The openSUSE® Project, a worldwide effort that promotes the use of Linux everywhere, today announced the appointment of Vincent Untz to the position of openSUSE Board Chairperson effective immediately. The openSUSE board provides guidance and support for governance but does not direct or control community development. The board members are elected by the community and the chair is appointed by SUSE®.
Untz has worked in many technical and organizational areas of the openSUSE project. He is known and respected for both for his technical contributions as well as his diplomacy and ability to collaborate and build bridges between projects, helping to benefit the community at large. Currently, Untz is an OpenStack developer for SUSE where he works on upstream code and its integration into SUSE Cloud.
"I am proud to welcome Vincent to the openSUSE Board and look forward to working with him to further develop and advance the openSUSE project," said Ralf Flaxa, vice president of Engineering, SUSE. "We looked for somebody with respect and trust from both SUSE and the community. Vincent is action-oriented and dependable. His steady demeanor and strong track record of collaboration, diplomacy and community leadership is why we believe he is the right choice to serve openSUSE as the board chair."
Untz has made significant contributions to the community at large including his work for freedesktop.org. He has held several community-oriented leadership positions including director and president / chairman for the GNOME Foundation where he was instrumental in organizing the first collaborative Desktop Summit. Untz brought a collaborative spirit since SUSE hired him to work on desktop applications for openSUSE. He later became an openSUSE Booster, joining the team of contributors that use their skill and knowledge to enable and grow the openSUSE community. Untz currently works actively on the openSUSE Membership Officials team that recognizes community contributors, and is helping to organize the Google Summer of Code project for openSUSE. He is also involved with OpenStack. As a developer for SUSE, he was instrumental in delivering SUSE's first cloud solution powered by OpenStack, SUSE Cloud.
"I am pleased to be part of the openSUSE board to serve the community," Untz said. "Right now, we are at an inflection point: Our rapid growth has resulted in many discussions about how to work better together. This is an exciting time to be part of openSUSE. I am looking forward to serving the community."
About openSUSE
The openSUSE project is a worldwide effort that promotes the use of Linux everywhere. openSUSE creates one of the world's best Linux distributions, working together in an open, transparent and friendly manner as part of the worldwide Free and Open Source Software community. For more information, visit www.opensuse.org.
About SUSE
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