Candidates for The Document Foundation 2017 Board of Directors Election

Below you will find a list of candidates who are running for The Document Foundation Board of Directors. A short summary statement from each candidate and a link to their full candidacy announcement is provided to help you learn more about them. We encourage all voters to read the full candidacy statements and related discussions on board-discuss@documentfoundation.org.

When deciding who you should vote for, please carefully consider the various tasks the Board of Directors must perform. This overview may be helpful. Keep in mind that the board will make a number of important decisions and will also have to perform many tasks which might require a significant amount of time and effort and the ability to work and communicate with other people, companies, and the media. It is a good idea to strive for a well-balanced board consisting of people with various backgrounds, skills, and perspectives.

Additional elections details can be found in the Document Foundation statutes (and the non-binding English version).

If you have any questions, please send them to either board-discuss@documentfoundation.org (public list) or in private to the Membership Committee at elections@documentfoundation.org.

Candidates for The Document Foundation Board of Directors

In random order:

  1. Cor Nouws
    Affiliation: Nou&Off
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04010.html
    With (growing) involvement in various places, it feels like a good moment to serve on the board of our community; to me: an interesting and challenging environment; people with many backgrounds, from different situations and locations. The joy we have in our contributions and how we can help each other to do maybe even better, in directing skills for creating great products, means a lot to me.
  2. Jan Holešovský
    Affiliation: Collabora
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04029.html
    As a long-time contributor to LibreOffice, I would like to continue serving in the Board to help make decisions that support doers in their work, and that lead to having more people involved in the project. I can offer my experience from cross-team work, and from the last two years in the Board. I am deeply committed to LibreOffice and its success.
  3. Franklin Weng
    Affiliation: Software Liberty Association Taiwan
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04032.html
    If I'm elected as a member of BoD, firstly I'll do my best to be the bridge between the community and Asian countries, and then I'll also focus on communicating with people and marketing ODF and LibreOffice to governments of different countries. Besides, I hope to make the products more friendly to Asian C/J/K people in the aspect of UI/UX.
  4. Björn Michaelsen
    Affiliation: unaffilated
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04034.html
    I bring lot of experience from prior work on TDFs governance and am an unaffiliated contributor to LibreOffice. I think the key to the success of LibreOffice is in the project and seeking growth for it by improving the experience for contributors and raising the visibility of our community and the opportunities for contribution.
  5. Simon Phipps
    Affiliation: unaffiliated
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04036.html
    I've been involved with the LibreOffice project in some way since the OpenOffice.org launch in 2000. I still believe LibreOffice is one of software freedom movement's most important projects. I have previously served both as Membership Chair and and as a Director and have extensive business experience which I have used to TDF's advantage. Now independent, I'd be honoured to serve again; my priority will be the new challenges of the cloud era.
  6. Michael Meeks
    Affiliation: Collabora
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04037.html
    I'd love to serve you again on the board: as a FLOSS advocate, with passion for LibreOffice, deep TDF board knowledge, lots of generic business experience: legal, budgeting, interviewing, management, yet also eager to keep LibreOffice fun and free. I've a long history of contribution to different FLOSS communities in various ways, am currently betting the business on LibreOffice and its success, but also want to help growing our volunteer participation.
  7. Osvaldo Gervasi
    Affiliation: The University of Perugia, Italy
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04039.html
    I want to run for a seat in the next BoD after two years of the exciting experience as Director, to have the chance to further contribute to the project. In particular I want to promote LibreOffice among University students, in particular Engineers and Computer Scientists in order to let them approach the development of such a great software with the help of TDF, removing the barriers that they may encounter and facilitating their work.
  8. Eike Rathke
    Affiliation: Red Hat, Inc.
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04040.html
    I, Eike Rathke, candidate for a seat on the Board of Directors of The Document Foundation. I am a LibreOffice core code contributor, working full time on the code base employed by Red Hat, Inc. I have been around with the project and TDF since 2011. I want TDF to grow and continue to be a prosperous community that creates and maintains the framework and conditions for a successful LibreOffice development in all its aspects.
  9. Marina Latini
    Affiliation: Studio Storti Srl
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04041.html
    In the last 2 years, I’ve been honoured to serve in TDF BoD. We have done a lot and to achieve our purpose we can do much more. I will put all the gained experience in order to make our community more inclusive and open, lowering the entry barrier and avoiding exclusion. Freedom and inclusivity are the keys of a successful community and I would see a TDF inspired by these values.
  10. Eric Ficheux
    Affiliation: Nantes Métropole
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04043.html
    I'm standing for a seat at the TDF Board of Directors for the first time. I believe in the LibreOffice project, in the community and in the power of our Free Software model. I will commit to do my best to help the project tackle the UX and Cloud challenges, to help grow the user and contributor base and make our Free software model better known, understood and supported.
  11. Uwe Altmann
    Affiliation: unaffiliated
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04045.html
    I, Uwe Altmann, candidate for a seat on the Board of Directors of The Document Foundation. I have been around with the project and TDF since the early beginning, mostly in german community and QA for the Mac version. Actually I’m more in the marketing trying to start a process to discuss a vision of TDFs future. Being more an administrative guy than a coder I would like to foster the TDF as organization.
  12. Daniel Armando Rodriguez
    Affiliation: unaffiliated
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04046.html
    If I result chosen as a BoD member my goal is to get more hispanic people involved into the project on a regular basis. I commit myself to give my best effort for the benefit of the project and to work hard to put a regional conference in the map.
  13. Thorsten Behrens
    Affiliation: CIB software GmbH
    Full statement at https://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/board-discuss/msg04047.html
    I'm leading a team of LibreOffice developers at CIB, and am a long-time TDF contributor to both code and organisation. Serving in the current board as a director, I would like to offer my continued help for the next two years. Things I promise to do: improve & professionalize organisation; grow & diversify contribution; keep things fun, fair & sustainable; and help with the largely-German administrative grunt work.

Additional Elections-related Information

Note, that according to the Document Foundation statutes (and the non-binding English version), there is a 1/3 maximum on the number of people affiliated with any one company that can be on the board or amongst the deputies. For details refer to the statutes. You will be able to vote for up to 10 candidates of your choice, with no restrictions, except that you cannot vote more than once for the same candidate.

If you have any futher question, please consult the Rules for this election or write to elections@documentfoundation.org.