This morning, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced my
appointment as its new executive director with the press
release below. I am excited to take on this new role and thrilled about
the opportunities that the FSF has to move the fight for free
software forward.
The past three years working at the FSF as program manager have
been educational and motivational. They have reinforced my belief
that what we do is important, and that our goal to give the four
freedoms to all computer users continues to be crucial. The work
we do reminds people to recognize the power they have to demand
change. This change will help free their own digital lives, and
their loved ones'.
I am grateful to John Sullivan for his leadership and
support. His legacy of nineteen years will be hard to live up to,
and I look forward to working with him, the FSF board, and the
staff on this transition. I have a lot of work to catch up on,
and I am excited to get started.
We will continue our unwavering focus on our mission, especially
working to increase understanding and adoption of copyleft, and
bringing new people into the movement by communicating the
necessity of the four freedoms. In the short term, we're focused
on making the upcoming LibrePlanet conference the best online
edition yet for you. After that, I plan to reach out and ask for
your thoughts and ideas on what else the FSF can do this year and
beyond to advance the cause of user of freedom.
As a free software activist, like many of you, each day, I am
presented with almost innumerable choices between freedom and
convenience, and each day I choose freedom wherever I can. I have
learned to do this by questioning my tools, by joining this
community, and by learning more and more about the ways that I
can stand up for myself. If I can do that, I firmly believe we
can reach anyone. I hope that you'll join me in rejecting the
ways that Big Tech tries to deprive us of our freedoms, and to
help set a positive example for computer users around the globe.
In freedom,
Zoë Kooyman
Executive Director
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Tuesday, March 1, 2022 -- The Free
Software Foundation (FSF), a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to
promote computer user freedom, today announced the appointment of Zoë
Kooyman as executive director of the FSF.
Kooyman was appointed by the FSF board following a careful selection
process that included a review by a FSF staff committee and evaluation
criteria such as management, fundraising, business and finance, legal,
and technical skills. She succeeds John Sullivan, who served as
executive director for twelve years. Sullivan will remain with the FSF
for several months to assist the transition.
"I appreciate the board and staff support, and I am excited to work
with them, FSF associate members, and the broader free software
community to advance FSF's commitment to user autonomy, freedom, and
empowerment," she said. "As technology continues to evolve and our
lives increasingly depend on software, software freedom is more
relevant than ever to computer users, and to society as a whole."
Kooyman, 38, joined the FSF as program manager in early 2019. She has
a diverse background as a highly experienced international project
manager and event producer with demonstrated skills in successfully
organizing and executing technology and social justice initiatives.
"The executive director is the day-to-day leader of the organization
with wide-ranging responsibilities for operations, licensing, projects
and events, and recruitment and fundraising. Zoë knows the demands of
the position and we have no doubt she will bring great energy and new
ideas to the role. Her international experience and perspective will
be important in advancing our mission," said FSF president Geoffrey
Knauth. Reporting to Sullivan, Kooyman was the lead organizer of
LibrePlanet in 2019, 2020, and 2021, moving the event online at the
start of the COVID-19 pandemic, while generating new records for
submissions and attendance. She also led the development of a series
of animated free software awareness videos highlighting important free
software issues and oversaw planning and execution for biannual
campaigns for the recruitment of associate members and fundraising.
"By successfully managing the details of the FSF's largest and most
impactful endeavors for the last three years, Zoë has already
established herself as an effective leader in the organization and the
free software community," Sullivan said. "She has a calm and collected
style of leadership; an exceptional ability to actively engage and
learn from different points of view while making difficult decisions;
dedication to making user freedom concerns not just topics among
technologists but true kitchen table issues; and a vision for how we
can help everyone free themselves from broken Big Tech."
Speaking on behalf of the board, Knauth lauded Sullivan's nineteen
years of dedicated service to the FSF, including his efforts to
professionalize board processes, strengthen staff operations, and grow
the organization to more than 5,000 associate members.
"There is no way to do justice to John's value to the organization in
just a few sentences," Knauth said. “We will miss his patience,
judgement, and ability to always guide staff to bring value and
meaning to free software. His meticulous attention helped the
Foundation achieve five star ratings year after year from Charity
Navigator. He was instrumental in the hiring of exceptional staff like
Zoë, and in inspiring her to take on this role. I have no doubt that
he will continue to have a positive influence on the free software
movement and the FSF as we tackle the challenges ahead."
Kooyman assumes the executive director role following a series of
recent steps taken to make the non-profit's governance and board
recruitment practices more transparent and participatory,
including a new community engagement process that empowers
associate members of the FSF to nominate and evaluate candidates for
the board of directors for the first time in the organization's
37-year history.
"I want to learn from the community, and will focus on relationship
building, and on strengthening the free software movement together,"
Kooyman said. “Our immediate priority is to convene another successful
LibrePlanet conference on March 19 and 20, bringing community
activists, domain experts, and other users together to discuss current
issues in technology and ethics. With the current and future threats
users face, it's critical that we spread the free software message
wider than ever before and that we help people understand the steps
they can take to defend our user rights and freedom."
About the Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to
promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and
redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and
use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating
system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free
software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and
political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites,
located at https://www.fsf.org and https://www.gnu.org, are an
important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support
the FSF's work can be made at https://donate.fsf.org. Its
headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.
