Staff and Board — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software

Staff and Board — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software
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Staff and Board
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Free Software Foundation
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Published on
Aug 10, 2016 10:43 AM
Meet the staff, board of directors, and voting members of the Free Software Foundation.
Staff
Zoë Kooyman, Executive Director
zoe@fsf.org
GPG key: B102 017C CF69 8F79 423E F9CC 069C 04D2 06A5 9505
Kooyman joined the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as program
manager in 2019, in charge of public activities and communications,
and became the executive director in February 2022. As program
manager, she led the FSF to new records for attendance and submissions
at the annual LibrePlanet conference, organizing and leading the
conference for three years (2020-2022). The 2020 event was converted
into a successful virtual conference in just five days at the onset of
the COVID-19 pandemic, and continues virtually for the time
being. Kooyman directed the development of a series of animated videos
highlighting and increasing awareness of important free software
issues. She also drove successful efforts in associate member
recruitment and fundraising.
Prior to coming to the FSF, she was already a highly experienced
international project manager and event producer. She has demonstrated
skills in leading technology and social justice initiatives.
Kooyman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Media and Culture and a
Master of Arts in the Preservation and Presentation of the Moving
Image, both from the University of Amsterdam. Born in the Netherlands,
she has lived in seven countries and worked in twenty-two countries on
four continents, soaking up life lessons along the way. She has a deep
interest in the visual and digital nature of modern society, is always
up for an adventure outdoors and, in true Dutch style, prefers to
travel by bicycle.
Craig Topham, Copyright & Licensing Associate
craigt@fsf.org
GPG key: 36C9 950D 2F68 254E D89C 7C03 F9C1 3A10 581A B853
For general licensing questions:
licensing@fsf.org
Craig has been an Associate Member since 2007, and he came to work for the Free Software Foundation as a Copyright and Licensing Associate at the end of 2018. Prior to the FSF, Craig worked as a PC/Network Technician for the City of Eugene, Oregon for twelve years. Some of Craig's FSF duties include: handling
copyright assignments
GPL compliance
for FSF-copyrighted works, and helping with the
Respect Your Freedom
program. Besides the desire to see free software thrive, Craig also envisions a world where everyone's inner light shines bright. You can find him every Friday hosting the
Free Software Directory meeting
on libera.chat #fsf from 12:00-15:00 Eastern time.
Dawn Bryanton Peterson, Business Operations Manager
dawnbp@fsf.org
GPG Key: 2D13 0405 6F4F 061D ADEA E299 A2C7 6C54 25EF 14E8
Dawn joined the Free Software Foundation in 2019, bringing a diverse
set of skills to the Foundation. With a degree in accounting, she
worked in investment banking as project manger, for accounting, data,
and payroll systems, before moving to work in the nonprofit sector. At
the FSF, she handles incoming and outgoing accounting activities for
all its member projects as well as finance, budgeting, human
resources, and risk management for the Foundation.
In her free time, Dawn can be found in a yoga studio, swimming, or
spending time with her family.
Eko K. A. Owen, Outreach & Communications Coordinator
ekokao@fsf.org
GPG Key: 44BC 4C41 7572 906B 0308 B01A 5E85 814E 300A 1177
Eko K. A. Owen (they/them) joined the Free Software Foundation as the
Outreach and Communications Coordinator (OCC) in 2024. As OCC, they
use their editing skills and creativity to help push FSF publications
and events forward. Prior to working with the FSF, Eko worked in
continuing legal education programming, diversity and inclusion
education, and coffee crafting. They advocate for user freedom because
it is a human right, and a vital tool for securing and protecting
other human rights. In their spare time, Eko reads science fiction and
horror novels, tries out new recipes with their partner, and writes
moody fiction.
Greg Farough, Campaigns Manager
gregf@fsf.org
GPG key: 7CCC 7ECD 3D78 EB38 4F6C 02C8 9669 5161 7A14 9C73
Greg's introduction to free software came by way of the Punkcast video blog in 2006. Intending to see a concert bootleg, they saw an RMS speech instead. From that moment forward, they resolved to use an exclusively free system. Greg started at the FSF in 2019.
Ian Kelling, Senior Systems Administrator
iank@fsf.org
GPG key: B125 F60B 7B28 7FF6 A2B7 DF8F 170A F0E2 9542 95DF
Ian was an FSF volunteer before joining the FSF in May 2017 as a senior
systems administrator. He's also a free software developer and has
contributed to various projects including GNU Emacs.
