Marc Gauw appointed new General Director NLnet

Amsterdam, January 9th 2014

[Deze tekst in het Nederlands]
The Amsterdam-based NLnet Foundation is appointing industry veteran Marc Gauw (53) as its new General Director as of February 2014. NLnet is a small but very active technology fund with a global scope, providing developtment grants to disruptive as well as fundamental technology projects that help make the internet safer and more trustworthy.

Gauw brings along over 17 years of experience in the internet community. For the last six years he served as Commercial Director of NLix, which during this time became the fifth largest internet exchange on the planet. Before that he was chairman of the board of the Amsterdam Internet Exchange.

Gauw is looking forward to his new position. "Certainly over the course of the last year sinister matters have come to light that alter our perspective on the current health status of the internet", he remarks. "Safety and privacy of users turn out to be protected far less well than often assumed. NLnet has been working for over twenty years - underneath the radar of public attention - on maintaining the open and federated internet as we all originally envisioned. Its work is more necessary than ever, and the time has come to move to into the center and try to bring together the necessary means."

The history of NLnet goes back to 1982 when the first pan-European UNIX network was announced by internet pioneer and subsequent director of NLnet Teus Hagen. Hagen was inaugurated last year into the Internet Hall of Fame by the international Internet Society for his contributions.

About NLnet Foundation

NLnet foundation is an independent organisation whose means come from donations and legacies. Its initial capital was gathered in 1997 by the sale of the first Dutch Internet Service Provider. Its private capital ensures an absolute independent position. The articles of association for the NLnet foundation state: "to promote the exchange of electronic information and all that is related or beneficial to that purpose". NLnet believes in open standards and open source. At the moment, dozens of projects and organizations are supported financially. Amongst them: research laboratory NLnet Labs, NoScript, Unhosted, Lantern Project, Calligra Suite, WebODF, AbiWord, Serval, Jitsi, 0cpm and GNUnet.