Eric Klinker is an American technology executive and is best known as the former CEO of
BitTorrent. Along with
Bram Cohen
Bram Cohen is an American computer programmer, best known as the author of the peer-to-peer (P2P) BitTorrent protocol in 2001, as well as the first file sharing program to use the protocol, also known as BitTorrent. He is also the co-founder of ...
and three other venture capitalists, he is also on the board of governors of
BitTorrent. He was instrumental in formulating BitTorrent's position on
network neutrality
Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...
, testifying before the FCC as well as other worldwide telecom regulators.
As CEO, he is credited with guiding BitTorrent through the 2008 financial crisis and growing the user base to over 170m users. In 2012, BitTorrent expanded its mission under Klinker and broadened the product portfolio, introducing additional distributed applications like
BitTorrent Sync
Resilio Sync (formerly BitTorrent Sync) by Resilio, Inc. is a proprietary peer-to-peer file synchronization tool available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Amazon Kindle Fire and BSD. It can sync files between devices on a ...
,
BitTorrent Bundles, Bleep, and BitTorrent Live, a linear broadcasting P2P protocol also invented by Bram Cohen. In 2014, BitTorrent announced Project Maelstrom, a distributed web browser designed to power a new way for web content to be published, accessed and consumed.
In April 2016, Klinker left BitTorrent to co-found
Resilio Inc. with a focus on applying BitTorrent technology to enterprise and IoT markets.
Early life
Raised in
Ramsey, Illinois
Ramsey is a village in Fayette County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,063 in 2018. Between 2017 and 2018 the population of Ramsey, IL declined from 1,225 to 1,063, a -13.2% decrease.
The village was named after Alexander Ramsey (181 ...
, he is an alumnus of the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
and the
Naval Postgraduate School
The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is a public graduate school operated by the United States Navy and located in Monterey, California.
It offers master’s and doctoral degrees in more than 70 fields of study to the U.S. Armed Forces, DOD ci ...
.
Career
Before joining BitTorrent, he worked at a number of other companies which included
@Home Network
@Home Network was a high-speed cable Internet service provider from 1996 to 2002. It was founded by Milo Medin, cable companies Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), Comcast, and Cox Communications, and William Randolph Hearst III, who was their fir ...
, netVmg and
Internap Network Services.
ece.illinois.edu/alumni/awards
/ref>
References
External links
Agenda FCC en banc hearing on Network Management
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klinker, Eric
Living people
American technology chief executives
BitTorrent
Naval Postgraduate School alumni
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
People from Ramsey, Illinois
Year of birth missing (living people)