OSI Board of Directors

The Board of Directors of OSI consists of the following people (in no particular order, except the board president is listed first):

Russell Nelson - President (PGP key)

Russell Nelson has been giving away his software since he started writing it in 1974. Prior to his GPLed Freemacs package, there weren't many people to distribute it to. He really came to the fore with his Packet Driver Collection, begun while a staff member at Clarkson University. A GPLed set of DOS Ethernet drivers, they arguably put GPL'ed software on more CPUs than anything prior to Linux. McDonalds uses them in their cash registers, so they're literally a world-wide phenomenon. Supporting free software full-time since 1991, Russell lives and works at home in Potsdam, NY, where he's trying to figure out how to share his 384Kbps connection with his neighbors wirelessly

Eric S. Raymond - Founder & President Emeritus (PGP key)

Eric designed the language and marketing tactics around which the OSI was formed. He and Bruce Perens co-founded the organization. Eric lives in Malvern, Pennsylvania, USA.

Michael Tiemann - Vice President

Michael Tiemann is a true open source software pioneer. He made his first major open source contribution over a decade ago by writing the GNU C++ compiler, the first native-code C++ compiler and debugger. His early work created world-leading technologies and also informed the first open source business model. In 1989, Tiemann's technical expertise and entreprenurial spirit led him to co-found Cygnus Solutions, the first company to provide commercial support for open source software. During his ten years at Cygnus, Tiemann contributed in a number of roles from President to hacker, helping to lead the company from a fledgling start-up to an admired open source leader. Tiemann is now the CTO of Red Hat, a leading supplier of Linux and Open Source software. In addition to his responsibilities at Red Hat, Tiemann serves on a number of boards, including the Open Source Initiative, the Embedded Linux Consortium, the Jabber Technical Advisory Board, the GNOME Foundation Advisory Board, and the Board of Directors of ActiveState Tool Corp. Tiemann also provides financial support to organizations that further the goals of software freedom, including the Free Software Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the ArsDigita Foundation.

Danese Cooper - Secretary/Treasurer

Danese Cooper has a 10-year history in the software industry and has long been an advocate for transparent development methodologies. Danese has been working for the last three years at Sun Microsystems, Inc. on the development of the various Open Source programs sponsored by Sun (including OpenOffice.org, NetBeans and JXTA to name but three). She has unique experience implementing Open Source projects within a large proprietary company. She speaks internationally on Open Source and Licensing issues.

Ken Coar (PGP key)

Ken Coar is a director and Vice President of the Apache Software Foundation. He has over two decades of experience with network software and applications, system administration, system programming, process analysis, technical support, and computer security. Ken knows more than a dozen programming languages, but mostly writes in Perl, PHP, and C. He has worked with the World-Wide Web since 1992, been involved with Apache since 1996, is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery, and is involved in the project to develop Internet RFCs for CGI. He is the author of 'Apache Server for Dummies' and co-author of 'Apache Server Unleashed' and 'Apache Cookbook'. He gives presentations around the world on Apache, open software, and distributed development. He somewhat spastically maintains a Web log, 'The Rodent's Burrow', at http://Ken.Coar.Org/burrow/.

Mark Radcliffe - General Counsel

Mark Radcliffe is a partner with DLA Piper and he is resident in the firm's Silicon Valley office. He focuses on representing clients in intellectual property and finance matters. He has extensive experience helping companies identify, protect and exploit their IP, and he has worked with U.S.-based clients and large international companies. In 1997, the /National Law Journal /named Mr. Radcliffe one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in the United States. In 1998, Harvard Law School designated him a "Distinguished Alumni." Mr. Radcliffe was named in the /International Whos Who of e-Commerce Lawyers /(2nd Edition). He has spoken at major conferences and industry presentations, including OSBC and OSCON, about open source and other intellectual property issues. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry, /magna cum laude/, from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1981.

Laura Majerus - Director of Legal Affairs

Laura Majerus is a partner in the intellectual property group of Fenwick & West LLP in Mountain View, California. She was a computer programmer before going to law school and has been counseling clients in the intellectual property area for over seventeen years. She specializes in the fields of patent law and open source licensing. She received her B.S. in computer science from the University of Iowa in 1979 and her M.S. in computer science from the University of Iowa in 1987. She received her J.D. with distinction from the University of Iowa in 1987. Ms. Majerus is admitted to practice in Iowa, the District of Columbia, and California. She has written and lectured widely in the intellectual property and open source areas.

You can send mail to the OSI board at osi at opensource.org.

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