Affiliation: Amazon Web Services
Candidate Questionnaire
1. Public Contact Information:
a) Please provide one URL to an online location (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) where community members can dialogue with you. [Optional.]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kpellak
b) Please identify your organizational affiliations. Note that Advisory Council (AC) members serve as individuals required to take ARIN’s best interests into account—not those of the organizations with which they are affiliated.
Employed with Amazon Web Services
2. Relevant Biography:
a) Please describe your relevant professional experience and expertise and explain how this background will make you an effective AC member.
I have worked with internet numbers for over 6 years now, in several different capacities. I began my career working for an IP address broker, conducing diligence research on legacy IP addresses from before the RIR system was established. In that role I gained valuable experience in how each of the different RIR databases works, and the policies that govern each RIR. I also developed a highlevel understanding of IP addressing that has informed the rest of my career.
After working for an IP address broker, I joined Amazon Web Services. My role began as a technical business developer acquiring IPv4 addresses. In that position, understanding RIR policy, especially policies that governed transfers and organizational rights within the ecosystem, was critical. I also continued to sharpen my diligence and communication skills as a part of this position.
As my scope grew at Amazon I began to lean more into the technical side of IP addressing, and my focus turned more towards the internal resource management of Amazon’s IP addresses. I have been working on IP Resource Management at Amazon for almost three years now. In this role I have learned even more about the connections between technical implementation and policy. Having insight into both sides of the spectrum gives me a strong advantage when it comes to assessing new policy drafts and existing policy.
In between roles in the internet number space, I also worked for a non-profit in their Membership and Governance department. I was directly responsible for overseeing policy that pertained to our organization’s members. These duties included revisions to policy and the outreach required for those policies to be adopted by our membership, enforcing policy as it pertained to our members, and scrutinizing policy language to ensure that policies aligned with organizational goals and was fair to members.
Last, but certainly not least, I have been a member of ARIN’s Advisory Council for the last three years. I learned so much from my first term as an AC member, and I look forward to putting that knowledge to use by continuing to serve the community and ARIN for another term.
b) Attach a resume, curriculum vitae, or other biography highlighting your experience most relevant to the duties of the AC. (PDF, DOC, DOCX files only)Remove any personal contact information (postal address, email, and/or phone number) from your resume/CV, as it will be posted publicly as part of the candidate information.
https://arin-elections.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pellak-resume.pdf
c) Optionally, you may also include additional web links to external websites (e.g., social media), though not as a substitute for your biography.
None
3. Eligibility:
a) Please disclose any conflicts of interest you may have, real or perceived, that would impact your ability to perform your duty as a member of ARIN’s Advisory Council. How do you propose to resolve any such conflicts?
No conflicts as per the Conflicts of Interest Policy.
b) Are you currently eligible to serve on the Advisory Council, according to the Conflicts of Interest Policy?
Lorem Ipsum
c) If not currently eligible, how will you become eligible to serve if elected (e.g.. “If elected, I will resign from the position of ______ before 31 Dec 2026”). If not applicable, simply enter “N/A”
Yes
d) Describe any limitations on your ability to: attend AC and Public Policy Meetings in person; or serve all of the elected term.
No limitations.
4. Nominee Information
a) Have you attended ARIN meetings or otherwise participated in ARIN activities in the past? What did you find the most rewarding from those meetings or activities? What suggestions for improvement do you have?
Yes I have been attending ARIN meetings since October of 2022. While ARIN meetings are small, this works to their advantage because every attendee is engaged and able to participate in policy discussions. I meet wonderful new people and learn new things at every ARIN meeting I’ve been able to attend. But perhaps my favorite part of ARIN meetings has been the Fellowship program. The Fellows often remain engaged with the ARIN community long after their fellowship, and in fact it’s my opinion that the Fellowship program is one of ARIN’s strongest recruitment tactics for bringing new members into the community and ensuring they receive a warm welcome.
ARIN has recently started to include workshops at their meetings (I have heard that Brad Gorman’s RPKI workshop is a big hit!) and I would love to see more workshops offered in the future. Surveying the community to see what they would find valuable, or asking the Fellows what would be useful in a workshop, given they are often new to ARIN, would be great places to start.
I occasionally attend working groups and conferences beyond ARIN, and cross-pollinating some of the content from other internet focused events would be another way to improve an ARIN meeting. For example, I attended a workshop on geolocation last year and some of the discussion that came out of that working group could have implications for ARIN (and other RIRs) down the line. Keeping the community informed about what’s happening in other areas of internet governance (such as ongoing RFCs) seems like a great addition to an ARIN meeting.
b) What areas of Internet number resource policy, if any, need more attention by ARIN, and why?
I see several opportunities within the NRPM for improvements. There have been ongoing calls to revise the entirety of Section 6, which governs IPv6 allocations, if nothing else than to bring it more in line with the rest of the NRPM. Some progress has been made on that front, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that there is more to do there.
I also know there has been interest from the community in reviewing the IPv4 allocations that ARIN still makes to customers. Those allocations fall under 4.4 (Critical Infrastructure), 4.10 (IPv6 Transition Space) and the waitlist. Any IPv4 allocation made by ARIN will naturally have more scrutiny applied so I firmly believe that changes to policies that govern those allocations must be made very carefully. With that being said, I do see opportunities to combine certain sections or require an IPv6 allocation as a part of receiving IPv4 allocations under some circumstances.
Networking in space is also becoming an important topic. There is currently a draft policy on the docket that is intended to help plan for this future. The work being done on this policy, and the questions it has brought to light, are critical for informing the direction policy that governs networking in space will take. While we may still be a ways out from true deep space networks, given the complexity of such an endeavor beginning the work early will be valuable to the future of the internet.
More broadly, my philosophy on policy is to ensure that changes to a single section are considered holistically. Policy doesn’t happen in a vacuum and a policy that revises a single section of the NRPM could have unintended consequences for other sections of the NRPM. Policy should be written such that impact from the policy across the entire document is considered and addressed appropriately. That may mean changes to other sections that refer to a particular section under revision, or revising a policy draft to mitigate impact to other sections of the policy. Finally, when it comes to policy I do believe that less is more – trying to write policy that plans for every scenario is a losing endeavor. The more specific policy tries to be, the more likely unintended loopholes can be created.
c) Aside from the professional experience and expertise detailed above, describe any other specific skills, background, and/or areas of expertise you believe will assist the Advisory Council in carrying out its duties.
I have served on the Advisory Council for 3 years. The learning curve can be steep, and I believe that until you have shepherded a policy through the entire policy lifecycle you can’t fully understand the nuances of the Policy Development Process. I speak from personal experience that sometimes even three years is not enough time to work with a single policy from start to finish (either due abandonment or a particularly difficult policy draft).
After my first three years as an AC member, I am confident that everything I have learned from my first term will inform my decisions and make me an even more effective AC member should I be elected again. Last but not least, I genuinely do find policy deeply interesting. I enjoy thinking about the possible consequences of a particular change, and trying to understand how it might fit into a wider document. I find the challenge of crafting language to answer a specific problem exciting and enjoy the mental exercise those challenges bring.
I have truly enjoyed my time as an AC member for these last three years and would feel honored to be elected to serve the community again.