ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The North American Network Operators Group (NANOG), an association of Internet engineering, architecture and operations professionals, today announces the appointment of Edward McNair as its new Executive Director. In this role, Mr. McNair will provide leadership for NANOG’s growth strategy, operations, member services and educational programs, and marketing communications. In addition, he will be responsible for oversight of the association’s events, sponsorship, partnership development, technology tools, as well as governance policies and practices.

Mr. McNair is the co-founder of Kaskadian, an agency that provides branding, marketing and sales support, as well as Webcasting services.  Prior to Kaskadian, he served as Chief Executive Officer for Verilan, an IT company that delivered just-in-time, enterprise quality networks, and he also held executive roles where Mr. McNair served as a Creative Director for the WiMAX Forum, a global Internet and telecom consortium. Mr. McNair is a dedicated Internet enthusiast, previously providing consulting and corporate development services to such organizations as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Intel^® and Facebook.

“After a year-long search spearheaded by a Board-appointed Executive Search Committee, it is with great pleasure that we appoint Edward McNair as NANOG’s new Executive Director,” states Chair of NANOG Executive Director Search Committee and NANOG Treasurer, Will Charnock.  “Edward possesses a rare hybrid of technical expertise and marketing experience serving global brands and international associations that support the Internet, which we anticipate will be an immediate asset to guiding NANOG through its next phase of evolution.  At the same time, we express our deep gratitude to Betty Burke, NANOG’s previous Executive Director, whose dedication and tireless energy was responsible for pivotal organizational milestones and a significant increase in member and sponsor participation during her tenure.”

Betty Burke will remain with NANOG during the transition of the organization’s leadership.  In 2010, Ms. Burke was instrumental in the transition of NANOG from the Merit Network, Inc. to NewNOG, Inc., which was officially incorporated as a 501(c)(3) educational, nonprofit, membership-based organization.  Since then, attendance at NANOG meetings has grown nearly 60 percent.

The appointment of Mr. McNair to Executive Director was recommended by a NANOG subcommittee that included Greg Dendy, Director Product Manager, Interconnection for Equinix, along with two members of the Board of Directors, William Charnock as Chair of the Executive Director Search Committee and David Temkin, VP of Network at Netflix.  The Executive Director reports to the entire Board which also includes Chair, Ryan Donnelly, Senior Director of Network Engineering at Salesforce; Vice Chair, Patrick Gilmore; Program Committee Chair, Ryan Woolley, Director of Global Network Architecture at Netflix; and Members, L. Sean Kennedy, Verizon; and Tina Morris, Technical Business Developer at Amazon Web Services.

“It is an honor to be named the new Executive Director of NANOG, a community that I have been part of for many years,” comments Mr. McNair.  “Given the rise in Over-the-Top video, Big Data, social media and the mobile space, as well as the advent of the IoT and smart cities, NANOG is expected to significantly increase its membership and sponsorship base as the Internet continues its exponential growth over the coming years.  I look forward to working with the NANOG Board of Directors as we further expand this vital meeting point for professionals who make the Internet work.”

Mr. McNair’s first meeting as NANOG’s new Executive Director will be at NANOG 73, taking place June 25-27, 2018, in Denver, Colorado.  NANOG 73 is sponsored by CoreSite Realty Corporation (NYSE:COR), a premier provider of secure, reliable, high-performance data center and interconnection solutions across the U.S.

To learn more about NANOG, please visit www.nanog.org.

About NANOG

The North American Network Operators Group (NANOG) is an association of Internet engineering, architecture and operations professionals. NANOG’s core focus is on continuous improvement of the data transmission technologies, practices, and facilities that make the Internet function. Our members are typically drawn from the core engineering and product staffs of the major North American carriers, content providers, hosting and cloud companies, multi-tenant data centers, and interconnection service providers. NANOG is governed by the NANOG Board of Directors, elected by the membership, every two years. NANOG is a membership organization organized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit.

MEDIA CONTACT:
iMiller Public Relations for NANOG
Tel: +1 866 307 2510
[email protected]

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ddb21b75-ee9d-4453-907c-880a14858ca8