About - Global Peering Forum

Global Peering Forum

The Global Peering Forum (GPF) builds on an effort started by multiple commercial organizations over 15 years ago. GPF is an independent, non-profit organization designed to advance the business interests of individuals involved in peering and interconnection. GPF is a 501(c)(6) non-profit corporation operating as a business league. The current board consists of nine elected representatives from organizations who have supported the event for a number of years.

About GPF

This page includes required public disclosures, meeting minutes, and additional information benefiting the understanding of our members and event attendees.

Fiscal 2022 GPF Election Information
GPF Code of Conduct
Global Peering Forum Bylaws
Global Peering Forum Corporate Resolution COVID-19
Global Peering Forum Articles of Incorporation

2018 IRS 990 Filing
2017 IRS 990 Filing
2016 IRS 990 Filing
Global Peering Forum Montana Business Entity Search
2021 GPF Members

The GPF Board of Directors can be reached from the form below:

Name

Message

Fiscal 2022 GPF Board of Directors

Ben Hedges – Board President
Petra Wensing- Board Vice President
Nicole Kangas – Board Treasurer
Ester Paal – Board Secretary
Josh Snowhorn
Katsuyasu Toyama
Michele McCann
PJ Gallagher
Milko Ilari

Introducing Fiscal 2022

GPF Board of Directors

Ben Hedges

President

Ben Hedges

President

Ben Hedges has been a member of the Global Peering Forum organizing committee since 2011 during his role as CMO of the London Internet Exchange (LINX), and is a founding board member of Global Peering Forum Inc, established in 2015 and was appointed President of the organization in 2020. From 2019-2022 Ben was interim Executive Director of the IND-DCA, and worked for Hurricane Electric (AS6939). Since 2022 Ben has been Vice President of Interconnection and Peering at data center operator Cyxtera.

Petra Wensing

Vice-President

Petra Wensing

Vice-President

Petra Wensing is working as Marketing, Communication and Events Manager at AMS-IX for nearly 10 years. She has been a GPF Board member for almost 5 years and she is also one of the organisers for EPF. Petra fulfilled in the past roles in the fields of Sponsorship, CSR, PR and Communications mostly at mobile Telecom operators. She studied Dutch Language and Literature at the university in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Ester Paal

Board Secretary

Ester Paal

Board Secretary

Ester recently joined the Flexoptix’ Evangelical Optician team and she is the lead for the CEE region. She previously worked at the NIX.CZ Association from 2013-2022, as an Accounts and Communication Manager/Peering Coordinator. She was responsible for communication with the Association's members and customers, and also the main organiser of the annual Peering Days conference. She also represented the Association at domestic and international fora and conferences. Prior to joining the Czech Neutral Internet Exchange, she worked as a Liaison Manager for EURid, the registry of the .eu top-level domain. Ester has joined the GPF board in 2021 and is currently the board secretary.

Michele McCann

Board Member

Michele McCann

Board Member

Michele McCann is the Head of Platforms and Interconnection at Teraco. She is a key member of the Teraco executive and the team responsible for developing and growing the NAPAfrica Internet Exchange into the largest IXP in Africa, focused on servicing sub-Saharan Africa. Michele has a passion for peering, content and carrier aggregation in Africa and has a fundamental understanding of the opportunities and challenges within the African market and experience with diversification for a global market.
Before Teraco McCann served as Commercial Director at Arc Telecoms. Her role included the development of new infrastructures focusing on delivering ISP products and services to the market. Currently, a key strategic focus for her is on relationship development with new and existing Teraco enterprise clients and cloud and content providers to grow future opportunities locally and internationally.

Katsuyasu Toyama

Board Member

Katsuyasu Toyama

Board Member

Working for the internet industry for approximately 30 years, such as JPNAP, OCN(AS4713), GIN(AS2914), and Internet Data center (MULTIFEED) business. Not only to the businesses, but also he is trying to contribute to peering/interconnection communities through the activities like a leader of Peering Asia, and Chairperson of APIX (Asia Pacific Internet Exchange association), as well as a board member of GPF.

Josh Snowhorn

Board Member

Josh Snowhorn

Board Member

Founder and CEO of Quantum Loophole, Inc.
Josh values approachability, accessibility, collaboration, innovation and growth. These qualities guided Josh’s leadership in the interconnection industry over the last 20 years and building over $10B of value along the way. He has pretty much seen and done it all through key founding and executive positions at Terremark, Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Cincinnati Bell, and CyrusOne (Nasdaq: CONE). Josh co-founded the Global Peering Forum, the annual meeting for the Internet interconnection and peering community where he serves on the board of directors. Josh serves on the advisory board of Telescent, the finest automated interconnection machine on the planet. He is an avid speaker at conferences globally including networking, data centers, real estate, edge networking, and quantum computing. He has been a surfer for 39 years and a snowboarder for 25 years, traveling the globe in pursuit of experiences. Josh loves cars and racing. He founded TrackRats, LLC, the premier car club for track enthusiasts.
Auto racing enthusiast. Industry leader and innovator. Surfer and snowboarder. Peering expert. Public speaker. Founder and CEO of Quantum Loophole.

Milko Ilari

Board Member

Milko Ilari

Board Member

Along the past 15 years he has been working in the European telecom industry (Data and IP). He is an engineer by education and a networker by DNA. He had a chance to work in different roles over the years - network engineering, business development and carrier relations. Currently, he is working as Product, Peering and Network Manager at RETN. He is also a Co-Founder of HUBILITY, a startup business focused on supporting Italian infrastructure providers, and member of ITNOG association.

PJ Gallagher

Board Member

PJ Gallagher

Board Member

Fastly Inc. Manager | Network Strategy

Nicole Kangas

Treasurer

Nicole Kangas

Treasurer

Nicole has worked at Microsoft for 18 years in a variety of roles, starting out as a service engineer for MSN, then an engineer for Windows Phone Services, and a Project Manager for Azure Front Door. For the past 7 years she has been on the Interconnection and Edge Strategy team with a primary focus on North America. Nicole joined the GPF board in 2020 and is currently the board treasurer.