I am pleased to be able to announce this year’s appointments to the F-Droid Board of Directors! We received a record number of nominations, and it was difficult to make a selection between so many excellent candidates. Thank you to everyone who spent the time to make a nomination, and to each nominee for their interest in voluntering for this role.

Bekah Jones, Gina Plat, Juhani Lehtimäki, Sammy Fox, and myself, Sebastian Crane, have each been appointed for two-year terms on the Board of Directors. Hans-Christoph Steiner continues as Technical Lead with the renewed approval of the Board of Directors.

Bekah joins us with a wealth of experience which will help F-Droid further empower its users:

“I am so excited to be working with F-Droid as a director on the board! I am an IT professional and have been working in the field for 15+ years now, first as a web developer, and more recently as a support technician and systems administrator. My current job is in the public sector, and as such I am a huge advocate for open source and freely accessible software. I am also a hobbyist in the Smallweb/IndieWeb spaces, and I believe alternatives to overly corporatized and data-harvesting web services are incredibly important for today’s users. Maintaining and contributing to projects that protect people’s privacy in an ever more surveilled world is something that I fight for every day. I look forward to helping F-Droid and its community flourish as much as I can.” - Bekah Jones

Gina brings first-hand experience of large-scale deployments of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) from across government, the private sector, and charities:

“I’m incredibly honored to have been elected to the board of directors of F-Droid. Considering big tech’s control of the mobile ecosystem, it’s so important to have an independent, community-run app repository that keeps Android libre. I’m currently a member of the Open Source Program Office (OSPO) within the Dutch government, an admin of Fosstodon.org, and a huge advocate for open ecosystems. I will use my network and experience to support F-Droid as much as I can. Thank you.” - Gina Plat

Juhani is a veteran of the Android developer community, with a background of championing FOSS in industry:

“Hello F-Droid Community! I’m excited to introduce myself as a new member of the Board of Directors. Originally from Finland and living in southern Germany, I’ve spent over two decades as a software engineer heavily focused on the Android ecosystem since the 2.0/.1 days. Community building has always been central to my work, from running the “Android UI Patterns” blog and organizing meetups to my current focus on European tech sovereignty, FOSS usability, and better open-source funding models. My passion for F-Droid is rooted in my personal “de-Googling” journey, and I plan to use my industry background to help scale the project, improve its user-centric design, and keep our mobile ecosystems truly open. When I’m not advocating for digital freedom, I’m an avid trail runner out in the mountains; it’s a hobby that has taught me how to navigate long, challenging journeys, which feels perfectly fitting for the ongoing mission of the free and open-source software movement. I can’t wait to work alongside all of you!” - Juhani Lehtimäki

Sammy has a track record of involvement in third-sector organizations and is an expert in community leadership:

“I’m really glad to be joining the F-Droid Board at a time when independent, community-governed alternatives to the dominant mobile platforms matter more than ever. I’m a software engineer at the Wikimedia Foundation, and having previously served as a trustee of Wikimedia UK, I’ve seen firsthand how much it means when the people who rely on a project have a genuine say in how it’s run - that’s something I want to help F-Droid do well. I’ll be bringing my experience in open source governance and my belief in radical transparency to the role, and I’m looking forward to working with the rest of the board to support the project and the community behind it.” - Sammy Fox

As for myself, I look forward to contributing as a member the F-Droid community even more in my second term on the Board of Directors - as before, I feel honoured to be able to play a part in such an important project.

Leaving the Board of Directors this year are John Sullivan and Peter Serwylo. John was instrumental in the effort to create the Board of Directors as a vehicle for community-focused governance, and Peter’s involvement has brought continuity from F-Droid’s early development to its current structure. On behalf of the entire F-Droid community, I would like to thank them for their time, energy, and commitment during what has been a critical time for F-Droid.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Juliana Sims, who resigned part of the way through her term last year to prioritize tackling emerging threats to freedom - not just in technology, but in the communities of stakeholders which F-Droid serves as a project. Her contributions have made a positive impact to the F-Droid project which continues to the present day.

We have reassigned the roles for the Board of Director’s new composition, with Marc Prud’hommeaux becoming Vice Chair, Neil Brown becoming Clerk, and Bekah Jones taking on the role of Vice Clerk. Vishal Bakhai and I will continue as Treasurer and Chair respectively.

The composition of the Board of Directors is now as follows:

• Vishal Bakhai (Treasurer) - until 2027
• Neil Brown (Clerk) - until 2027
• Sebastian Crane (Chair) - until 2028
• Sammy Fox - until 2028
• Bekah Jones (Vice Clerk) - until 2028
• Juhani Lehtimäki - until 2028
• Gina Plat - until 2028
• Marc Prud’hommeaux (Vice Chair) - until 2027
• Hans-Christoph Steiner - ex officio