Type Subsidiary

Founded 1948; 72 years ago

Founder Leo Beranek and Richard Bolt

Headquarters Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

Parent Raytheon

Website www.raytheon.com/ourcompany/bbn

BBN Technologies (originally Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.) is an American research and development company,^[1] based next to Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.

In 1966 the Franklin Institute awarded the firm the Frank P. Brown Medal, in 1999 BBN received the IEEE Corporate Innovation Recognition, and on February 1, 2013, BBN was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest honors that the U.S. government bestows upon scientists, engineers and inventors, by President Barack Obama.^[2] It became a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon in 2009.

History

BBN has its roots in an initial partnership formed on October 15, 1948 between Leo Beranek and Richard Bolt, professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[3][4] Bolt had won a commission to be an acoustic consultant for the new United Nations permanent headquarters to be built in New York City. Realizing the magnitude of the project at hand, Bolt had pulled in his MIT colleague Beranek for help and the partnership between the two was born. The firm, Bolt and Beranek, started out in two rented rooms on the MIT campus. Robert Newman would join the firm soon after in 1950, and the firm became Bolt Beranek Newman.^[5] Beranek remained the company's president and chief executive officer until 1967, and Bolt was chairman until 1976.

From 1957 to 1962, J. C. R. Licklider served as vice president of engineering psychology for BBN.^[6] Foreseeing the potential to obtain federal grants for basic computer research, Licklider convinced the BBN leadership to purchase a then state-of-the-art Royal McBee LGP-30 digital computer in 1958 for $25,000. Within a year, Ken Olsen, president of the newly formed Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), approached BBN to test the prototype of DEC's first computer, the PDP-1.^[7] Within one month, BBN completed its tests and recommendations of the PDP-1. BBN ultimately purchased the first PDP-1 for around $150,000 and received the machine in November 1960.^[8][9]

After the PDP-1 arrived, BBN hired two of Licklider's friends from MIT, John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky, as consultants.^[10] McCarthy had been unsuccessful in convincing MIT engineers to build time-sharing systems for computers. He had more success at BBN though, working with Ed Fredkin and Sheldon Boilen in implementing one of the first timesharing systems, the BBN Time-Sharing System.^[11] In 1962, BBN would install one such time-shared information system at Massachusetts General Hospital where doctors and nurses could create and access patients' information at various nurses' stations connected to a central computer.^[5] BBN would soon begin more research about integrating computers and medicine, hiring Richard Bolt in 1965 and MIT Lincoln Laboratory computer systems engineer Frank Heart in 1966.^[12]

As BBN began focusing on computer technology, it gained a reputation as "the third university" in Cambridge alongside Harvard and MIT, and its offices expanded on a site near Fresh Pond in western Cambridge.^[13] By 1968, the company had over 600 employees.^[14] By the early 1970s, BBN bought a laundromat on Moulton Street and tore it down for a new, seven-story headquarters.^[15]

In 1980, the U.S. federal government charged BBN with contracts fraud, alleging that from 1972 to 1978, BBN altered time sheets to hide overcharging the government. That year, two top financial officers plea bargained for suspended sentences and $20,000 fines, and the company paid a $700,000 fine.^[16]

BBN's September 1994 celebration of the 25th anniversary of ARPANET generated much local and national news coverage from outlets including The Boston Globe, Newsweek, and National Public Radio.^[17] By that year, Heart retired from BBN after 28 years; his final position was president of the systems and technology division.^[18]

Notable achievements

BBN is best known for its DARPA-sponsored research. It has made notable advances in a wide variety of fields, including acoustics, computer technologies, quantum information, and synthetic biology. In recent years, BBN has led a wide range of research and development projects, including the standardization effort for the security extension to the Border Gateway Protocol (BGPsec), mobile ad hoc networks, advanced speech recognition, the military's Boomerang mobile shooter detection system, cognitive radio spectrum use via the DARPA XG program. In the early 2000s, BBN created the world's first quantum key distribution network, the DARPA Quantum Network, which operated for 3 years across Cambridge and Boston, and which included the world's first fully operational prototype of a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector. BBN also led the Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI) project for the National Science Foundation, which ultimately built out programmable "future Internet" infrastructure across approximately 60 university campuses.^[19]

