After a period of seven years in the U.S., where he was active at the Information Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, software company mtXinu, and AT&T Bell Labs, he returned to the Netherlands where he joined the NLnet, the first independent ISP in the Netherlands. Later he worked as a technical advisor for Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland, the registry of the .NL country code top-level domain.
Akkerhuis went back and forth between scientific institutes, research labs, Internet service providers and registries in Europe and across the U.S., playing a key role as a global connector in the technical community.
Throughout his career, Akkerhuis has spent a generous amount of time sharing his knowledge with others and playing key roles in organisations such as the European Unix User Group, Advanced Computing Systems Association (USENIX), the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Society, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE) and The Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries.
Currently, he is a research engineer in the research and development group at NLnet Labs, focusing on IT development.
