Dear members of the F-Droid community,

We received a number of submissions after opening nominations from the community. Thank you to everyone who made a nomination and everyone who volunteered for their interest in serving on the Board of Directors!

I am delighted to announce our new appointments to the F-Droid Board of Directors for 2025. Please give a warm welcome to Vishal Bakhai, Marc Prud’hommeaux and Neil Brown!

Vishal, who goes by the handle vdbhb59 on the F-Droid Forum, will be familiar to many of you through his extensive participation in the F-Droid community as a moderator:

“F-Droid is a logical place to understand and amicably connect to the FOSS/FLOSS community. Being an avid OSS & F-Droid user myself, I would love to be on board where we all aim towards a common goal, and bring freedom of choice to the community at large. I also aim to assist with my moderation roles while gaining knowledge and network of far-reaching stakeholders in return.” - Vishal Bakhai

Marc joins us with a wide range of experience, including as founder of the App Fair Project, as well as deep technical knowledge of software development for mobile devices:

“In these fraught times - both technologically and politically - projects like F-Droid serve as an essential touchstone of individual digital sovereignty. The ability to create and run software free of gatekeeper control has never been more in jeopardy than it is right now. As a software developer with decades of experience, and as someone who has been shipping mobile apps both independently and through the commercial app stores for 15 years, I am delighted at the opportunity to use my expertise to help guide and grow the F-Droid project in the coming months and years.” - Marc Prud’hommeaux

Neil is a true veteran of the FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) community, and brings legal expertise which will be essential for securing the ability of F-Droid to serve users in an increasingly complex regulatory environment:

“I’m an Internet and computer lawyer, with a long history of giving pragmatic, grounded advice on thorny legal and policy issues, and an even longer history of using and supporting Free software. With the ever-growing number, scope, and reach of laws and regulations around the world applying to software and online services, I’m keen to support F-Droid in providing a world-class, easy-to-use, ethical alternative to proprietary software distribution systems.” - Neil Brown

We are bidding farewell to four individuals who have been instrumental in the governance of F-Droid as founding members of the Board of Directors: Michael Downey, Matthias Kirschner, Morgan Lemmer-Webber and Andrew Lewman. We would like to thank them for their service to the F-Droid community.

The F-Droid Board of Directors has a number of designated roles, which we have reassigned for this year. Peter will be Clerk, with Neil as Vice Clerk. Vishal will be Treasurer. John and I will continue as Vice Chair and Chair respectively.

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

• Vishal Bakhai (Treasurer) - until 2027
• Neil Brown (Vice Clerk) - until 2027
• Sebastian Crane (Chair) - until 2026
• Marc Prud’hommeaux - until 2027
• Peter Serwylo (Clerk) - until 2026
• Juliana Sims - until 2026
• Hans-Christoph Steiner - ex officio, until 2026
• John Sullivan (Vice Chair) - until 2026

Please note: I wrote this announcement in May 2025, but it was not published at that time; it was published retroactively in April 2026. I apologize for any confusion caused by the late publication!