Interface Message Processor

In August 1968, BBN was selected by ARPA to build an Interface Message Processor (IMP) for the ARPANET, the precursor to the modern Internet.^{[20][nb 1]} The IMPs were the very first generation of gateways, known today as routers. Under the leadership of Frank Heart and Bob Kahn, four IMPs were produced for nearly $1 million from September to December 1969.^[21][22] The first IMP was shipped to the University of California, Los Angeles in September 1969 and the second to the Stanford Research Institute a month later.^[23] The first message between the two IMPs was "LO" — phonetically, “ello” — but the SRI host crashed before the UCLA researcher could complete typing the "LOGIN" command.^[5][24]

Acoustics

Well-known acoustics commissions include MIT's Kresge Auditorium (1954), Tanglewood's Koussevitzky Music Shed (1959), Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall (1962), the Cultural Center of the Philippines (1969), Baltimore's Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (1978)^{[citation needed]} and Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall (1979).

The architectural acoustics division of BBN faced controversy in the early 1960s with its acoustics design project for the Philharmonic Hall (now David Geffen Hall) at the Lincoln Center in New York City. Beranek and BBN's chief architect were criticized for ignoring important acoustical principles in concert hall design. Many failed minor adjustments led the walls, balconies, and ceilings to be torn out and dumped, and a new consultant oversaw a repair that cost millions of dollars over several years.^[13] The division also produced poor results at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. The hall's large volume and seating capacity initially resulted in less than ideal results. Kirkegaard Associates completed acoustical renovations in 1992 at a cost of $10 million which resulted in substantial improvement. ^[25]

In the 1960s and 1970s, experts at the company examined audio tapes related to notable events in U.S. history, including the John F. Kennedy assassination Dictabelt recording,^[26] an audio recording from the 1970 Kent State shootings, and during the 1974 Watergate scandal, the tape of President Richard Nixon that had 18.5 minutes erased.^[27]

The substantial calculations required for acoustics work led to an interest, and later business opportunities, in computing. BBN was a pioneer in developing computer models of roadway and aircraft noise, and in designing noise barriers near highways.^[28] Some of this technology was used in landmark legal cases where BBN scientists were expert witnesses.^[29]

In early 2004, BBN applied its acoustics expertise to design, develop, and deliver the Boomerang shooter detection system in a little over two months to combat the sniper threat US troops faced in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The system immediately pinpoints the location of hostile fire. Since then, more than 11,000 Boomerang systems have been deployed by US and allied forces.

Computer technologies

BBN bought a number of computers in the late 1950s and early 1960s, notably the first production PDP-1 from Digital Equipment Corporation, on which it implemented the BBN Time-Sharing System(1962).^[30]

Ray Tomlinson of BBN is widely credited as having invented the first person-to-person network email in 1971^[31] and the use of the @ sign in an email address.^[32][33][34]

BBN has had a very distinguished career in natural-language understanding,^[35][36] ranging from speech recognition through machine translation and more recently machine understanding of the causality of events and accurate forecasts for the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).^[37]

BBN's education group, led by Wally Feurzeig, created the Logo programming language, conceived by BBN consultant Seymour Papert as a programming language that school-age children could learn.^[38]Other well-known BBN computer-related innovations include Interlisp programming language, the TENEX operating system, and the Colossal Cave Adventure game. BBN also is well known for its parallel computing systems, including the Pluribus, and the BBN Butterfly computers, which have been used for such tasks as warfare simulation for the U.S. Navy.^[39] BBN also developed the RS/1, RS/Explore, RS/Discover and the Cornerstone statistical software systems, and played a pioneering role in the development of today's semantic web, including participating in the DARPA Agent Markup Language project and chairing Web Ontology Language standardization.

Networking technologies

The Internet, circa 1985. BBN built and operated the MILNET, ARPANET, SATNET, and Wideband networks

BBN was involved in building some of the earliest Internet networks, including the implementation and operation of the ARPANET and its Interface Message Processors;^{[40][nb 1]}, as well as SATNET, PRNET, MILNET, SIMNET, the Terrestrial Wideband Network, the Defense Simulation Internet, CSNET, and NEARNET. In the course of these activities, BBN researchers invented the first link-state routing protocol.

