The Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX) – a GigaPoP organization founded by Georgetown University, George Washington University, the University of Maryland, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – announces the appointment of D. Peter O'Neil as Executive Director, effective January 16, 2007. O’Neil was hired into this role to provide national leadership, vision, innovation, planning, and operation for MAX in support of the mission of delivering advanced networking technologies to MAX participants in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. He is responsible to a Board of Directors consisting of the Chief Information Officers of Georgetown University, George Washington University, University of Maryland, and Virginia Tech. “O’Neil was chosen because of his 25 years of work experience in high-performance computing and networking on behalf of the research and education community,” said Dr. Jeffrey Huskamp, Vice President and Chief Information Officer, University of Maryland. “I am delighted that he is taking on this new leadership role,” Huskamp said. “I’m excited about the opportunity to work with the highly talented and experienced MAX staff in exploring new ways to serve the federal agencies, research laboratories, colleges and universities, and state networking initiatives in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia,” said O’Neil. Over the years, O’Neil has served as co-principal investigator on a number of National Science Foundation (NSF) supported projects; has been involved in the Quilt, an association of U.S. GigaPoPs; has been a lead contributor to the Front Range GigaPoP management, planning, and policy forums; has served as a member of the National LambdaRail’s (NLR) engineering and measurement teams and Internet2’s Hybrid Optical Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) design team; and has held a co-principal lead position on the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s (NCAR) participation in the NSF-funded TeraGrid project. O’Neil has a master’s degree in Organizational Strategy and Structure from Harvard University. O’Neil takes over the role from Anthony Conto, Ph.D., a longtime member of the University of Maryland community. During Conto’s tenure as MAX Executive Director, he built MAX’s participant base to 40 participants, led a regional network that continues to grow in both geography and number of participants, implemented a discounted commodity Internet service program for MAX participants, and put into practice a participant program to assist in setting the future direction of MAX. “Tony Conto has played a significant role in the overall success of MAX,” said Huskamp. “Tony was there practically from the beginning of MAX’s formation seven years ago, and he has been instrumental in making MAX a fiscally viable organization. I am confident that Tony will bring his ability to make things happen to his new role in the CIO’s Office by facilitating high-performance and grid computing initiatives for the university and contributing to the collaborative applications for external funding for these and other technologies,” Huskamp concluded.