Matt Griswold

Matt “Grizz” Griswold is a world renowned software architect with a penchant for automation and a passion for interconnection. He is widely recognized for his skills in writing efficient and secure code under high load conditions, as well as for his expertise in implementing diverse network topologies. He is currently applying this deep set of knowledge, skill, and experience skill towards improving global internetworking as the Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer, and Board Chair at FullCtl.

Grizz has been working on automation since his first project deploying the Onion’s website to 6 front end servers sometime in the early 2000s. At this time he was among the first engineers to build virtualization management software, originally based on UML (user mode linux). From there Grizz found the world of finance, where he promptly wrote one of the first full stack (exchange to user) algorithmic trading applications to be used on the trading floor. This software became the basis of his own high frequency trading company, leveraging his own proprietary algorithms.

In fact, Grizz has been instrumental in launching several technology companies since 1999, playing key roles in development, networking and system administration. A little over a decade into his career, Grizz was bitten by the Internet bug and has never looked back. In 2014 he co-founded United IX and the Chicago Internet Exchange (ChIX) where he served as Chairman and CTO until a successful exit. Soon after founding United IX, he was a driving force in creating the PeeringDB non-profit entity, and still serves as a Director of that organization to this day. He also serves as a Director at OIX, the global data center and interconnection standards body, and was previously the Communications Committee Chair for the North American Network Operators' Group (NANOG).