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The Open Source Initiative (OSI) exists and succeeds because of the commitments and contributions of our community. We would like to thank all of those who have stepped forward to support our work in promoting and protecting open source software, development and communities.
OSI non-discrimination policy: The Open Source Initiative does not promote or discriminate against any person, population group, or organization with regard to categories protected by applicable United States law, as well as other categories identified by the OSI in alignment with our own Human Resources policies. These include, but are not limited to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, physical appearance, citizenship, marital status, language, education background, national origin, age, disability, and veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.
Staff
Stefano Maffulli, Executive Director
Stefano joined OSI in 2021. More about him in the announcement of his appointment.
Deb Bryant, US Policy Director
Deb’s deep appreciation of open source models and culture comes out nearly two decades years of management in open source organizations - leading enterprise IT policy in state government as an early adopter of open standards and open source; building one of the world’s pioneering open-source labs at Oregon State University; conducting and publishing research and consulting to US and foreign government as a trusted advisor on adoption of open source; and more recently building and leading one of the world’s largest and most influential Open Source Program Offices (OSPO) at Red Hat for eight years. In 2010 Deb was honored with the O'Reilly Media Open Source Award in recognition of her contribution to open source communities and for her pioneering advocacy of open standards and the use of open-source software in the public sector. You can follow her on Twitter as @debbryant
Phyllis Dobbs, Controller
Phyllis Dobbs joined OSI as part-time Controller in December 2017. Phyllis is currently part-time Controller for Python Software Foundation, as well as a part-time accounting/finance consultant for the Lake Forest Symphony, the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, and the Alliance for Human Services. Previously, Phyllis was CFO of Shimer College and Controller for McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Phyllis has an MBA from Duke University and a B.S. in Accounting from Clemson University. In addition, Phyllis is Trustee at Cook Memorial Public Library, President of a condo association, volunteers annually with the IRS/AARP tax program, and is a clarinetist in the Libertvyille Village Band.
Jessica Iavarone, Community and Marketing Manager
Jessica Iavarone joined on as Operations Assistant and was hired full time in 2022 to manage community relations and the outreach efforts of OSI. Jessica graduated in 2017 from the University at Albany with a BA in Communications and Marketing. Jessica also worked as Social Media Coordinator for the Northeast Kidney Foundation.
Simon Phipps, Standards Director
Simon Phipps first joined OSI in 2008 as a Board observer and has been a board director, board president, and board secretary at various times since, until early 2020 when he switched to his current role. With a degree in electronic engineering that led to a focus first on compiler design and then workstations and networking, he has had C-level roles with responsibility for software community matters at IBM, Sun Microsystems and Forgerock. As Sun's chief open source officer he ran one of the first fully staffed OSPOs and oversaw the release of Sun's whole software portfolio under open source licenses, notably including the Java platform. He has been involved in de jure standards since 1991 at multiple SDOs. He consults, writes and speaks widely on software freedom issues. On Twitter he is @webmink and in the Fediverse @[email protected]
Betsy Waliszewski, Director of Sustainability
Betsy started her career in tech in 1997 as a marketing manager at Infortrend Technology, a manufacturer of High Performance Enterprise-Class Digital Storage Solutions. In 1999, she moved on to O’Reilly Media, where she held the position of Product Manager, Senior Marketing Manager, and Partner Manager for the next 16 years.
At this point, she felt it was time to give back to the open source community that had been so welcoming to her by transitioning to The Python Software Foundation (PSF), a non-profit membership organization, where she spent the next 6 years as Sponsorship Coordinator and Administrator.
In May of 2021, she returned to the broader open source community by joining the Open Source Initiative as the Director of Sustainability. She is conducting research and market segmentation, creating sales, drawing connections, identifying opportunities and gaps as well as developing and overseeing OSI annual fundraising initiatives and programs.