During the 2025 OARC Annual General Meeting OARC Members will be electing three seats on the OARC Board of Directors. The seats becoming available are doing so on the following basis:

  • The Board seat held by Joao Damas, who is stepping down after serving two terms over four years, is up for election by rotation.
  • The Board seat held by Benno Overeinder, who is term-limited having served three terms for a total of six years, is up for election by rotation.
  • The Board seat held by Jake Zack , who has served for two years, is up for election by rotation.


Note that Board seats are held in an individual rather than Member organization capacity. Candidates however must have been nominated by, and employed by or affiliated with, a DNS-OARC Member in good standing. No Member organization may nominate more than one candidate.

 

The candidates and their election platforms are given below.

Nominees

Pallavi Aras (Salesforce)

Pallavi Aras currently serves as a Software Engineering Architect at Salesforce. Having previously worked at Verisign and Network Solutions, her career has largely been in the domain name industry. Pallavi has served on the OARC Program Committee (PC) for three years---two of which as PC chair. In the PC, she worked alongside OARC staff to put forth the first hybrid and online OARC conferences. Additionally, she founded the Women@OARC group to create a space within the OARC community for woman-identifying attendees and allies to thrive.

Pallavi is passionate about sharing her ideas and experiences through OARC presentations. Her latest talk, "Generative AI and DNS" was well-received. Pallavi has participated in IETF standards process and co-authored two RFCs: RFC 8901 - Multi-Signer DNSSEC Models, RFC 9103: DNS Zone Transfer over TLS

As a Board Member, Pallavi hopes to advance her skills in strategic planning, policy making and other Board duties. She especially looks forward to forging a strong connection between the Board and OARC’s PC as a Board Liaison, drawing on her experience as a former PC chair.

Alex Band (NLnet Labs)

Alex has almost 30 years experience in the Internet industry, starting his career at Hewlett Packard in 1996. Before joining the NLnet Labs nonprofit public benefit foundation in 2017, Alex was Technical Trainer and later Product Manager at the RIPE NCC, the Regional Internet Registry for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. In these roles Alex gained a love for open-source software, as well as the experience to translate the needs of the Internet community into successful products.

In the last eight years at NLnet Labs, he's been committed to diversifying the scope of the organisation to cover BGP routing solutions in addition to DNS. He has also spearheaded to transition to the Rust programming language, attracting young talent to the organisation. With a diversified portfolio of self-sustaining open-source projects, he has solidified the continutity of NLnet Labs while staying true to its core values. Alex is eager to use this experience to support the DNS-OARC organisation.

Babak Farrokhi (Quad9)

I am currently the Director of Operations at Quad9, a globally trusted Protective Public DNS Resolver that safeguards millions of users daily against cyber threats. My work focuses on strengthening resolver infrastructure, deploying encrypted DNS technologies, and ensuring resilient, high-quality connectivity for users worldwide.

With over 27 years of experience in building and managing service provider networks, I have held multiple engineering leadership positions and served as a Leader in various organizations, as well as a Program Committee Member for several conferences. I have also been a long-standing contributor to the open-source community, serving as a FreeBSD Project member since 2004, and have developed various other FOSS projects, some of which are related to DNS.

If elected to the OARC Board, I would bring both operational and leadership expertise, as well as a strong commitment to community collaboration. My priorities would include:

  • Strengthening collaboration between resolver operators, authoritative operators, vendors, and researchers.
  • Supporting the sustainability and growth of OARC’s technical infrastructure and measurement initiatives.
  • Encouraging greater global participation, particularly from underrepresented regions, to ensure OARC reflects the diversity of the global DNS community.
  • Promoting knowledge-sharing and tool development that enhance the security, resilience, and openness of the DNS ecosystem.

I believe DNS-OARC plays a unique and vital role as a trusted, neutral venue for operators and researchers to collaborate. I would be honored to contribute my experience, perspective, and energy to support OARC’s mission and community as a member of its Board.

Dave Knight (DigiCert)

I have participated in DNS-OARC since the beginning. As an engineer at ISC I had a hand in putting together some of the early infrastructure, later I built and ran the meeting webcast for a number of years. I served on the policy council and have twice been a member of the board of directors following DNS-OARC's incorporation. I have also been a member of the program committee for two years.

I am currently engaged as Senior Director of DNS Operations at DigiCert, where I have a leadership role in the architecture of the UltraDNS platform and products. I’m also the owner and principal consultant at Snake Hill Labs Inc, a boutique, technical and management consulting company based in Ontario, Canada.

Previously I’ve held engineering and management positions at Dyn, Hivecast, ICANN, Afilias, ISC, RIPE NCC, typically in roles directly supporting DNS services and their infrastructure. I’ve been involved in the operation of several root nameservers in addition to many TLDs and was a member of the teams responsible for the deployment of DNSSEC in .ORG and the Internet root zone.

