INTERNET SOCIETY NAMES CHAIRS OF INET'99

John Hart, 3Com's CTO, and Judy Estrin, CTO from Cisco, Will Co-chair Annual Internet Summit in June

RESTON, Va. - The Internet Society (ISOC) announced that John Hart, chief technical officer and senior  vice president of 3Com, and Judy Estrin, chief technical  officer and senior vice president of Cisco Systems, Inc., will serve as co-chairs of the Sponsorship Committee for its INET'99 conference that takes place in San Jose, Calif., June 22-25, 1999.

INET is the premier event in the Internet industry and provides an international platform for advancing the development and implementation of Internet networks, technologies, applications and policies. INET'99 is the ninth of these Internet global summits to be conducted by the Internet Society. It is expected to attract an estimated 3,000 attendees from more than 100 countries to address the impact of the Internet on commerce, education and societies throughout the world.

"We are thrilled to have professionals of this caliber and the support of leading companies such as 3Com and Cisco Systems, Inc.," said ISOC president Don Heath. "John and Judy are great assets to the INET'99 team and other resources they have volunteered from their organizations are significantly facilitating the logistical aspects of staging a conference of this magnitude."

As chief technology officer since 1990 and senior vice president of 3Com (Nasdaq: COMS), Hart is responsible for providing strategic engineering direction and development for new products and technologies, including major industry contributions to LAN switching, stackable architectures, boundary routing, 100/1000 mbps Ethernet infrastructures and, most recently, converged networks. Since 1990, Hart has also been a member of 3Com's executive committee, which is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company and, at an individual level, he continues to file several patents annually.

Prior to joining 3Com, Hart was vice president of engineering and advanced development at Vitalink Communications Corporation, where he played a key role in the invention of Bridging (the layer 2 technology in LAN switching). Hart has also worked for Control Data Corporation, South Central Bell and Southern Bell in senior network architecture and product development positions. Hart has participated in the development of numerous network standards and has been a voting member of IEEE 802 since 1987.

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. As chief technology officer and senior vice president, Estrin manages strategic technology planning and business development including investments and acquisitions, consulting engineering and advanced Internet projects, as well as legal and government affairs.

Prior to joining Cisco Systems Inc., Estrin served as president and CEO of Precept Software, a leading multimedia networking software company, which she co-founded, president and CEO of Network Computing Devices, and co-founder and executive vice president of Bridge Communications.

Estrin holds a bachelor of science degree in both mathematics and computer science from the University of California at Los Angeles and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Estrin is a member of the board of directors for FedEx, Sun Microsystems and the Walt Disney Company.

INET'99 is preceded by a workshop for educators, a developing countries networking symposium, 11 technical tutorials, and a Network Technology Workshop that teaches people from developing countries how to design, install, maintain and manage Internet networks.

The Internet Society was established in 1991 in response to a recognized worldwide need for a non-governmental, international organization to help promote global expansion and change of the Internet. Today, the Internet Society assists the needs of the growing worldwide Internet community in many ways: through its annual INET conference; other sponsored events, tutorials, statistical and market research; advocacy programs; network training workshops for emerging countries; and with publications like its award-winning bi-monthly magazine, OnTheInternet. The Internet Society is comprised of members from over 150 countries.

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