Ivo Ivanov – DE-CIX CEO and Chair of the Board
Frankfurt am Main, 1 September 2022. DE-CIX, the world’s leading operator of Internet Exchanges, is resetting its management and extending its executive team. After more than 25 years as CEO and five years as Chair of the DE-CIX Group AG Board, Internet pioneer Harald A. Summa will take a seat on the DE-CIX Supervisory Board. His successor as Chair of the Board and CEO, Ivo Ivanov, has until now been a member of the DE-CIX Group AG Board responsible for international business and strategy. In addition, the board will be extended by two further positions: Alongside the acting board members Ivo Ivanov and Sebastian Seifert (Chief Financial Officer, DE-CIX Group AG), Chief Technology Officer Dr. Thomas King has been appointed a seat on the board. The internationally recognized sales expert Christian Reuter will, with immediate effect, steer the global sales and marketing activities in the newly created position of Chief Sales Officer, as well as becoming the fourth member of the board.
“DE-CIX currently finds itself in an unprecedented growth phase. I look forward to bringing my experience into my new role in the Supervisory Board in the future and continuing to contribute to DE-CIX’s success story. I would like to thank all the companions, business partners, and above all the entire team for the extraordinarily successful development of DE-CIX in the last few decades. Who would have thought, 25 years ago, that DE-CIX could become one of the drivers of digitalization? And not only in Germany, but globally. Of that I am particularly proud,” Summa commented on his move to the DE-CIX Supervisory Board.
Ivo Ivanov, new Chair of the DE-CIX Group AG Board, sees the company as optimally positioned for further growth: “Through our regional and global expansion strategy, as well as new interconnection services, we will fulfill the needs of enterprises of all sizes, and help them to accelerate their digitalization process. As CEO, I look forward to leading DE-CIX through this new growth phase.” Ivanov began working at DE-CIX in 2007, and since then has been instrumental in leading and driving the global DE-CIX expansion in North America, Southern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia.
Felix Höger, Chair of the DE-CIX Group AG Supervisory Board, comments on the changes in management: “With the new management structure, the Supervisory Board sets the course for DE-CIX’s next decade of growth, and guarantees – with the combination of decades of experience and new, young inspiration – the continuing viability of our company into the future. Not only for the coming years but for the long run. I am very confident to have found an excellent line-up in the new executive board, and I am immensely proud to have Harald Summa at my side in the Supervisory Board.”
The new DE-CIX Group AG Board – Ivo Ivanov (Chair and CEO), Sebastian Seifert (CFO), Dr. Thomas King (CTO), and Christian Reuter (CSO) – from left to right.
Harald A. Summa – a German Internet pioneer
Since the beginning of the Internet in Germany and Europe, Harald A. Summa has been one of the most influential personalities in the region’s digital economy. Alongside his activities for DE-CIX, Summa is the founder and CEO of the eco – the Association of the Internet Industry. Since 2020 he has been Co-Chair of the Organization Member Advisory Council at the Internet Society (ISOC). In addition, Summa is an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Gaia-X European Association for Data and Cloud AISBL.
DE-CIX (German Commercial Internet Exchange) is, with close to 40 locations in Europe, North America, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia, the world’s leading operator of Internet Exchanges. At its Internet Exchanges, DE-CIX interconnects thousands of network operators (carriers), Internet service providers (ISPs), content providers, and enterprise networks from more than 100 countries and offers peering, cloud, and other interconnection services. DE-CIX Frankfurt, in Germany – with a data volume of close to 30 Exabytes per year (as of 2021) and almost 1100 connected networks – is one of the largest Internet Exchanges in the world.
About DE-CIX
DE-CIX (German Commercial Internet Exchange) is the world’s leading operator of Internet Exchanges (IXs). At its close to 40 locations in Europe, Africa, North America, the Middle East, India, and Asia, DE-CIX interconnects thousands of network operators (carriers), Internet service providers (ISPs), content providers, and enterprise networks from more than 100 countries, and offers peering, cloud, and interconnection services. DE-CIX in Frankfurt, Germany, is one of the largest Internet Exchanges in the world, with a data volume of close to 30 Exabytes per year (as of 2021) and close to 1100 connected networks. More than 200 colleagues from over 30 different nations form the foundation of the DE-CIX success story in Germany and around the world. Since the beginning of the commercial Internet, DE-CIX has had a decisive influence – in a range of leading global bodies, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) – on co-defining guiding principles for the Internet of the present and the future. As the operator of critical IT infrastructure, DE-CIX bears a great responsibility for the seamless, fast, and secure data exchange between people, enterprises, and organizations at its locations around the globe.