination hotline system that interconnects the network operations centers of more than three thousand ISPs around the world. And in 2007, Bill was one of the two international liaisons deployed by NSP-Sec to the Estonian CERT during the Russian cyber-attack. In 2011, Bill authored the first survey of Internet interconnection agreements, as input to the OECD’s analysis of the Internet economy. Now, Bill’s work focuses principally on the security and economic stability of critical Internet infrastructure.
- Mar 16 - Apr 21: Dinan
- Apr 22 - Apr 27: Berkeley
- Apr 28 - May 10: Paris
Mimi Rauschendorf is the Business Manager for PCH, handling finances and contracts. She has a Masters in Communications from the Technical University of Berlin. She is also a filmmaker, who works as an artist-in-residence at UC Davis, using filmmaking as a therapeutic art form to empower hospitalized children.
Operations
Drew is a person with a keen understanding of organization, a passion for order and a desire for clear communication.
Systems
Sara builds PCH's internal IT network and server infrastructure. Prior to joining PCH, she was a network and systems engineer for SudREN, the Sudanese Research and Education Network, and before that, for the Nile Center for Technology Research. Sara is an active supporter of Network Operations Groups, being the co-founder of the Sudanese NOG, and a frequent speaker and trainer on IPv6, DNS, DNSSEC, and network scalability at AfNOG, APRICOT, and MENOG. She has an MSc. in Internet Engineering, and a BSc. in Electronic Engineering.
Outreach
Nishal is an Internet Analyst at Packet Clearing House (PCH), working primarily in the Middle East and African region. He has established, worked with, and continuously supports Network Operator Groups (NOGs) across the globe, promoting self-development through the Internet.
Nishal is also the general manager for the community-run Internet Exchange Points (INXes) for South Africa. Both from a technical and policy background, Nishal has been involved in developing interconnections and Internet Exchange Points across the globe, and now adds those years of experience to Africa’s largest peering points.
He’s been CTO, and Senior Project Manager: Global Infrastructure, for AfriNIC, the Regional Internet Registry for Africa, and has worked in several roles at Internet Solutions, South Africa's largest corporate ISP, growing their infrastructure to a multinational service provider, operating across 4 continents during his 12 year working stint there.
Nishal is passionate about transferring knowledge to developing countries. He has been a long-term volunteer instructor for the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG) for more than a decade, and routinely teaches at NOGs around the globe.
Dibya holds a masters degree in Telecommunication Engineering and works as a peering coordinator and data analyst. His primary task is to help organizations peer with PCH's root DNS node. His favorite part of this role is the outreach and meeting / writing emails to people from around the world.
Prior to working at PCH, he was an administrator at the Asian Institute of Technology, where he planned and managed various kinds networks and services. He also served as a network engineer at Nepal Research and Education Network to start his career and he is a general member of the same organization currently. Apart from work, he participates at regional and national level Internet conferences and teaches at several workshops voluntarily. Dibya is also a program committee member of South Asian Network Operators Group (SANOG) and Nepalese network operators group (npNOG).
Dibya is happy to live and work in his hometown of Kathmandu, Nepal. He considers this a big accomplishment as it allows him to be close to family. In his spare time he enjoys traveling, reading, and sports.
Gaël is a Senior Manager on Interconnection Policy and Regulatory Affairs at Packet Clearing House (PCH) and works primarily in Europe, the Middle East and the Latin American region. He regularly provides policy advice to government officials and inter-governmental institutions in the areas of network interconnection and traffic exchange following industry best practices. As part of his role, Gaël administers PCH’s IXP Directory, a global directory of Internet exchange points used by the operations community, researchers and policy makers. He also oversees the peering efforts of PCH’s anycast network, the largest non-commercial DNS network in the world.
Between August 2015 and December 2016, Gaël worked as a Policy Analyst in the Communications Infrastructure and Services Policy team at the Digital Economy Policy Division of the OECD. At the OECD, he was responsible for the Internet of Things panel at the 2016 Cancun Ministerial Meeting and worked in several OECD publications in the areas of broadband, Internet infrastructure, IP interconnection and IPv6. In November 2016, he co-organised a meeting with BEREC on IP Interconnection in Brussels attended by European regulatory bodies and the Internet industry. He also contributed in several chapters of the Latin American Broadband Policy toolkit, a publication aiming at informing policy makers on best practices across a wide range of topics related to the Digital Econonmy.
Prior to PCH, Gaël worked for 10 years in the non-profit, public and private sector as Software Engineer and ICT Technical Expert bringing a digital transformation to education, health and livelihood projects in developing countries. He received his Telecommunications Engineering Master from the Universidad de Alcalá and a Master in International Cooperation from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid.
Gaël joined PCH in December 2012 and is based in Dublin, Ireland.
Mohamed Elbashir is Senior Manager, Internet and Regulatory Policy at Packet Clearing House. He has been active within ICANN since 2001, he served as a Council member in ICANN's Country Code Supporting Organization "ccNSO" (2004 to 2008), member of ICANN's Board At Large Advisory Committee "ALAC" (2007 to 2011) and was a member of ICANN's nominating committee.
Mohamed is actively involved in the internet activities in Africa and the middle east, currently he is the chair of "dotAfrica" new gTLD initiative. He was the one of the founders and vice president of the Africa's Top Level Domains Organization "AfTLD" (2004 to 2008), beside being a founding member of the Arab Internet governance forum. Prior to joining PCH, Mohamed has established and managed the Technical Affairs Department of Qatar’s Communications Regulatory Authority from 2008 to 2016, during this period he lead and implemented major national telecom and Internet Projects in the State of Qatar. He established and managed ccTLD registries in the Sudan and Qatar, operated an IDN and a new gTLD registry. Mohamed development policies related to Internet governance, domain names, internationalized Domain Names "IDN" and telecom regulatory.
Mohamed has been awarded the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN" leadership award for 2016 for his leadership role in the IANA critical functions stewardship role transition from the US Government to the global Internet community. Mohamed holds two master degrees from the American University in London and the University of Manchester and done an an MIT executive education program.
Research
John has been working with the Internet since the 1980’s across a wide range of technologies including VoIP, massively multiplayer games, ISPs, satellite communications, and public directory systems such as the DNS, primarily with a focus in operations management and product/project management.
His role at PCH is supervising projects involving code development, operations, and partner relationships to build extensions of existing platforms or create new offerings as part of the PCH portfolio.
Hobbies include managing his farm, Raspbery Pi/Arduino hacks, and fabricating with metal in his shop. He has kept his own ASN for several decades, and keeps a varied network full of bleeding- and trailing-edge technologies. He resides in the rolling hillsides of Oregon though is found in the Bay Area or in the window seat of an aircraft for a significant portion of his hours.