Internet2 Names New President and Chief Executive Officer: Howard Pfeffer

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 10, 2017 -- The Internet2 board of trustees today announced the appointment of Howard Pfeffer as its new president and chief executive officer (CEO). Pfeffer brings over 30 years of experience in networking, systems and software engineering and helped pioneer the development of broadband Internet in the cable industry. Pfeffer will replace Internet2’s current president and CEO H. David Lambert, effective June 12, 2017.

Howard Pfeffer is the new Internet2 president and CEO, effective June 12, 2017.

Most recently, Pfeffer served as the senior vice president of the broadband technology group at Time Warner Cable where he successfully led the architecture, engineering and development of the telecommunications infrastructure for residential and business services. He brings a strong background of business experience, technical leadership, deep advanced network knowledge and a track record of growth of new services.   

As president and CEO, Pfeffer will serve on behalf of the Internet2 membership community and is responsible for establishing and fostering the vision and strategic direction of the organization and has ultimate responsibility and accountability for its success. In this role, Pfeffer will lead all activities for the non-profit organization to further support the research and education community in the United States and around the globe.  

The CEO search process began in October 2016 with the appointment of a special search committee, which was led by Patrick Gallagher, vice-chair of the Internet2 board of trustees and the chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh. The search committee members were Rebecca Blank, chancellor, University of Wisconsin-Madison; John Evans, chairman and CEO, Evans Telecommunications Co.; Tracy Futhey, vice president for information technology and CIO, Duke University; Mike Norman, director, San Diego Supercomputing Center; Vinton Cerf, chief internet evangelist, Google; Farnam Jahanian, provost, Carnegie Mellon University; Jen Leasure, president and CEO, The Quilt; and Christos Papadopoulos, professor of computer science, Colorado State University. The committee was assisted by executive search firm, Russell Reynolds Associates, and reviewed over 100 candidates for the position during the process.

“After an extensive and thoughtful search process, I am extremely pleased that Howard will be the next leader of Internet2,” Gallagher said. “Howard is a seasoned leader in the broadband industry who possesses deep technical knowledge and excellent partnering skills. He has a strong appreciation for the value that Internet2 provides to the research and education community and looks forward to helping the organization move forward on the priority initiatives of advanced networking and trust and identity services while also continuing to evolve its mission to remain a strategic partner to the community. I want to especially recognize the commitment and efforts of all the members of the search committee who were dedicated to finding the best possible candidate.” 

“Howard Pfeffer will work broadly with our community to develop a strong vision for the future of Internet2, and he has the proven capacity to collaboratively see that vision become a reality,” said David Leebron, chairman of the board for Internet2 and president of Rice University. “In a time of dramatic change in the internet technology landscape, our board believes that Howard will provide the type of leadership the Internet2 community needs to provide the highest value to its membership. We’re very grateful to Pat Gallagher for his outstanding work with a representative and talented search committee.” 

Prior to his numerous leadership roles at Time Warner Cable, Pfeffer held engineering and technology positions at organizations such as America Online and Road Runner. Over the course of his career he has been awarded multiple U.S. patents.

“I am extremely honored and proud to have been selected as the next president and CEO of Internet2,” Pfeffer said. “When you look back in history, so many technologies and advancements in science and ground breaking innovations have come directly from the research and higher education community. I am excited to use my background and experiences to contribute to the next generation of new technologies and services. I am committed to working very closely with the Internet2 community to help further their academic and scholarship missions both nationally and globally.”

Pfeffer earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and will be based in the Internet2 Washington, D.C. office. 

About Internet2®

Internet2® is a non-profit, member-driven advanced technology community founded by the nation’s leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 serves 317 U.S. universities, 70 government agencies, 43 regional and state education networks and through them supports more than 94,000 community anchor institutions, over 900 InCommon participants, and 78 leading corporations working with our community, and 61 national research and education network partners that represent more than 100 countries.

Internet2 delivers a diverse portfolio of technology solutions that leverages, integrates, and amplifies the strengths of its members and helps support their educational, research and community service missions. Internet2’s core infrastructure components include the nation’s largest and fastest research and education network that was built to deliver advanced, customized services that are accessed and secured by the community-developed trust and identity framework.

Internet2 offices are located in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Denver, Colo.; Emeryville, Calif.; Washington, D.C.; and West Hartford, Conn. For more information, visit www.internet2.edu or follow @Internet2 on Twitter.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/79b91199-d6f5-498e-89c2-ecc3a7e07134

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2cdb0260-9fcf-4fd2-a349-0af13b9bb0e6

Glenn Lipscomb
Internet2
720-379-9677
[email protected]