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
Deb Bryant, Interim Executive Director
Deb’s deep appreciation of open source models and culture comes out two decades of management in Open Source organizations – leading enterprise IT policy in state government as an early adopter of open standards and open source; helping build one of the world’s pioneering Open Source labs at Oregon State University; conducting and publishing research and consulting to international government as a trusted advisor on adoption of open source. Prior to joining OSI staff she led one of the world’s largest and most influential Open Source Program Offices (OSPO) at Red Hat for eight years. She is OSI Board Member Emeritus having previously served on the OSI board for four terms over ten years. In 2023, she established OSI’s first US Policy Program and founded the Open Policy Alliance.
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. Previously, he was Outreach Chair at the Confidential Computing Consortium from the Linux Foundation, Director of Community and Business Development at the Open Source Initiative, and Director of Americas at the Open Invention Network.
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.
Katie Steen-James, Senior US Policy Manager
Katie joined OSI after leading policy and advocacy for SPARC, a nonprofit coalition working to implement open access and open education policies in North America. Before SPARC, she was a federal relations officer at the Association of American Universities where she advocated for federal research investments and developed programming and positions on open research data issues. Katie brings 10 years of experience in government relations and policy analysis and a commitment to educating policymakers about the benefits of open.
Gabriel Toscano, US Policy Intern
Gabriel is a Master of Public Policy (MPP) student at Duke University working on sociotechnical approaches to build, govern, and promote digital technologies in the public interest. With a background in philosophy and computer science, he has published and conducted research at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, the Center for AI and Digital Policy, the MIT Science Policy Review, and the Stanford Trust & Safety Research conference.
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