Mike Hrybyk

President & CEO, BCNET

Michael Hrybyk is the President and CEO of BCNET and has managed the organization since 1994. He pioneered the concept of transit exchanges as a method of linking research and education networks to their local communities as well as to national and international peers. Mr. Hrybyk was previously with the BCIT Technology Centre, where he served as the Director of the Group for Advanced Information Technology R&D (GAIT). He secured nearly $1 million in funding from CFI/BCKDF to establish the Internet Engineering Lab which opened in 2001. Mr. Hrybyk has 30 years of experience with Internet networks, Unix systems, and software development. He has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University, and held the position of Manager of Computing Systems and Networks there. While at Hopkins, he helped create the first campus-wide Ethernet network in 1986, and connected it to SURANet and NSFNET. He also worked at EDUCOM (now EDUCAUSE) and CREN in Washington, DC, and was responsible for the management of the BITNET national network. Previously, he held positions with the University of Delaware, the University of Maryland Applied Neuroscience Institute, the University of British Columbia and Micros Systems. Mr. Hrybyk gives frequent talks on advanced networks throughout North America, and teaches the Computer Networks course in the Bachelor of Technology program at BCIT.