BBN was a key participant in the creation of the Internet. It was the first organization to receive an Autonomous System Number (AS1) for network identification.^[42]ASNs are an essential identification element used for Internet Backbone Routing; lower numbers generally indicate a longer established presence on the Internet. AS1 is now operated by Level 3 Communications following their acquisition of BBN's Genuity internet service provider. BBN registered the bbn.com domain on April 24, 1985, making it the second oldest domain name on the internet.^[43][44] In addition, BBN researchers participated in the development of TCP, created the Voice Funnel, an early predecessor of voice over IP, helped lead the creation of the first email security standard, Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM), chaired development of the "core" Internet Protocol security suite (IPsec) standards, and performed extensive work to secure the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).

BBN also created a series of mobile ad hoc networks starting in the 1970s with DARPA's experimental PRNET and SURAN systems. Later BBN efforts included the networking portions of the Near-term digital radio (NTDR) and High-capacity data radio (HCDR), the Wideband Networking Software in the Joint Tactical Radio Systemand the Wireless Network after Next (WNaN). It also created the networking portions of the US Army's Mobile Subscriber Equipment (MSE) and Canada's Iris Digital Communications System.

PRNET

First mobile ad hoc network, sponsored by ARPA.

SURAN

Follow-on to PRNET experiments, also sponsored by ARPA.

Mobile Subscriber Equipment (MSE)

Tactical Internet for the US Army

Iris Digital Communications System

Tactical voice + data Internet for the Canadian Army

Near-term digital radio (NTDR)

First fielded mobile ad-hoc network

High-capacity data radio (HCDR)

NTDR version for the British Army

Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)

Wideband Networking Waveform

Wireless Network after Next (WNaN)

Experimental tactical ad-hoc network, sponsored by DARPA

SATNET

Early data satellite network linking ARPANET nodes, incorporated into first Internet demonstrations.

ACTS Gigabit Satellite Network

Experimental network supporting a wide range of high-bandwidth networking experiments from 1993-2004.

Celestri

Network architecture for (never launched) Internet constellation, follow-on to the Iridium satellite constellation.

Connexion by Boeing

Networking architecture studies.

Discoverer II

Networking studies for (never launched) LEO constellation of radar satellites

SBIRS Low

Network architecture for (never launched) Space-Based Infrared System LEO constellation.

TSAT

Network architecture for the IPv6 Transformational Satellite Communications System constellation.

Notable BBNers

A number of well-known computer luminaries have worked at BBN, including Daniel Bobrow, Ron Brachman, John Seely Brown, Edmund Clarke, Allan Collins, William Crowther, John Curran, Chip Elliott, Wally Feurzeig, Ed Fredkin, Bob Kahn, Steve Kent,^[45] J. C. R. Licklider, John Makhoul, John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Dan Murphy, Severo Ornstein, Seymour Papert, Craig Partridge, Radia Perlman, Oliver Selfridge, Cynthia Solomon, Bob Thomas, Ray Tomlinson, and Peiter "Mudge" Zatko. Former board members include Jim Breyer, Anita K. Jones and Gilman Louie.

Spin-offs and mergers

• In 1971, BBN's TELCOMP subsidiary was sold.

• In the 1970s, BBN created Telenet, Inc., to run the first public packet-switched network.

• In 1983 BBN Instruments was sold to Vibro-Meter Corp.

• In 1989, BBN's acoustical consulting business was spun off into a new corporation, Acentech Incorporated, located across the street from BBN headquarters in Cambridge.^[47]

• In 1994 LightStream Corp., a joint venture with Ungermann-Bass, Inc. created in 1992 to manufacture asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switches, was sold to Cisco Systems Inc. $120 million.

• BBN formed an early Internet service provider in 1994 as its BBN Planet division. Previously traded as "BBN" on the stock market, the company was purchased by [GTE Corporation] in 1997 as a wholly owned subsidiary.^[49] BBN Planet was joined with GTE's national fiber network to become GTE Internetworking, "powered by BBN". When GTE and Bell Atlantic merged to become Verizon in 2000, the Internet service provider division of BBN was included in assets spun off as Genuity [(We call this "Genuity In,, 2000" and can be found here : Genuity Incorporated (2000) . There was also a Genuity Incorporated)] that existed from 1995 to 1997/8)] to satisfy Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements, leaving behind the remainder of BBN Technologies. Genuity [(Genuity Incorporated (2000))] was later acquired out of bankruptcy by Level 3 Communications in 2003.^[50] In March 2004, Verizon sold the remainder of the company, by then known as BBNT Solutions LLC, to a group of private investors from Accel Partners, General Catalyst Partners, In-Q-Tel and BBN's own management,^[51] making BBN an independent company for the next five years.

