Florida LambdaRail, LLC (FLR), Florida’s Research and Education Network, is pleased to announce that Jon Ellis has joined the company as its new CEO. Jon joins FLR after the previous CEO, Joseph Lazor, retired in December and at the culmination of a lengthy search process overseen by the Board of Directors.
“The Board and staff couldn’t be happier to attract Jon to this opportunity,” said Robert Grillo, Chairman of the FLR board of directors and vice president and CIO for the Division of Information Technology at Florida International University. “Jon’s previous career in the military overseeing complex organizations, a diverse workforce, and technology systems provide him with valuable understanding of the challenges facing research-focused organizations like FLR. We are delighted he has chosen to share his talents with us.”
“I am thrilled to be joining FLR at this time of great advances in networking capability,” added Jon Ellis. “Just this month, FLR is going to be one of the first R&E Networks in the country to connect to Internet2’s 400Gbps Next Generation Infrastructure, or NGI, which we will follow on by upgrading the full FLR backbone to 400Gbps this summer. The incredible increase in capacity means our members and affiliates will have all the tools necessary to support their research and discovery needs now and into the future. I look forward to helping the FLR community achieve great things with our new infrastructure.”
Prior to assuming his duties at FLR, Jon served in the United States Army for more than thirty years, most recently at the rank of Colonel. During his career he oversaw advanced modeling and simulation programs where he created and implemented strategic plans, managed multi-million-dollar budgets, and aviation logistics supply chains. During Jon’s service he led thousands of soldiers and logged more than 1000 accident-free flying hours. He also provided oversight for a strategic network infrastructure and two multi-million-dollar simulation training centers that trained more than 10,000 personnel annually during world-wide exercises. In his final posting before leaving the army, Jon was responsible for individual and unit readiness for 743 employees in six brigades across five states with an annual budget of $10MM+.
Jon holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aerospace Engineering from West Point, a Master of Science Degree in Modeling, Virtual Environments and Simulation (MOVES) from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a Master of Arts Degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the US Naval War College. Jon was also a US Army War College resident Fellow at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA., where he studied modeling, simulation, and cybersecurity.
Jon, along with his wife and three children, lives in Orlando where they are very active in supporting their community, in particular youth sports and the arts.
