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.
Staff
Stefano Maffulli, Executive Director
Stefano joined OSI in 2021 after decades of open source advocacy, both as a contributor and leader. He co-founded and led the Italian chapter of Free Software Foundation Europe from 2001 to 2007, structured the developer community of the OpenStack Foundation and subsequently led open source marketing teams in several international companies. An enthusiastic open source user, he’s contributed documentation patches, translations and advocated for projects as diverse as GNU, QGIS, OpenStreetmap and WordPress. His appointment was a key step for the transformation of OSI into a professionally managed organization, a process that the Board of Directors started in 2020.
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.
Simon Phipps, Standards & EU Policy Director
Simon 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.
Phyllis Dobbs, Controller
Phyllis joined OSI as part-time Controller in 2017 and 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. She 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 Libertyville Village Band.
Nick Vidal, Community Manager
Nick is Community Manager at the Open Source Initiative and Outreach Chair at the Confidential Computing Consortium from the Linux Foundation. Previously, he was the Director of Community and Business Development at the Open Source Initiative and Director of Americas at the Open Invention Network.
Ariel Jolo, Program Coordinator
Jolo founded of Sysarmy and Nerdearla and has significantly contributed to Open Source in Latin America. With extensive experience as a SysAdmin and in communications, he has effectively engaged with the tech community across various companies.
Jordan Maris, EU Policy Analyst
Jordan fought for Open Source as a parliamentary assistant in the European Parliament working on the AI Act, Cyber Resilience Act and Product Liability Directive among others. Jordan is a long-time user of Open Source software and a strong advocate for the Public Money–Public Code principle.
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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.