• In September 2009, Raytheon entered into an agreement to acquire BBN as a wholly owned subsidiary.^[52] The acquisition was completed on October 29, 2009^[53] and the company was valued at approximately $350 million.^[54] BBN owned the domain bbn.com, the second oldest currently registered domain name on the Internet, which ran continuously from April 1985 to mid-December 2019.

• Digital Force Technologies (DFT) of San Diego, California was a wholly owned BBN subsidiary, purchased in June 2008, and spun out in 2018.^[55]

• Former BBN employees have formed about a hundred startup companies with varying levels of official involvement, including Parlance Corporation and EveryZing.^[56]

Locations and subsidiaries

As of 2013, BBN Technologies maintains offices in:^[57]

• Cambridge Highlands, Cambridge, Massachusetts

• Columbia, Maryland

• St. Louis Park, Minnesota

• O'Fallon, Illinois

• Newport East, Middletown, Rhode Island near Naval Station Newport^[58]

• Rosslyn, Arlington, Virginia near Washington, D.C.

See also

• Oldest registered domain names

• DARWARS, a military simulation game developed with DARPA since 2003

• George G. Robertson

• Richard E. Hayden

• Interlisp

[...]

The nation's largest local phone company aims to expand its reach by purchasing one of the "backbone" Internet providers.

LEAPING HEADFIRST INTO the deep end of the Internet, [GTE Corporation] said Tuesday that it will purchase Net pioneer BBN for US$616 million, and is partnering with Cisco Systems to develop new data services.

The move helps position [GTE Corporation], the nation's largest local phone company, as a full-service telecom outlet for corporate clients seeking Internet access and Web-site hosting, as part of its networking strategy. Such all-in-one packaging is seen as crucial to compete in today's increasingly complex and fast-changing telecom industry.

BBN spokesman Vaughn Harring said Tuesday that because his company's network helps account for nearly 80 percent of all traffic on the Internet, the increased capacity resulting from GTE's investment should result in faster service for the typical user. "The resources of a major telecom company were necessary to expand our service," he noted.

BBN has been around since the beginnings of the Net, when the system was still known as the Arpanet. It is considered one of the "backbone" Internet providers, along with MCI, Sprint, and WorldCom's UUNET Technologies.

Besides expanding its range of services offered, GTE is standing firm against AT&T as the leading long-distance carrier makes inroads to local phone customers. For the past two years, BBN has been the provider of networking systems for most of AT&T's Internet service. It is not yet known how the GTE buyout will affect AT&T's WorldNet operation.

AT&T holds a minority stake in BBN, and was believed to be interested in acquiring full control of the company. "Our relationship with AT&T is still being sorted out as a result of this news," Harring said.

[GTE Corporation] already claims some 100,000 subscribers to its Intelligent Network Services ISP. The alliance with Cisco aims to give more substance to this network, and to create new applications and services intended to meet the needs of major clients. GTE said its purchases of Cisco networking equipment for resale could reach more than $1 billion.

This has been an expensive week so far for GTE. On Monday, the company said it will buy a stake in Qwest Communications' coast-to-coast fiber-optic network for $485 million. Because of the acquisitions, GTE said it doesn't expect to meet projected 10 percent earnings increases for this year and next. Beyond 1999, though, the company is hoping that earnings will soar by as much as 15 percent a year.

"We think all this will mean a lot to Internet users across the country," said GTE spokesman Bob Brand. "Clearly we think this is a growth area for us."

GTE will soon commence a cash offer to acquire all outstanding shares in BBN for $29 a share. BBN reported an operating loss of $12.1 million for the quarter that ended on 31 March, compared with an operating loss of almost $30 million a year earlier.

IRVING, Texas -- [GTE Corporation] today announced the launch of GTE Internetworking, its new operating unit. GTE Internetworking includes the recently acquired BBN Corp., which 28 years ago developed the ARPANET, the forerunner to today's Internet, and GTE Intelligent Network Services, which provides Internet services to residential and small business customers. The new operating unit will offer Internet services to residential and small business customers and Fortune 500 companies.

