Aldea crafts customized teams to meet client requirements. Through an established network of independent contractors, Aldea can meet your requirements on-time and on-budget.

Susan Estrada is the president and CEO of Aldea Communications and is an Internet pioneer. Named a "thinking nerd" by colleagues, she has a deep interest in emerging broadband technologies and the ability to make those technologies work to solve real-world problems.

Her current interests involve both operational Internet technologies and broadening public understanding of technology value in everyday life. She is interested in helping find sensible ways to increase the deployment of IPv6. Big broadband demand creation is also an area where she works with FirstMile.US and other organizations to research, develop and implement public benefit solutions. In addition, she continues her work with the academic research and education community through her participation in National LamdbaRail's outreach activities.

As the leader of the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California's (CENIC) One Gigabit or Bust Initiative, Susan provided the vision, the managerial savvy and the technical know-how needed to bring the initiative's multitiered goals to life. The Initiative brought together the interests of research, education, commerce, state and local government, and the general public to develop an action plan for delivery of one gigabit broadband capabilities to every educational institution, business, and home in California by 2010.

Susan founded CERFnet in 1988. CERFnet was one of the original regional IP networks. It served the academic and commercial communities in California. As executive director, she took the initial NSF funding ($2.8M) and successfully commercialized the network for both the academic and private sector users, growing from 25 sites to hundreds of sites. CERFnet was later sold to TCG and is now part of AT&T. CERFnet was a particularly visible network because Ms. Estrada was able to use a small amount of resources to achieve early commercial acceptance of the Internet—leading to the Interop Achievement Award in 1991.

During her 5-year tenure as the CERFnet executive director, she was instrumental in CERFnet’s user growth from 25 university members to hundreds of corporate members and thousands of individual users. CERFnet developed a number of notable firsts for the Internet including the first deployment of dial-up IP, accounting reports for customers, and high quality service.

Giving practical advice on getting the best Internet service, Susan wrote Connecting to the Internet, An O’Reilly Buyer’s Guide, in August 1993 (a Barnes and Noble bestseller). Susan has been invited to speak on diverse subjects including education using the Internet, business on the Internet, and connecting to the Internet. She is consistently praised in evaluations for her down-to-earth presentation delivery.

Through her CERFnet leadership and collaboration with PSInet and UUnet, Susan helped form the interconnection enabling the first commercial Internet traffic via the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX). Susan’s high standards and attention to customer needs drove these and other developments.

As a parent of two children, Susan is strongly committed to enhancing educational programs using communications technology. Among other activities, Susan played an instrumental role by co-founding the Global Schoolhouse and organizing the California branch of Tech Corps.

Susan serves as president of FirstMile.US. Susan served as a board member of the Public Interest Registry (PIR). She was an appointed member to the FCC's Technological Advisory Committee. She was an elected Trustee of the Internet Society, a founder of the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX), a former area director for the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). She was an appointed member of SBC/Pacific Telesis’s Telecommunications Consumer Advisory Panel and the former member of the U.S. Federal Networking Council's Advisory Committee (FNCAC). She is listed in the Millennium and 1998–1999 editions of Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals.

An innovator and entrepreneur, Susan’s experience includes over 30 years association with telecommunications and network management.