[apologies for duplicates.] Dear Colleagues, As you are aware, Daniel Karrenberg has stepped down from his position as General Manager of the RIPE NCC. Following his announcement the RIPE NCC Executive board has employed a great deal of effort to find a suitable replacement for this position. The RIPE NCC Executive Board is happy to announce Axel Pawlik as the new Managing Director of the RIPE NCC. Axel has been formally introduced to the participants at the recent AGM'99 meeting held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The RIPE NCC welcomes Axel and wishes him all the success in his new function. To help Axel get up to speed as quickly as possible, not only will he be assisted by the Executive Board, but also by Daniel and the staff. To provide you with some background information about Axel, please find below, the official news release announcing the appointment of Axel Pawlik as Managing Director of the RIPE NCC. Kind Regards, Paul Rendek Communications Officer ===== RIPE NCC Executive Board Announces Axel Pawlik as Managing Director Amsterdam, The Netherlands -- 19 October 1999 -- The RIPE NCC (Reseaux IP Europeens Network Co-ordination Centre) Executive Board today announced the appointment of Axel Pawlik as Managing Director of the RIPE NCC Association, effective 16 October 1999. Mr. Pawlik succeeds Daniel Karrenberg who served as General Manager since the establishment of the organisation in 1992. Employed at the University of Dortmund in Germany from 1985 to 1992, Axel Pawlik contributed to the establishment of UNIX networking as a publicly available service in Germany through the University of Dortmund. This institution introduced Internet access services to the business community and general public. During the period 1987-1991, Mr. Pawlik also served as a member of the board of the German Unix Users Group (GUUG). Understanding the demand for a commercial operation to provide Internet services, Mr. Pawlik founded EUnet Deutschland GmbH in 1992 and commercialised the operation. Under his leadership EUnet Deutschland GmbH became the market leader in Germany and one of the strongest EUnet networks in Europe. Mr. Pawlik was actively involved in the international operations of EUnet and the Internet community and held a series of executive positions within EUnet, initially as a member and eventually Vice-Chairman of the EUnet Executive Committee from 1988-1991. In his position as Vice-Chairman he lead the establishment of EUnet Ireland Ltd, which aimed to consolidate the host of national EUnet networks throughout Europe. Here he served as EUnet Ltd. Chairman of the Board from 1994 to 1995. Mr. Pawlik graduated from the University of Dortmund in 1983 with a Masters Degree in Computer Science. Since 1997 he lived with his family in North-west Ireland enjoying the clean air and rural lifestyle. For further information please see: About RIPE NCC (RIPE Network Coordination Centre) http://www.ripe.net/info/ncc/aboutncc.html Press Contact: RIPE NCC Tel: +31 20 535 4444 / Fax +31 20 535 4445 rendek@ripe.net