The acquisition of BBN and launch of GTE Internetworking are key components of [GTE Corporation]'s data strategy, one of a series of steps the company is taking to be a market-leading provider of voice, video and data services.

"GTE Internetworking is uniquely positioned to offer our customers the only complete, integrated Internet services using Internet Protocol (IP) networking technologies," said [George Henry Conrades (born 1939)], corporate executive vice president and president of GTE Internetworking. "We're building upon BBN's technological heritage and capabilities plus GTE's customer base, expanding national footprint and diversified distribution channels. Our mission is to help customers improve their business processes through the integration of IP technologies and telecommunications."

GTE Internetworking will work closely with other GTE units, including GTE Communications Corp., the company's new national sales, service and marketing unit, and GTE Network services, its regulated local exchange carrier.

GTE Internetworking will offer a full spectrum of internetworking services including dial-up and dedicated Internet access, high-performance Web hosting, managed security, network management, systems integration and Web-based application and integration services.

The new division will have responsibility for engineering and combining facilities such as data centers and network infrastructure as well as integrating new capacity on the company's high-speed, fiber-optic network being constructed by Qwest Communications Corp. Additionally, through BBN Technologies, its research and development arm, GTE Internetworking will continue to provide funded research and development services in the area of Internet Protocol networking, security, speech recognition and other advanced technologies.

With revenues of more than $21 billion in 1996, [GTE Corporation] is one of the largest publicly held telecommunications companies in the world. In the United States, GTE offers local and wireless service in 29 states and long-distance service in all 50 states. GTE was the first among its peers to offer "one-stop shopping" for local, long-distance and Internet access services. Outside the United States, where GTE has operated for more than 40 years, the company serves approximately 7 million customers. GTE is also a leader in government and defense communications systems and equipment, directories and telecommunications-based information services, and aircraft-passenger telecommunications.

IRVING, Texas - GTE Internetworking, a subsidiary of [GTE Corporation], today announced that it will acquire [Genuity Incorporated], a subsidiary of Bechtel Enterprises. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the expiration of applicable waiting periods under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. The acquisition will be completed through GTE Internetworking's affiliate, [BBN Technologies, Incorporated]. It is anticipated that the transaction will be completed by the end of the year.

GTE Internetworking, already a leading provider of Web hosting, is pursuing its strategy of enabling customers to transfer their business applications to the Internet. Moving mission-critical business processes to the Web allows customers to broaden market reach, lower the cost of sales, distribution, and support, and transform the relationships between companies and their customers.

GTE Internetworking has more than a thousand Web hosting customers, including some of the busiest sites on the Web--ZD.Net, Four11, LA Times, Boston Globe, Tribune Corporation, and NBC Interactive. The combination of GTE Internetworking with Genuity will provide an expanded global footprint with 12 fully networked data centers, creating an organization with an unprecedented ability to provide distributed Web hosting services.

Genuity is a value-added provider of distributed application hosting solutions. Genuity has strategically located data centers and a sophisticated load-balancing technology, Hopscotch, which together ensure efficient delivery of data across the Internet. Genuity's unique Hopscotch technology helps solve busy server problems, network congestion, and Internet latency to deliver the highest levels of performance. Its customers include cnet, CMP Publications, Inc., Excite, InterTel, and MCA/Universal.

"With this acquisition we continue to build the critical set of assets necessary to advance our position as a trusted provider of the enabling infrastructure for Internet commerce. We are combining our high-speed national backbone with global reach, robust public and private peering relationships, advanced hosting and distributed application management with our security and systems integration expertise to enable customers to migrate mission critical applications and business processes to the network," said [George Henry Conrades (born 1939)], president of GTE Internetworking.

"Genuity's network technology, and most importantly, its people, are what give us the competitive advantage," said T. Geir Ramleth, president and CEO of Genuity. "The integration of our robust hosting infrastructure and powerful Hopscotch technology with GTE Internetworking's extensive resources will create a synergistic union. And our similar cultures and vision for the future provide a unique opportunity for customers looking to transform their businesses using Internet technology."

"Genuity's robust distributed application hosting architecture will be instrumental to GTE Internetworking as we continue to focus on delivery of the most advanced distributed network-centric solutions," said Mark Shull, vice president and general manager of GTE Internetworking's Network Centric Solutions group. "This combination allows us to build on our existing base of technology and expertise to provide Internet infrastructure services for electronic commerce."

