Open source veteran and former Executive Vice President Ruth Suehle named ASF President
Wilmington, DE, Nov. 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of more than 320 active open source projects and initiatives, today announced the appointment of Ruth Suehle as its new president, succeeding David Nalley who has served in the role for the past four years.
Since 2020 Ruth has served as the ASF's executive vice president and has been helping produce the Foundation's flagship event Community Over Code (formerly ApacheCon) since 2018. Currently Director of Open Source at SAS, an analytics and AI software company, Ruth is leading the creation of its first open source program office (OSPO), continuing the work she's been doing in building open source communities for nearly two decades. Her extensive experience includes serving on the Open@RIT advisory board, at Red Hat for 15 years primarily in its OSPO, and in positions on the governing board and technical steering committee of O3DF, as well as co-authoring Raspberry Pi Hacks (O'Reilly, 2013) and editing Red Hat Magazine and opensource.com.
"I am honored to serve as the ASF's new president and am appreciative of David's service. In the time since the ASF was founded, open source software has gone from being a niche concept to a critical underpinning of nearly all modern software development. Due to this success, our industry is undergoing fundamental changes that will have ripple effects on the entire ecosystem from vendors to users. It's an extremely interesting time in the history of software, and I'm excited to help lead the ASF into that future," said Ruth.
Building Upon a Strong Foundation
The ASF remains the world's largest open source foundation with nearly 8,500 committers across 300 projects. Last fiscal year the Foundation issued 869 software releases, advanced 31 projects toward Top-Level status, and hosted 10 events attended by more than 6,000 people globally. As emerging technologies like artificial intelligence rise in prominence, ASF continues to be a trusted source for guidance on open source community practices. In cybersecurity, ASF leads efforts to align with global standards for secure software development, ensuring open source software's security and longevity.
"Ruth's appointment comes at a critical time for the ASF and the open source ecosystem as a whole. Her deep experience in open source standards, and her proven track record in strengthening open source communities is invaluable to the ASF's leadership team,” said Shane Curcuru, ASF Board Chair. "Ruth's dedication to supporting the growing needs of the ASF operations team will help ensure the ASF has the organizational capacity it needs to meet the changing regulatory landscape for our many project communities. We are excited to welcome her as the new ASF President.”
Recognizing Distinguished Service
The Foundation extends its deepest gratitude to outgoing President David Nalley, who served with distinction for more than a decade as a valued volunteer while being employed by Amazon Web Services. Starting as VP of Infrastructure in 2014, David became president in 2020, leading the ASF through the COVID-19 pandemic with streamlined processes and fostering critical partnerships with government and open source organizations. In 2022, David represented the ASF at a virtual summit hosted by the White House to discuss open source software security and strategies for enhancing the supply chain to enable the swift adoption of critical security fixes. David also represented the ASF before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in 2022, and most recently appeared before the United Nations at the 2024 OSPOs for Good event. His leadership was pivotal in adapting ASF processes and operations to maintain its position as a leader in open source.
David said: "Serving as the President of the ASF has been sobering. The impact of the Foundation is ubiquitous and felt by nearly every human on the planet. Volunteers from around the globe have written software that has changed the internet, created entirely new industries, and rapidly increased the pace of innovation for everyone. As one of the first and now largest open source foundations, the ASF has defined many of the best practices of project governance, intellectual property processes, and security responses. Today, I am happy to see Ruth Suehle succeed me as president. She is an executive who not only leads, but does so while understanding that the community is what makes the Foundation unique and successful. I look forward to seeing the impact that she is going to drive and how much better the world will be for her leading the Foundation.”
Read Ruth's blog on Apache.org.
About The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)
Founded in 1999, the Apache Software Foundation exists to provide software for the public good with support from more than 75 sponsors. ASF's open source software is used ubiquitously around the world with more than 8,400 committers contributing to 320+ active projects including Apache Superset, Apache Camel, Apache Flink, Apache HTTP Server, Apache Kafka, and Apache Airflow. The Foundation's open source projects and community practices are considered industry standards, including the widely adopted Apache License 2.0, the podling incubation process, and a consensus-driven decision model that enables projects to build strong communities and thrive. https://apache.org
ASF's annual Community Over Code event is where open source technologists convene to share best practices and use cases, forge critical relationships, and learn about advancements in their field. https://communityovercode.org/
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