Jeanne Rasata, Membership Coordinator
jeanne@fsf.org
GPG key: EF66 43D6 E1F1 15D1 A9B7 D59C 92D1 6583 E1E7 C532
Jeanne Rasata started at the FSF in 2006 as the program assistant. She is now the membership coordinator.
Krzysztof Siewicz, Licensing and Compliance Manager
ksiewicz@fsf.org
GPG key: 6DC9 E663 36DB 9588 81AB 7E43 2671 24EF FC9C D84E
Krzysztof (Chris) started as the Free Software Foundation's licensing and compliance manager in October 2023. He holds a doctorate in legal studies from Universiteit Leiden, the Netherlands, for a thesis which discussed the optimal framework for the protection of software freedom. His experience includes practicing law in Poland, advocating, and educating in the area of free and permissive licensing in various projects carried out by NGOs, educational, academic, and cultural institutions from Poland and other EU member states. Krzysztof also worked as a project coordinator, including in software development.
Michael McMahon, GNU/Linux Systems Administrator
michael@fsf.org
GPG key: 4337 2794 C8AD D5CA 8FCF FA6C D037 59DA B600 E3C0
Michael joined the FSF tech team as Web Developer in January 2019 after working with GNU/Linux in manufacturing, game development, and education. Michael became a Systems Administrator in September 2023. He enjoys tinkering, board games, TTRPGs, DJing, public speaking, parenting, and cats.
GPG keyring
and
GPG signature
of the FSF staff and board.
Board of directors
(Alphabetized by first name.)
More about the role of the FSF's board of directors
Ian Kelling, FSF President
GPG key: B125 F60B 7B28 7FF6 A2B7 DF8F 170A F0E2 9542 95DF
Ian holds a bachelor's degree in computer science and is a continuous user, developer, and advocate for free software. His past experience working as a software developer for proprietary software companies, while using, learning, and contributing to GNU/Linux on his own time, solidified his personal belief in complete software freedom. He now works exclusively on GNU/Linux. He has contributed to pieces of free software like GNU Emacs, community efforts like the Free Software Directory and others, and has been a speaker at the Seattle GNU/Linux conference (SeaGL). Ian joined the Free Software Foundation in 2017, where he is a senior systems administrator.
Alex Oliva
Alex "lxo" Oliva lives two lives. In one, he's a respectable (i.e., free) software hacker, having worked as GNU Toolchain developer since 2000 at Red Hat and AdaCore, and he does his taxes in Brazil with free software he's maintained since 2007. In the other life, he's a software freedom activist, who speaks, writes, and attempts to motivate people to take the red pill and escape the surveillance matrix most of us live in. He's used GNU since 1991, and contributed to it since 1993. He's maintained GNU Linux-libre since 2008, and launched the 0G project to escape the surveillance black hole in 2019. He co-founded FSF Latin America, and he's a member of LibrePlanet São Paulo, a GNU Speaker, and the recipient of the 2016 FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software. He graduated as a Computing Engineer and became MSc in Computer Sciences at University of Campinas, where he got acquainted with free software.
Christina Haralanova
Christina is an academic researcher, free software activist, technical
trainer, and university lecturer. She has been an active free software
supporter since 2000, helping over 30 women's rights-defending
organizations and community centers understand the importance of
software freedom and migrate to free software. Founding member of the
Free Software Association, Bulgaria, and later Board member of Koumbit,
member of
FACIL
– for the adoption of free software in Quebec
(FACiL, pour l'appropriation collective de l'informatique libre),
Christina has been working in the intersection of technology, feminism,
and social justice. Christina's Master's thesis
analyzed women's
contribution to free software development
(2010). Her Ph.D. thesis
discovered how to transform hacking spaces to become more accessible, diverse, and pedagogically engaging
diverse, and
accessible to everyone (2019)
. In her current practice,
Christina is exploring ways to help Canadian community organizations
create strategic and sustainable technological practices in their daily
usage.
Eko K.A. Owen, FSF Outreach & Communications Coordinator
Eko K. A. Owen (they/them) joined the Free Software Foundation as the
Outreach and Communications Coordinator (OCC) in 2024. As OCC, they
use their editing skills and creativity to help push FSF publications
and events forward. Prior to working with the FSF, Eko worked in
continuing legal education programming, diversity and inclusion
education, and coffee crafting. They advocate for user freedom because
it is a human right, and a vital tool for securing and protecting
other human rights. In their spare time, Eko reads science fiction and
horror novels, tries out new recipes with their partner, and writes
moody fiction.
