Eileen assumed the role of CEO at INEX in September 2021, following her successful tenure as interim CEO which began in December 2020. With a rich history at INEX dating back to 2005, she initially joined the organisation to lead the business and reputation development, achieving an impressive growth trajectory from 18 to over 100 members. In this period, INEX emerged as a leading light on the global IXP stage with both its own success and the development of the IXP Manager software platform available which is available as open source software powering over 200 IXPs around the world.
As CEO, Eileen oversees the evolution of INEX, collaborating closely with stakeholders to increase the organisation’s value for its members. In 2023, under her leadership, INEX achieved the prestigious ISO27001 accreditation, a pivotal milestone underscoring the commitment to enhancing INEX’s resilience.
Passionate about INEX’s pivotal role in the global interconnection arena and Ireland’s prominence, Eileen engages with the international internet community. She is active in working to attract globally important industry meetings to Ireland including securing and supporting events such as Euro-IX, RIPE, European Peering Forum, and ICANN.
Eileen’s industry work extends beyond INEX and following her election as a director of Euro-IX in 2018 she has worked to cultivate, strengthen, and enhance the Internet Exchange Point (IXP) community in Europe.
Prior to working with INEX she worked in the technology communications consulting industry in London, where she lived for 12 years.
A pioneer of the Irish internet, Nick has specialised in IP backbone design and implementation since 1995 and has been involved with INEX since its inception. Operating his own specialist internet networking consulting business, he acts as chief technical officer of INEX which is one of his clients. In this role, he directs INEX’s infrastructure design and engineering and leads the outsourced operations team. He also contributes as part of the INEX management team.
On behalf of INEX, he liaises with international organisations such as RIPE, the IETF, Euro-IX, and is actively involved in developing European IP addressing policy and creating technical standards for IXPs world-wide.
As an internet infrastructure specialist, Barry has extensive experience designing, building and managing critical network and server infrastructure for small service providers to large scale national ISPs. Barry began providing professional services to INEX in 2008, through his consultancy business Open Solutions, and he is part of INEX’s management team and the operations team.
Barry is also the project manager and lead developer of INEX’s open-sourced IXP Manager project – the most trusted IXP platform worldwide – in use at circa 200 IXPs. It is a full stack management system for IXPs which includes an administration and customer portal; provides end-to-end provisioning; and both teaches and implements best practice.
He is also an accomplished PHP programmer; a Chartered Accountant (ACA) and member of Chartered Accountants Ireland; a member of the Irish Computer Society (MICS) and a Chartered IT Professional (CITP). He presents routinelyfor INEX and others. You can find more information on his personal website.
Patricia has more than 15 years of experience working in communication, event organising and producing content for the Web. At INEX, Patricia leads the Marketing and Community Development. She previously worked with HEAnet and Irish Life in Ireland and various media outlets in Spain.
You will find Patricia developing and delivering INEX events and marketing activity and engaging and working with members. Patricia also produces content for the website and social media channels and generally supports the team and community whenever they need it.
She also represents INEX at many international industry conferences and meetings and is part of the of Euro-IX group responsible for producing video content that explains the world of IXs to the general public .
Róisín looks after the day to day operations of INEX as part of the outsourced operations team, which includes handling member support queries, bringing up new connections to the exchange, performing port upgrades and undertaking maintenance windows for platform/DWDM upgrades.
She has previously worked at a Domain Registry where she was responsible for ensuring the continuous operation of the national registry’s critical infrastructure and their edge network. Róisín has been working in the ISP networking industry since 2014, she has also been a part of the technical team at INEX since 2016.
Róisín regularly represents INEX at international industry conferences and meetings and joined the Programme Committee of Euro-IX in 2018.
As systems and networking engineer at INEX as part of the outsourced operations team, Denis is involved with the day to day running of our service desk as well as keeping the INEX infrastructure and members alike happy. Prior to INEX, Denis has held key engineering roles within the telecoms and enterprise computing / hosting sector having responsibilities over core networks and infrastructure. With experience in developing cloud infrastructure, secure encrypted email for global private networks and working on major semi-state projects, he understands the work and challenges that many of the INEX members face on a daily basis giving him a great insight to their needs.
Denis attends and represents INEX at various international industry events and conferences.
Louisa handles the administration of INEX including the day-to-day financial administration and is the key liaison point for members in relation to membership fees and payment.
Kate Bleakley is a financial professional with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. As Financial Controller at INEX, Kate oversees all aspects of the company’s financial operations. She possesses a deep understanding of both domestic and international accounting standards and tax regulations.
Before joining INEX, Kate held senior finance roles at Google and led financial reporting and audits across the EMEA region. She also successfully led M&A diligence and acquisition integration at Automattic.
Kate is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ireland and holds a BSc in Accounting from University College Cork along with a Diploma in Forensic Accounting. She is passionate about driving financial excellence and is committed to providing strategic insights that support growth and success.
