extensively modified by members. The company was formed in 1995, and a board of five non-executive directors was elected, with Keith Mitchell as the initial chairman. Not for profit organization From the beginning, it was agreed that LINX would be a non-profit organization run for the benefit of members and governed collectively through regular member meetings, a practice which continues to this day. While PIPEX continued to provide administrative oversight – charged at cost to LINX – member meetings were held every two months (now every three months) to decide strategic direction. Eventually, it was accepted that the purely co-operative system of operation at LINX was becoming overly demanding. Then, in late 1996, Keith Mitchell accepted the role of full-time chairman, working with a personal assistant from offices in Peterborough. In the summer of 1996, LINX became the first Internet exchange in the world to deploy a 100-megabit switch – a Cisco Catalyst 5000. In January 1999, it pioneered the implementation of a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) running over gigabit Ethernet connections. As the Internet grew in popularity, legislators and law enforcement agencies began to call for its regulation. LINX increasingly found itself taking on non-core activities, such as providing expert advice on behalf of its members (and, therefore, the whole industry) to a wide range of official agencies. In 1999, LINX appointed its first full-time regulation officer in Roland Perry to advise organisations such as the Home Office Internet Task Force, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, the Department of Trade and Industry and relevant departments of the EU Commission. In 2003, Roland was succeeded by Malcolm Hutty when Roland left to form his own advisory group. LINX also actively and financially supports the Internet Watch Foundation which, since 1996, has worked to eradicate child abuse images from the UK Internet. Initial funding from LINX was instrumental in enabling the IWF to launch and the decision to create the IWF and define its charter was taken at a LINX member meeting in Heathrow. LINX in the twenty-first century 2000 – A training manager was appointed to introduce an accredited training program for Internet engineers and technicians. 2001 – LINX amended its corporate structure to make the post of chairman non-executive and appointed its first chief executive officer, John Souter, previously UK managing director of German-owned Varieties Communications. 2002 – LINX was the first exchange to introduce 10G Ethernet operation, using