During the 2026 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 Joe Abley, who has served for two terms for a total of four years, is up for election by rotation.
  • The Board seat held by Ray Bellis, who is term-limited having served three terms for a total of five years, is up for election by rotation.
  • The Board seat held by Mauricio Vergara Ereche, 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

Joe Abley (Cloudflare)

I am currently employed as a Director of Engineering at Cloudflare, an Internet security company that handles a globally-significant volume of DNS traffic.

I have been an enthusiastic participant in the DNS-OARC community since its inception. I like getting things done. I also like working with other people to help make sure OARC continues being great at the things it is great at, and grows where there is room to do more.

I have served on the OARC board since 2022 and am the current chair. It would be a privilege to be able to serve again.

Mauricio Vergara Ereche (DigitalOcean)

Hello there!

I would like to put my name forward once again to continue serving on the DNS-OARC Board. I have really enjoyed working with the Board and OARC staff over the past term, and being part of the work to improve OARC's stability, growth, strategy and visibility. I also now have a much better understanding of what being a Board member really involves and the significant amount of work that still remains for all of us.

I have been working in DNS and critical Internet infrastructure for 20+ years, from a ccTLD and a Root Server to DNSSEC deployment and management; this has lead me to be involved also in the IETF, several NOGs, RSSAC and the broader ICANN community. Nowadays I work with a cloud provider serving more than 650k customers relying on our Authoritative and Recursive DNS services.

However my relationship with OARC goes back way longer than my current Board term. I have been volunteering and contributing to OARC since its inception days, including serving a two year term with the board, three one year terms on the Programme Committee, a couple of years with the webcast team, or even more recently being the Board liaison with the Code of Conduct Committee... Generally I would do whatever else it might arise and needs a hand. I do care about this community and I really believe in what OARC means to us.

What I think I bring to the Board is a tendency to act as a bridge between technical, organizational and human considerations. I tend to focus on filling gaps, maintaining a holistic picture of our issues looking forward to what the organization and our community needs, improving our stability and making sure we are using our budget and resources in the best possible way to keep our mission going.

If re-elected, my focus will be around the growth of our community, maintaining our financial stability and ensuring our services and activities continue to provide value to its members. In specific:

  • I would like to continue to expand our global presence, especially with our communities that we have overlooked and we need to bring closer. I would also continue to encourage those who might feel intimidated by the level of expertise of this community but who have valuable experience and an important voice to share with us.
  • Maintain a close look to what is our matrix (or portfolio) of services, the cost associated to them and how to help us identify their priorities within our mission and what our members really need.
  • I would like to continue supporting ideas that expand our focus and adds to our value proposition (like the Community Lead-Sessions, the BCOP initiative and other new ideas that continue to arise)
  • To help our new President, the Staff and the Board to continue to grow and keep a tight professional and fun relationship

I have enjoyed working with the Board and the Staff enormously, including the times when we don't immediately agree. I think having healthy disagreement, combined with trust and willingness to listen makes an organization stronger. OARC is at an interesting point in its evolution and I would be very happy to continue being part of the group helping to shape where we go next.

Thank you for your support and consideration

Babak Farrokhi (Quad9)

I am Director of Operations at Quad9, where I am responsible for the operation and development of a globally distributed Protective Recursive DNS service.

I have worked in the Internet and technology industry for more than three decades. During this time, I have held senior leadership roles, founded and run businesses, built teams, and been involved in operational, financial, and strategic decisions.

I have also remained active in the technical community through DNS-OARC, IETF, RIPE, conference programme committees, and the FreeBSD Project, where I have been a member since 2004. I have also contributed to several open-source projects, including DNS-related tools.

I believe this mix of leadership experience and technical community involvement would help me contribute to the OARC Board.

If elected, I would like to focus on:

  • Keeping OARC financially healthy and sustainable
  • Supporting useful technical and community activities
  • Strengthening collaboration across the DNS community
  • Encouraging broader participation from less represented regions and groups

DNS-OARC has an important role as a neutral place for the DNS community to work together. I would be happy to contribute my experience and help support its continued development.

 

Jeff Osborn (ISC)

Jeff has served as President of the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) since 2013.  He previously worked in the open source and internet infrastructure areas with senior management and ownership roles at Osborn Capital LLC, MakerBot Technologies, UUNET Technologies, InterCon Systems, Cayman Systems, and a variety of other early internet and data communications companies.

Jeff is currently serving his second two-year term as the Chair of the ICANN Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) and terms out at the end of 2026.  He has regularly attended and presented at meetings of the IETF, RIPE, APNIC, NANOG and DNS-OARC for over a decade.  He has been involved in and attended DNS/OARC meetings since 2013.  While serving at ISC, his employees have served in a series of roles at OARC , currently including Cathy Almond in the PC and Ray Bellis on the Board.

As a member of the DNS-OARC board, Jeff would hope to be especially helpful on issues of finance and revenue optimization.