As President of the GNOME Foundation, I wanted to post a quick note to pass on the thanks from the Board, the Foundation staff team and membership to our outgoing Executive Director, Neil McGovern. I had the pleasure of passing on GNOME’s thanks in person at the Casa Bariachi this summer at GUADEC in Guadelajara, at the most exellent mariachi celebration of GNOME’s 25th Anniversary. 🤠 Kindly they stopped the music and handed me the microphone for the whole place, although I think many of the other guests celebrating their own birthdays were less excited about Neil’s tenure as Executive Director and the Free and Open Source desktop in general. 🤣

Neil’s 6-month handover period came to an end last month and he handed over the reins to myself and Thibault Martin on the Executive Committee, and Director of Operations Rosanna Yuen has stepped up to act as Chief of Staff and interface between the Board and the staff team for the time being. Our recruitment is ongoing for a new Executive Director although the search is a little behind schedule (mostly down to me!), and we’re hugely grateful to a few volunteers who have joined our search committee to help us source, screen and interview applicants.

I have really enjoyed working closely with Neil in my time on the GNOME board, and we are hugely grateful for his contributions and achievements over the past 5 years which I posted about earlier in the year. Neil is this month starting a new role as the Executive Director of Ruby Central. Our very best wishes from the GNOME community and good luck with your new role. See you soon!

(also posted to Discourse if you wish to add any thanks or comments of your own)