Our Executive Team

Juan Diego Calle, a serial entrepreneur, is the founder and CEO of .CO Internet S.A.S, the company that runs the .CO top level domain. Under Juan's leadership, .CO was launched internationally in July of 2010, and has quickly become one of the most successful domain extensions in history, with more than 1 million domain names registered by people and companies in 200 countries worldwide.

Attracting the attention of major brands, small businesses and startups alike – hundreds of thousands of individuals and businesses are building or extending their online presence on the .CO platform – including companies like Overstock (shortcut O.CO);  Angel List (Angel.CO); Twitter (using T.CO as its official URL shortener); Google (recently launched G.CO as its official shortcut for all Google products and services); and 500 Startups (500.CO).

At the age of 20, Juan co-founded TeRespondo.com, the largest pay-per-click network in Latin America. The company operated in USA, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, prior to being acquired by Yahoo, Inc. in 2005.  Subsequently, Juan founded FederatedTravel.com, a large, global network of premium travel websites, including popular destination sites like ParisHotels.com, NewYorkHotels.com and LondonHotels.com, among others.

Some notable and other not so notable achievements:

• An increasingly competent first-time Dad (2010 - ongoing)
• Entrepreneur of the Year (2011, South Florida Business Journal)
• Technology Executive of the Year (2011, Miami Chamber of Commerce)
• Barely finished the Escape to Miami Olympic Triathlon (2010)
• Invests in various ventures through STRAAT (2005 - ongoing)
• Graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Owner-President Management Program (2005 - 2007)
• Unsuccessfully studied Industrial Engineering / Finance at the University of Miami (2000 - dropped out)

Eduardo Santoyo has over 7 years of ccTLD management experience. Mr. Santoyo was manager of The Peruvian Scientific Network, where he was responsible for the creation and implementation of .PE ccTLD policy. His experience with domain name governance bodies such as ICANN and LACTLD, lends confidence to both the local and global internet communities, and as such, is key to the successful administration of .CO. Mr. Santoyo holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Sabana in Colombia, as well as an MBA from Adolfo Ibañez University in Chile and INCAE in Costa Rica.

Nicolai Bezsonoff is the Chief Operating Officer for .CO. Nicolai has been with the company since its inception and was responsible for the smooth transition of the TLD and its successful launch. Apart from playing a key role defining the company's corporate strategy, he oversees every aspect of it's operations, with the primary responsibility of ensuring a secure and reliable experience of the .CO domain to users, customers, and partners.  His claim to fame:  100% uptime... after lots of coffee.

Nicolai brings more than 16 years of experience in technology, operations and product development. Originally from Colombia (no, he's not Russian), Nicolai was the Director of Technology and Operations for Citigroup in their New York headquarters. In that role he was responsible for defining the technological strategy for the commercial, corporate, and investment banking divisions of the bank – overseeing a large team in New York, London, São Paulo, and Mumbai. Prior to that he held senior roles for Zefer Consulting and Cambridge Technology Partners providing technology strategy and advisory services to global 1000 firms. Nicolai holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Miami (Yeah, Juan), as well as an MBA from Columbia University and London Business School.  

Lori Anne Wardi brings close to 20 years of diverse business experience to her position as Vice-President at .CO Internet. Prior to joining .CO Internet, Ms. Wardi founded and managed several businesses, including Dream Big Media, Inc., a digital asset strategy consulting firm in New York City. Previously Ms. Wardi practiced law for five years at Proskauer LLP, a top tier national law firm, where she counseled executives on the full gamut of federal and state employment laws. A seasoned management consultant, Ms. Wardi has served as the Global Manager of Training and Professional Development for the Technology Division of Goldman Sachs; and has consulted with executives in many of the world's most prominent investment banks, professional service firms and non-profit organizations, including JP Morgan Chase, UBS, and AIG. Ms. Wardi has a B.A. in International Relations from Muhlenberg College; a Master's Degree in Human Resources from Cornell University; and a Law Degree from Brooklyn Law School.

Crystal Peterson brings 10 years marketing experience to her position as Director of Channel Marketing for .CO Internet.  Prior to joining the .CO team, Ms. Peterson was the Marketing & Communications Manager for Public Interest Registry, which manages the .ORG Top-Level Domain, where she was instrumental in the company’s rebranding, public relations, social media and channel marketing efforts.  Additionally, Ms. Peterson began her TLD industry career with dotMobi, assisting in the company start-up and helping to make the .mobi domain name one of the most successful TLD launches of the time.  In previous years, Ms. Peterson has performed with multiple professional dance organizations across the United States and has served the community by assisting individuals with developmental disabilities.

Linda brings over 10 years' of advertising and marketing expertise to her position as Director of Marketing for .CO.  In simple terms, she is responsible for building .CO into a global brand that is synonymous with opportunity and innovation.  Yeah. In simple terms. 

Prior to joining the .CO team, Linda honed her skills in Account Management and Operations at various advertising agencies, helping to build brands such as Clarks England, FedEx, Harvard Business Review, and Network Solutions. In fact, Linda was a key team member as Account Manager at Pappas Group during the launch of .CO in 2010, and is excited to apply her knowledge of branding, marketing, and advertising as a permanent part of the .CO team. Linda has a dual Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University in Advertising and Spanish Language, Literature, and Culture.

Trung has been a part of the .CO Internet development team from the beginning phases and was instrumental in answering the RFP from the Colombian Ministry.  He then led the technical implementation and transition from the previous Registry administrator which resulted in a completely seamless transition with 0% downtime.  Later on he also led the technical design and implementation of the gradual offering plan (Grandfathering, Sunrise and Landrush) resulting again in a smooth process that enabled .CO Internet to launch in a very orderly manner and allowing many different communities to participate.  Finally, Trung was instrumental in the preparation and the management of the big launch for General Availability in July-10th 2010, which saw a huge volume and resulted in 100,000 registrations in the first few minutes.  The systems under Trung’s direction worked perfectly and had 100% availability all throughout the opening.  Since then, Trung has been ensuring the .CO Registry, DNS and Whois continue to work impeccably and to the highest standards in the industry.   Trung has been part of Neustar’s Registry operational team for the last 9 years.

Ron Ferraro, who holds a Bachelors of Science in Information Systems, has been with NeuStar since March 2001, as director of software engineering. In his role he is responsible for managing multiple teams to develop software for several user applications and internal applications as well as external networks and e-commerce. Mr. Ferraro has had a substantial participation in the design and development of original architecture for implementing EPP, SRS, DNS and WHOIS, for the launch of. BIZ in 2001 and is still part of the operations team since the .BIZ launch. He has also handled the design, development and implementation of EPP, SRS, DNS and WHOIS for the other TLDs which NeuStar provides support, which include .US, .TRAVEL and .TEL. Ron is also responsible for the day to day operations of more than 200 registrars that currently do business with Neustar using the EPP, SRS, DNS and WHOIS applications of the company.