Today, the GNOME Foundation announces that Holly Million will be departing from her role as Executive Director of the GNOME Foundation. An Interim Executive Director, Richard Littauer, has joined the Foundation this week. This arrangement ensures a smooth transition and continuity as we prepare for a new Executive Director search. Holly’s last day will be July 31, and she and Richard will be able to coordinate their efforts during this period.
“I’m very proud of what I have accomplished in my time with GNOME,” Holly said, “and I am dedicated to working with Richard through a transition to ensure that everything I have been working on is handed off smoothly. I will be pursuing a PhD in Psychology and dedicating myself to my own private practice. I want to thank all the wonderful people I have had the pleasure of connecting with here at GNOME, including the staff, board, advisors, founders, and volunteers. You have created something of real value in the world, and I look forward to seeing what you do next.”
On behalf of the whole GNOME community, the Board of Directors would like to give our utmost thanks to Holly for her achievements during the past 10 months, including drafting a bold five-year strategic plan for the Foundation, securing two important fiscal sponsorship agreements with GIMP and Black Python Devs, writing our first funding proposal that will now enable the Foundation to apply for more grants, vastly improving our financial operations, and implementing a break-even budget to preserve our financial reserves.
The Foundation’s Interim Executive Director, Richard Littauer, brings years of open source leadership as part of his work as an organizer of SustainOSS and CURIOSS, as a sustainability coordinator at the Open Source Initiative, and as a community development manager at Open Source Collective, and through open source contributions to many projects, such as Node.js and IPFS. The Board appointed Richard in June and is confident in his ability to guide the Foundation during this transitional period.
The Board will be meeting next week to set up a search plan for a permanent Executive Director, which will be announced after GUADEC. The Foundation looks forward to talking with GNOME members and the community and answering any questions next week at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) GUADEC in Denver, as well as asynchronously with those in Berlin and around the globe.