AFRINIC Appoints Alan Barrett as CEO

The African Network Information Centre’s (AFRINIC) Board of Directors, has announced the appointment of Alan Barrett as AFRINIC’s chief executive officer (CEO).

Barrett would assume the position of the CEO as from the 20th of April 2015 for an initial three-year term.

He would replace AFRINIC’s founding CEO, Adiel A. Akplogan.
  
“After a long recruitment process, we are delighted to announce that Mr Barrett will be coming on board to take this role,” said Mr Sunday Folayan, AFRINIC Board Chair.

“Mr Barrett has been an integral part of the development of AFRINIC and Africa’s Internet since 1989, is a long-standing member of the AFRINIC community, and is a familiar and well-respected face on the global Internet scene. With Mr Barrett as CEO, we are ready to take AFRINIC to the next level of its evolution.”

Barrett had been involved with the Internet since 1989 as a lecturer in the Electronic Engineering Department at the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa. In 1990 and 1991, he played a key part in the transformation of the South African universities network to the TCP/IP protocols and in its connection to the global Internet.

He operated the primary name server for .ZA at that time and, in 1993, was a co-founder of South Africa's first commercial Internet service provider.

In 1997, he was one of the four authors of the proposal to form AFRINIC, and served on the AFRINIC Board from its inception until 2009.

Barret is currently a member of the Consolidated RIR IANA Stewardship Proposal (CRISP) Team, which drafted the number resource community's response to the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group’s (ICG) request for proposals.

He was also one of the founding members of the South African Chapter of the Internet Society, and a founding member of Namespace ZA, an organisation that was intended to oversee the .ZA ccTLD before that role was taken over by legislation.
 
Folayan further said “Oh behalf of the Board, our members, the AFRINIC staff, and the local and global Internet community, please join me in congratulating Mr Barrett. We wish him all the best in his new position”.‎