Former marine takes over Reannz, NZ's $100m Crown-owned broadband network

UPDATE Nov 22: A new chief executive has been named for Reannz (Research & Education Advanced Network NZ), which adminsters the largely unsung $100 million state-owned Karen broadband network.

He is Steve Cotter, previously Google’s network deployment manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Mr Cotter has also served as a director in SBC Global Communications’ (now AT&T) engineering and construction departments, and more recently as the head of the US Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network, located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

He attended the US Naval Academy, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering then served as a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps.

Mr Cotter also holds an MBA from Boston University.

He starts at Reannz early December.

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Clark resigns from Reannz

April 18, 2011: Donald Clark, chief executive officer of Crown-owned broadband company Reannz, has announced his intention to resign his position in July after five years in the role [UPDATE: Clark has joined Google as  as strategic negotiator – peering and content, Asia Pacific, Computerworld reports.]

Mr Clark told NBR he would spend some time as a house-husband. He wanted to take his kids to school, and other activiites that were difficult as a full-time CEO.

He planned to work part-time as a consultant. The Reannz boss had no particular project lined up; he's open to offers (on his new blog, Mr Clark describes how to set up a "weightless" company for under $1000).

Reannz owns and operates Karen, the Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network, on behalf of the country’s research, education and innovation community, including universities and Crown Research Institiutes (CRIs).

On his blog, Mr Clark said $100 million had been invested in Karen, which has more than 100 institutional members.

Founding boss
“It has been an amazing opportunity for me, as inaugural CEO of Reannz, to take the company from its earliest days before we even had a network, through to now where Karen is firmly embedded as a piece of essential national infrastructure," Mr Clark said.

“The board was sorry to receive Donald’s resignation, but he has done an outstanding job in growing Reanz and Karen to what they are today and he will be leaving having led the company towards sustainability for the long-term”, Reannz chairman professor John Raine said.

“Under Donald’s tenure, Reannz has grown from an organisation of one employee, with no network and only a third of its required income, to a stable team of 12 that have implemented two versions of the network and have laid the groundwork that will enable Karen to remain advanced for the coming decade."

Mr Clark's previous roles include stints at Treasury, and as a policy advisor to the prime minister, and positions with Booz Allen, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ask Jeeves.