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PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA 19 – 27 February 2025
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Rob Thomas

Nominee details

Title
Mr.
Name
Rob Thomas
Position
Network Architect
Organization
Why Pay More 4 Less Pty Ltd

Rob Thomas

Biographical info

Education/qualifications
  • AI Researcher and Developer
  • Computer Science, University of Technology, Sydney
  • ISP consultant and engineer since 1996
  • Senior InfoSec officer at Cisco
  • Developer and Technical Documentation writer of VyOS (Open Source router)
  • IPv6 Consultant and Advocate
  • Author of multiple SIP/VoIP projects, such as FreePBX, and the SHAKEN/STIR Open Source libraries
  • NetDevOps consultant and instructor
  • RPKI Consultant
  • X509 Certification expert
Relevant Board Experience

I currently sit on the board of two AI related organisations. I have previously served on many boards, starting with the Australian Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman in the late 90s, to ISPs and VSPs in the present day.

Senior Management Experience

I've been deeply involved in many facets of the Internet in Australia for more than 30 years. Being well known as a representative and consultant over that time has given me experience in and exposure to all the requirements and issues that the Internet Industry in Asia-Pacific are exposed and vulnerable to.

Corporate Group
  • WPM4L Pty Ltd/QLD VoIP (Australia)
  • Southern Ocean Systems (Australia)
  • Rio Tinto (Global)
  • OpenSeek (Australia)
  • Clearly IP LLC (Delaware, USA)

Nominee statement

With the growth of AI in the Asia-Pacific region, it's important that APNIC work hand-in-hand with consumers and developers of AI, and AI based products.

I believe it is vitally important that APNIC does everything it can to assist with expanding AI products and services in our region.

I am highly driven to make sure that internet access should be treated as a right, not a privilege, and have spent a lot of time writing and releasing Free Open Source Software to make it much cheaper and easier for emerging and developing areas.

With the recent release of innovative LLMs such as DeepSeek, this has cemented my goals to make this easily accessible to anyone in our region.

As a director of other Australian Companies, I already have a fully validated and compliant Australian Director ID.

Nominated by

Organization:
Why Pay More 4 Less Pty Ltd

Electoral Committee Eligibility Statement

The Electoral Committee has determined, based on the information available to it, that the Nominee meets the eligibility criteria to be nominated for the APNIC EC.

This statement may be subject to change. If you believe that any nominee is not eligible based on the requirements under the APNIC By-laws, please contact election-conduct@apnic.net.

The Electoral Committee has oversight of the eligibility and conduct of nominees in the EC election. For more information click here.

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