Gerald Jay Sussman, Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT
Gerald has been involved in artificial intelligence research at MIT since 1964. He co-authored
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
and
Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics
and is the recipient of numerous awards, including ACM's Karl Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award and the Amar G. Bose award for teaching. He is a fellow of numerous institutions including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the ACM, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the New York Academy of Arts, and Sciences.
Henry Poole, founder of CivicActions
Henry Poole is an Internet strategist with three decades' experience in information technology and more than a decade's with online communities and commerce. He was the first technologist to set up a blog for a member of the US House of Representatives. He has presented at conferences in Europe and in the US, and was the technical editor of
Demystifying Multimedia
. He co-founded CivicActions, a grassroots campaign technology consulting firm in 2004, helping provide network-centric free software technology solutions focusing on transforming the world.
John Gilmore
John Gilmore is a philanthropist, computer engineer, entrepreneur, civil
libertarian, and nonprofit board member. He is a pioneer with thirty years of
experience in the computer industry, including applications programming,
systems programming, language implementation, management, and
investment. He was the fifth employee at Sun Microsystems, cofounder of
the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a cypherpunk privacy activist.
He co-designed the DHCP protocol that your phone or laptop uses daily to get
its Internet address. He also contributed decades and more than $12
million to improving United States drug laws. Gilmore has served as a
member of many nonprofit and for-profit boards for four decades.
He co-founded
Cygnus Support
, the successful
commercial free software company that polished and supported
GCC
Binutils, and GDB; and invested tens of millions of revenue dollars into
engineers improving GNU tools. Gilmore also wrote, maintained, or
improved many free software programs. He wrote the program that became
GNU Tar
, was the
GDB
maintainer for years, improved the
GNU Binutils
and the
GNU manuals
, and catalyzed and funded GNU
Radio
and
Gnash
Maria Chiara Pievatolo
Maria Chiara Pievatolo is a professor of political philosophy at the
university of Pisa, Italy. She is one of the earliest Italian
proponents and practitioners of open (as in "free") scholarly
principles. She founded one of the oldest Italian Open Access journals
in the humanities and social sciences, the "Bollettino telematico di
filosofia politica." Chiara is also a founding member of the Italian
Association for the promotion of Open Science (AISA), of which she is
currently president.
"Openness" of science
refers to the freedom
of knowledge commons from obstacles due to monopolies and secrecy,
bureaucratic evaluation obligations, or academic hierarchy. Inspired
by the philosophy of GPL, free software, and copyleft she is
interested in alternative non-monopolistic forms of copyright (such as
Kant's), and thus that are capable of taking seriously the interest of
the public use of reason and the knowledge commons.
Richard M. Stallman
GPG key: 6781 9B34 3B2A B70D ED93 2087 2C64 64AF 2A8E 4C02
Richard Stallman founded the free software movement in 1983 when he announced he would develop the GNU operating system, a Unix-like operating system meant to consist entirely of free software. He has been the GNU project's leader ever since. In October 1985 he started the Free Software Foundation.
Since the mid-1990s, Stallman has spent most of his time in political advocacy for free software. Before that, Richard developed a number of widely used programs that are components of GNU.
Stallman pioneered the concept of copyleft, and is the main author of the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license.
Stallman graduated from Harvard in 1974 with a BA in physics. During his college years and after, he worked as a staff hacker at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, learning operating system development by doing it. He wrote the first extensible Emacs text editor there in 1975.
Geoffrey Knauth, FSF Treasurer
Geoffrey is an independent software contractor, has worked as a programmer, senior associate, systems engineer, and systems analyst at various companies and has contributed to the GNU Objective-C project. He is fluent in Russian and French and has a working knowledge of German, which helps him maintain relationships with computer scientists, mathematicians, and physicists of the Russian Academy of Sciences and with United States economists, scientists, and agencies. He holds a BA in Economics from Harvard University and is the treasurer of the FSF.
Voting members
About the distinction between voting and board members
Alexandre Oliva
Christina Haralanova
Gerald Jay Sussman
Henry Poole
Ian Kelling
John Gilmore
Maria Chiara Pievatolo
Odile Bénassy
Richard M. Stallman
Read about our
board governance and the new board recruitment process
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