I believe that DNS-OARC remains the best venue for collaboration at the intersection of DNS implementation, operations, research and protocol development. Its ongoing stability is important for our community and our industry. As a member of the board of directors I would undertake to represent the interests of the members, provide support to the DNS-OARC leadership, and oversight in pursuit of the financial security and ongoing stability of the organization.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/daveknight/

Swapneel Sheth (Verisign)

Swapneel Sheth is the Senior Director of Research Engineering in the Chief Technology Office at Verisign, where he leads the CTO Labs team and manages research and development activities. Since joining Verisign in 2014, he and his team have explored innovative opportunities, including researching new technologies, performing measurement studies, and building proof-of-concepts. Swapneel has authored and contributed to IETF drafts, peer-reviewed publications, and is an active participant in ICANN and W3C. His current focus areas include future-proofing DNS security through post-quantum cryptography, enabling crypto-agility by developing practical frameworks for algorithm migration, and promoting responsible DNS integration.

As a OARC Board member, Swapneel would help guide the organization, oversee programs, and support initiatives that benefit the DNS community. In particular, he will:

  • Support OARC in building measurement tools, performance metrics, and operational analysis frameworks, particularly for evaluating DNSSEC deployment, resolver performance, and emerging cryptographic techniques.
  • Foster stronger links between researchers, operators, and standardization bodies, ensuring that practical lessons from research are applied across the operational community.
  • Mentor and engage the next generation of DNS operators to build a resilient and knowledgeable ecosystem.

His goal is to ensure OARC remains a useful, reliable, and forward-looking resource for everyone running and operating DNS today and in the future.

Ralf Weber (Akamai)

I’ve been fascinated by DNS since helping to build a small ISP back in 1994 and have spend most of my career since then running or helping others to run DNS services at Colt Telecom, Nominum and now Akamai.

During that time I was involved in lots of communities relating to DNS like the IETF, RIPE or DENIC and since 2013 DNS-OARC, which I consider the best community regarding DNS as it covers all aspects and geographies.

As such I would be honoured to serve this community as a board member and help to drive DNS-OARC forward as the best place for knowledge, data and software sharing regarding DNS. DNS-OARC brings together the development, operational, research and standardisation groups and gives them a forum where we all can work together to make DNS and hence the internet better, as DNS is critical piece of the internet infrastructure. To achieve that we need to reach out to new members and communities which is something I would focus on as a board member.

All of that can only be done in an open, transparent and cooperative manner so I am always interested in communication with other members.

You can find my professional profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/fl1ger/

Jake Zack (CIRA)

I am Jacob (Jake) Zack, DNS Architect at CIRA (.CA ccTLD), and I am honored to seek re-election to the DNS-OARC Board. Having first been elected in October 2023 after two consecutive terms on the DNS-OARC Program Committee, I bring both continuity and a deep commitment to the stability and growth of our organization.

From the outset of my tenure, I have been deeply concerned about DNS-OARC’s financial trajectory. Recognizing the risks posed by declining reserves and rising expenses, I have consistently advocated for sound financial stewardship. In early 2025, I supported the adoption of a balanced budget—a critical step toward halting deficit spending and placing DNS-OARC on a sustainable path. Today, I remain committed to ensuring that DNS-OARC achieves long-term financial stability so it can continue serving the global DNS community.

My priorities for the coming term focus squarely on restoring DNS-OARC’s financial health while ensuring that its services remain impactful and relevant:

  • Product and Service Review – Freeze the current product catalog for one year to focus resources on offerings that are financially sustainable.
  • Member Engagement – Conduct a comprehensive membership survey to assess the value of DNS-OARC services, ensuring member input guides decisions about what to retain, evolve, or retire.
  • Cost Transparency – Undertake a full cost allocation exercise to understand the true operational and capital costs of all services.
  • DITL Optimization – Reassess the cost model for the Day in the Life (DITL) project, including exploring cloud-based storage and required changes to the Data Sharing Agreement to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and lower environmental impact.
  • Responsible Travel Practices – Limit non-essential travel by staff and contractors, leveraging workshops and virtual meetings to reduce expenses and carbon footprint.

These steps are designed not just to manage costs, but to ensure DNS-OARC continues to deliver high-value services to the DNS community well into the future.

Beyond my board contributions, I bring deep technical expertise and real-world operational experience. At CIRA, I lead the design and maintenance of world-class Anycast DNS services, which provide secure, resilient, and high-performance infrastructure for Canada’s .CA domain and beyond. My teams’ work has directly strengthened Internet stability and security.

I believe strongly in DNS-OARC’s mission, and I am committed to ensuring it remains the trusted home for collaboration, research, and operational excellence in the DNS ecosystem. My combination of board experience, technical leadership, and dedication to the community makes me uniquely positioned to continue serving effectively.

I respectfully ask for your support as I seek re-election to the DNS-OARC Board. Together, we can ensure DNS-OARC thrives and continues to deliver value for its members and the global Internet.

Disclosure: CIRA donates colocation space and transit to DNS-OARC for their backup infrastructure.