The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of more than 320 active open source projects and initiatives, 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.
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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.”
SOURCE: GlobeNewswire