cf-pushing the Foundation Forward: Changing the Guard But Keeping the Spirit

Today, Cloud Foundry Foundation announced that my friend and long-time colleague Chip Childers will be stepping into the Executive Director role, as I move on from the Foundation into a new role at a company where I’m incredibly excited to work.

The changing of the guard is always bittersweet, especially when you love the work as much as I do. So much of leading an open source foundation is about building relationships with the community who powers the project, and I know how much I’ll miss the brilliant, driven, visionary people who comprise the Cloud Foundry community. It is a rare and lucky thing to be enmeshed in a professional community in which you witness moments of actual genius, find true friendships, and celebrate victories that transcend roles and companies.

It’s just as unusual to work with a team that constantly pushes you to be a better leader, while at the same time showing you just how great a high performing team can be. I am so grateful to have worked alongside the Foundation staff for all these years. They have taught me so much about team-building, leadership and collaboration, and building an amazing and inclusive culture. I am supremely confident the Foundation team is in amazing hands now that Chip has taken over as Executive Director.

There is literally nobody else in the world more qualified for this job than Chip. He was the first staff member at the Foundation more than five years ago, and has served as CTO for more than four years. For years, he has been working on initiatives to bring the simplicity of the Cloud Foundry developer experience to the Kubernetes user. Now he will extend his years-long involvement in these projects to ensure the broader cloud native community comes along on the journey to integrate the best of Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes.

I am tremendously proud of the people and the technology behind Cloud Foundry and of the Foundation we have built together. Yes, Cloud Foundry is the industry standard developer experience for the cloud native landscape. Yes, it has been broadly adopted in the enterprise and by more than half the Fortune 500. But, it also has one of the strongest, kindest, most inclusive communities in open source, and that is irreplaceable.

I leave the Foundation with full confidence that the technology and community will continue to thrive under Chip’s leadership, and with a full heart, knowing I will carry these experiences and relationships with me into my next adventure.