Eric Klinker is an American technology executive and is best known as the former CEO of

BitTorrent BitTorrent is a Protocol (computing), communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P), which enables users to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet in a Decentralised system, decentralized manner. The protocol is d ...

. 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

. He was instrumental in formulating BitTorrent's position on

network neutrality Net neutrality, sometimes referred to as network neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent transfer rates regard ...

, 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, 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 911 as of the 2020 census. The village was named after Alexander Ramsey (1815–1903), an American politician, second governor of Minnesota. Geography U.S. Route ...

, he is an alumnus of the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

and the

Naval Postgraduate School Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is a Naval command with a graduate university mission, operated by the United States Navy and located in Monterey, California. The NPS mission is to provide "defense-focused graduate education, including clas ...

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.

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)