- About
- Network
- News
- Initiatives
- Events
- Publications
- Blog
CENIC Promotes Key Employees
Categories RENS & NRENS The CENIC Community
###
It is an understatement to say that the past two years have been an unusual period for the nation, for California, and for our work here at CENIC.
Despite the impact of a global pandemic and the unique climate challenges in our state, this team has risen to a range of opportunities to further our mission by pursuing an upgraded network via the Next Generation Infrastructure initiative; assumed a range of responsibilities involving our support for the GoldenStateNet initiative; and, ensured Californian’s remained connected to each other and the world despite the challenges.
This extraordinary effort and the outcomes supported have required much from CENIC leaders and staff, all of whom have gone above and beyond in their performance. In recognition of that effort, we are pleased to announce promotions for the following CENIC employees:
Tony Nguyen is now Senior Vice President of Engineering and Chief Information Officer. During his 18-year tenure with CENIC, Tony’s expertise and oversight of the engineering and technology portfolio of our work has expanded exponentially. His vision and innovation are driving our future in networking through his anticipation of the needs of our ever-changing networking landscape.
Robert Kwon has rejoined CENIC as Associate Vice President of Engineering, bringing with him a range of corporate and community experience and expertise with him. After running our Core Engineering team, he moves into this role where he will contribute to the strategic direction and work with Tony to guide the future of our network and services.
Sana Bellamine is now Director, Regional and International Infrastructure. Sana’s 13 years with CENIC have been marked by the critically important relationships she has built with our partner/vendors. Those relationships are key to the work underway supporting GoldenStateNet. Sana is a former WINS (Women in IT Networking at SC) participant, a program developed to address the gender gap in IT, and supported by ESnet, KINBER, and UCAR through an NSF grant.
Stanley Han has taken on the role of Associate Director of Operations. In his 14 years with CENIC, Stanley has worked in various roles with the network operations group, then served with the senior engineering group. Returning to operations as a lead, then manager, his new position as Associate Director will provide an opportunity to focus on strategic matters in supporting the increasing scale of our networks and leading across functions within the organization.
Michael Gong will take on the role of Manager, Network Operations. He has served with CENIC for a decade, pivoting to network engineering after time at IBM. As a quick learner, he will be key to the new iteration of network operations that will be necessary to support the expanded capacity needed for GoldenStateNet. His role will work closely with our senior engineers as they move the network forward.
Dennis Cagampan moves up to Manager, Core Engineering, replacing Robert Kwon in that role. Dennis joined us from Hyperloop One as a Senior Network Engineer and has been a key contributor in moving CENIC towards greater technical automation, integration, and efficient network design and deployment.
Ola Gamel is now Associate Core Engineer, moving from the network operations team, where she has served for five years, into the engineering group. Ola has been accepted into the WINS program for SC22.
Lee Ann Weber is now Associate Vice President, Communications in recognition of the profound impact she has had on CENIC’s external reputation through its publications and online presence. During her seven years with CENIC, her work has helped define CENIC’s brand as competent and effective through sophisticated design. Her team has expanded to support GoldenStateNet needs as well.
Kao Saefong is now Chief of Staff and Corporate Secretary for CENIC. During his seven years with the organization, Kao has assumed greater responsibility for supporting our senior staff beyond the office of CEO. He will now support senior leaders in Objectives and Key Results (OKR) efforts, as well as serving an official role in support of our active Board of Directors.
Finally, Janis Cortese has returned to CENIC as Technical Writer and Senior Editor and will be working as part of the Communications team. Janis served CENIC for a decade before leaving for other opportunities. With the need for GoldenStateNet support, Janis has returned as a key contributor.
Congratulations to all noted above. Your work is valued and we celebrate your achievements.
Related blog posts
CENIC AIR and Your Campus: From Concept to Connection
Learn more about how to get started thinking about how your campus can connect to and use the CENIC AI Resource.
CENIC Network Automation Update: New Network-Source-of-Truth Tool Implemented
CENIC has evaluated and worked with various DCIM platforms to meet this need and concluded that NetBox was the best fit for its environment as its Network Source of Truth.