W. Mark Townsley

Mark joined Cisco in 1997 as a software engineer, focused on remote access and tunneling protocols in Cisco’s IOS, as well as scaling of the core IOS virtual interface system to support the rapid growth of dial-up and broadband connectivity in the 1990s and early 2000s. Mark is well-known in the Internet Protocol community as well, twice-nominated for terms as IETF Internet Area Director (2005-2009), Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) Working Group Chair (1999-2005), Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) Liaison to the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), IETF Pseudowire Working Group Technical Advisor, and is currently co-Chair of the IETF Home Networking Working Group (Homenet). On faculty at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, Mark also serves as “Professeur chargé de cours”, teaching and mentoring some of the brightest undergraduate and graduate engineering students in France. Before Joining Cisco, Mark held engineering and research positions at IBM, the Institute for Systems Research (ISR) and the Center for Satellite and Hybrid Communications Networks at the University of Maryland.

Mark holds a Bachelor of Science (summa cum laude) degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University and a Master’s degree in Computer Science (magna cum laude) from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.