Our People

Bill Woodcock is the executive director of Packet Clearing House, the international treaty 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.

Graduated from the Sup’Com Engineering School in 1998, M. Chakchouk received his M.S in telecommunications from ENIT Engineering School in 2001. In February 2009, he achieved his Ph.D in telecommunications applied to mathematics, under the joint tuition of El Manar University (Tunisia) and Paris Descartes University (France). He started his career in 1998 as a research engineer in The National Center for Telecommunication Studies and Research (CERT) and as a member of the R&D project PINA. In 2002, he became the chief of the R&D project: RACINES. Then, he joined in July 2005 the Telecommunications Regulation Authority (INT), first as chief of technical department, later he became the Head of Interconnection & Access. In March 2010, he was appointed as Adviser to the Minister of ICT in charge of broadband development. Few weeks after the Tunisian revolution, M. Chakchouk was designated Chairman and CEO of the Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI), where he decided to strategically transform this public enterprise by advocating for an open and free Internet in Tunisia and creating the first Internet exchange point in the Maghreb region (TunIXP). In Mai 2015, he was appointed as Chairman and CEO of the Tunisian Post where he initiated a new strategy to modernise the leading incumbent public company. From mai 2018 until 2020, he served UNESCO as the Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information. In early September 2020, M. Chakchouk decided to join a newly appointed government as Minister of Transport & Logistics. In January 2021, he joined Packet Clearing House (PCH), an international non-profit organization as Director of policy and government affairs and engaged himself in promoting the resiliency and security of the internet’s core infrastructure.

Sean Barton is the Chief Strategy Officer at PCH. A seasoned industry professional with a technology background working for and with startups as well as Fortune 500 Companies. Sean’s career spans more than 30 years. Throughout his career he has held positions with technically driven companies such as Fifth Third Bank, Verizon, Level 3, Contingent Network Services and Riverbed Technologies. In the beginning of his career, Sean started out building Local Area Networks and went on to build and support Wide Area Networks, Help Desks, Network Operations Centers and a Medical Videoconferencing Network for Ethicon-Endo Surgery. From here Sean advanced into telecommunications and transitioned into Data Center Operations. In addition to his role at Packet Clearing House, Sean also serves as Chief Operating Officer at EdgePresence, owner operator of a national multi-tenant edge data center network. Sean has a successful track record as a sales engineer, a sales executive and as a well-respected leader. He brings people together, builds teams, inspires positive company cultures, increases revenue and market share; and is dedicated to customer success and providing the right solutions to meet and exceed customer needs.

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.

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 of 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.

Jeri Linder (McNeill) is a PCH provisioning engineer. Her focus is on private interconnects and transit. She began working in the Internet Service Provider industry in 1997, and may be the world’s only second-generation packet-switching provisioning engineer. She lives and works in Sonoma, California, USA, attached to PCH’s Berkeley office.

Drew is a person with a keen understanding of organization, a passion for order and a desire for clear communication.

Allison Mankin is an Internet protocol leader and researcher based in the Washington DC area. She has a long history in and around the IETF and IRTF, including serving as IRTF Chair, Transport AD, IPng AD, and Nomcom Chair, and Internet research, including serving as a program director at the National Science Foundation. She recently co-authored multiple DNS privacy-related standards (RFCs ) including DNS over TLS (DoT), XFR over TLS (XoT), and DNS over QUIC (DoQ). Allison founded the IETF Systers organization and is devoted to inclusiveness in technology in addition to Internet privacy.

Marco has over 40 years of software development experience, starting with a well-loved Apple ][ in 1978. At PCH, he maintains the website and various applications which collect and convert a variety of internet datasets into useful databases for statistics, research and public consumption. Prior to joining PCH in 2014, Marco worked on all sorts of software projects, including video streaming, GPS and street mapping, mobile phones, user interfaces, flight scheduling, fonts and typography, gaming, device drivers, and other stuff he can't remember. He is based in Vancouver, Washington

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.

Sara provides assistance and support to IX operators and contributes to PCH's network expansion by explaining the benefits of hosting a DNS node at Internet exchange points. 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.

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, Raspberry 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.

Rob Catling-Tate is involved in a number of PCH’s software development and research projects, and has served a stint as PCH's interim DNS Services Manager. Day to day, Rob is focused on building modern software solutions to support PCH's goals and research initiatives. Before joining PCH in 2020, Rob spent five years with CIRA, the Canadian national registry. Rob lives in Merrickville, Ontario in Canada. When he is not behind his computer, you can find him restoring vintage cars and rally racing.

Sharon Healy is an independent researcher and archivist with strong interests in internet/web history and the preservation of born-digital heritage. Sharon holds a BA (Hons) in Cultural Studies, a Master of Arts in Digital Humanities, a PG Diploma in Historical Archives, and a PhD in Digital Arts and Humanities.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3493-0938