About Genuity

Genuity is a subsidiary of Bechtel Enterprises, the development, financing and ownership affiliate of the Bechtel organization. Genuity is a value-added provider of distributed application hosting, access and security technologies that provide cost-effective, scaleable and highly reliable Internet infrastructure for commercial applications. With headquarters in San Francisco, Genuity also has data centers established in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Jose, Washington, D.C. and London. Genuity is the creator of Hopscotch, a service allowing organizations to ensure the accessibility and performance of their mission-critical Internet sites by eliminating DNS look-up failures and solving Internet latency problems. For more information, please call 1-888-Genuity, or visit the company's World Wide Web site located at Genuity

About Bechtel Enterprises

Bechtel Enterprises, Inc. is the development, financing and ownership affiliate of the Bechtel organization, a premier global engineer - constructor. It is a leader in the privatized infrastructure market, with ownership interests in 9 companies and 29 projects in the power, water, transportation, telecommunications, and technology sectors. Since 1990 alone, Bechtel Enterprises has participated in arranging nearly $12 billion in project financing. For more information about Bechtel please visit the company's World Wide Web site at Bechtel

About GTE Internetworking

GTE Internetworking, a unit of GTE Corporation (NYSE:GTE), includes the recently acquired BBN Corporation, which 28 years ago developed the ARPANET, the forerunner to today's Internet, and GTE Intelligent Network Services, which provides Internet services to consumers and small businesses.

GTE Internetworking offers customers, from consumers to Fortune 500 companies, a full spectrum of Internet services and solutions including dial-up and dedicated Internet access, end-to-end network management, high-performance distributed hosting and applications solutions, managed security, and systems integration, for customers migrating their mission-critical business applications to the Internet. GTE Internetworking draws upon BBN's expertise in funded research and development of advanced technologies, including satellites, digital radio, multi-gigabit routers, security, and speech, and GTE's strong existing telecommunications services, including local and long distance, wireless, paging, video, research, and Internet. The address for the GTE Internetworking's home page is www.bbn.com.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 2005--BBN Technologies, a leading provider of advanced technology and research and development, announced today that [George Henry Conrades (born 1939)], executive chairman of [Akamai Technologies, Incorporated], has been appointed to BBN's Board of Directors. Mr. Conrades served as the CEO of [BBN Technologies, Incorporated] from 1994 to 1997.

"I'm delighted to join the Board of Directors of BBN Technologies, a highly respected organization renowned for developing innovative solutions to some of the world's most challenging problems," said Mr. Conrades. "It's a privilege to be reunited with BBN's world-class scientists and their excellent work."

“George brings to the BBN board an outstanding record of technology and business leadership together with a deep understanding of and appreciation for BBN's business, culture, and core values”

The BBN Board of Directors also includes: Tad Elmer, BBN's president and CEO; David Fialkow and Ken Novack, managing director and advisory board member of General Catalyst Partners, respectively; Jim Breyer and Kevin Efrusy of Accel Partners; and Anita K. Jones, the Lawrence R. Quarles Professor of Engineering & Applied Science, and Professor of Computer Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia.

"George brings to the BBN board an outstanding record of technology and business leadership together with a deep understanding of and appreciation for BBN's business, culture, and core values," said Mr. Elmer. "His counsel will help us grow and prosper."

[George Henry Conrades (born 1939)] was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Akamai in April 1999, bringing a broad range of business experience in the computing, Internet, telecommunications, and media industries. Mr. Conrades became Executive Chairman of Akamai in April 2005.

Before joining Akamai, Mr. Conrades was Executive Vice President and President of GTE Internetworking following the firm's acquisition of BBN Corporation in 1997. At [GTE Corporation], he was responsible for creating GTE Internetworking and leading GTE's rapid growth in the data and Internet business, including integrated telecommunications services.

From 1994 until GTE's acquisition of BBN, [George Henry Conrades (born 1939)] served as CEO of BBN, where he built BBN Planet into one of the industry's top-tier ISPs. BBN designed, built, and deployed the first four nodes of the ARPANET, the forerunner to today's Internet.

Mr. Conrades currently serves as a venture partner at Polaris Venture Partners, an early stage investment company.