A new chair for the openSUSE board

Richard Brown has announced that he is stepping down as the chair of the openSUSE board. "I have absolute confidence in the openSUSE Board; Indeed, I don't think I would be able to make this decision at this time if I wasn't certain that I was leaving openSUSE in good hands. On that note, SUSE has appointed Gerald Pfeifer as my replacement as Chair. Gerald is SUSE's EMEA-based CTO, with a long history as a Tumbleweed user, an active openSUSE Member, and upstream contributor/maintainer in projects like GCC and Wine."

From:		Richard Brown <rbrown-AT-suse.de>
To:		opensuse-announce-AT-opensuse.org, opensuse-project <opensuse-project-AT-opensuse.org>, oS-fctry <opensuse-factory-AT-opensuse.org>
Subject:		[opensuse-project] Changing the Chair of the Board
Date:		Mon, 19 Aug 2019 10:00:52 +0200
Message-ID:		<8B09CD59-EB2F-443E-B0A4-D161E95804F6@suse.de>
Archive-link:		Article

Dear Community,

After six years on the openSUSE Board and five as its Chairperson, I have
decided to step down as Chair of the openSUSE Board effective today, August
19.

This has been a very difficult decision for me to make, with reasons that
are diverse, interlinked, and personal.  Some of the key factors that led
me to make this step include the time required to do the job properly, and
the length of time I've served.  Five years is more than twice as long as
any of my predecessors.  The time required to do the role properly has
increased and I now find it impossible to balance the demands of the role
with the requirements of my primary role as a developer in SUSE, and with
what I wish to achieve outside of work and community.  As difficult as it
is to step back from something I've enjoyed doing for so long, I am looking
forward to achieving a better balance between work, community, and life in
general.

Serving as member and chair of the openSUSE Board has been an absolute
pleasure and highly rewarding. Meeting and communicating with members of
the project as well as championing the cause of openSUSE has been a joyous
part of my life that I know I will miss going forward.

openSUSE won't get rid of me entirely. While I do intend to step back from
any governance topics, I will still be working at SUSE in the Future
Technology Team. Following SUSE's Open Source policy, we do a lot in
openSUSE. I am especially looking forward to being able to focus on Kubic
& MicroOS much more than I have been lately.

As I'm sure it's likely to be a question, I wish to make it crystal clear
that my decision has nothing to do with the Board’s ongoing efforts to form
an independent openSUSE Foundation.

The Board’s decision to form a Foundation had my complete backing as
Chairperson, and will continue to have as a regular openSUSE contributor.
I have absolute confidence in the openSUSE Board; Indeed, I don't think I
would be able to make this decision at this time if I wasn't certain that I
was leaving openSUSE in good hands.

On that note, SUSE has appointed Gerald Pfeifer as my replacement as
Chair. Gerald is SUSE's EMEA-based CTO, with a long history as a Tumbleweed
user, an active openSUSE Member, and upstream contributor/maintainer in
projects like GCC and Wine.

Gerald has been a regular source of advice & support during my tenure
as Chairperson. In particular, I will always remember my first visit to
FOSDEM as openSUSE Chair.  Turning up more smartly dressed than usual, I
was surprised to find Gerald, a senior Director at SUSE, diving in to help
at the incredibly busy openSUSE booth, and doing so dressed in quite
possibly the oldest and most well-loved openSUSE T-shirt I've ever seen.
When booth visitors came with questions about SUSE-specific stuff, I think
he took some glee in being able to point them in my direction while
teasingly saying "Richard is the corporate guy here, I'm just representing
the community.."

Knowing full well he will continue being so community minded, while finally
giving me the opportunity to tease him in return, it is with a similar glee
I now hand over the reigns to Gerald.

As much as I'm going to miss things about being chairperson of this awesome
community, I'm confident and excited to see how openSUSE evolves from here.

Keep having a lot of fun,

Richard

Note: This announcement has been cross-posted in several places, but please
send any replies and discussion to the opensuse-project@opensuse.org
Mailinglist. Thanks!

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