2025 Governing Board Election
The OpenJDK Governing Board oversees the structure and operation of the OpenJDK Community. It has two At-Large Members who serve for a term of one calendar year, nominally starting on the first day of April each year.
Nominations for the 2025 term were due by 23:00 UTC on Monday, 10 March 2025.
During this time any OpenJDK Member could nominate an individual who did not currently hold an appointed Governing Board seat to fill one of the At-Large seats. That individual need not already be an OpenJDK Member. An OpenJDK Member could make more than one such nomination.
Voting starts on Tuesday, 11 March 2025 and runs for two weeks. All OpenJDK Members as of the start of the voting period will be eligible to vote. Detailed information on voting logistics will be available shortly.
Candidates
Three individuals were nominated, and each accepted his nomination. The candidate's own statement is as follows:
- Andrew Haley, Red Hat
OpenJDK is one of the most significant Free and Open Source projects that has ever existed. Over the years I've been a member of the project, the community has grown tremendously and we have had to grow our processes to keep up. I previously noted the need to "encourage as many external contributors as we can, without breaking anything." Overall I think we get that balance more-or-less right, but we have to keep adjusting it.
The goal of the Governing Board bylaws "is to foster the long-term health and growth of the Community by enabling and encouraging its members to act in an open, transparent, and meritocratic manner." We have become a much more diverse community, with members from all over the world. This brings some challenges, in particular for contributors who aren't familiar with the way we work, or whose native language is not English. Although it's great to meet at conferences such as the JVM Language Summit, for the health of the Community we mustn't disadvantage people who can't make it.
I've been an elected member of the OpenJDK Governing Board for as long as there has been one. This year, though, is different. As some of you already know, the Java team at Red Hat, which includes me, is moving over to IBM. Oracle has two Governing Board seats: the OpenJDK Lead and the Chair. IBM has the Vice Chair. Of the two At-Large seats, one is currently occupied by me, and one by Phil Race of Oracle. If Phil and I were to be re-elected this year, the Governing Board would all be Oracle and IBM employees. Some of you may understandably find that unsatisfactory. I can only say in response that I have never represented my employer on the Governing Board. What's more, my employer has never asked me to do so. If I am elected, I will continue to represent you, the contributors, after I move to IBM.
As I've said before:
My goals remain what they have always been: for OpenJDK to be a truly open free software project, to remove barriers caused by process and administrative overheads, and for everyone, especially newcomers, to be able easily to contribute in a friendly and supportive atmosphere.
I have always done my best to represent all of you, the OpenJDK members, and with your support I'll continue to do that.
- Phil Race, Oracle
I am excited to stand for re-election as an at-large member of the OpenJDK Governing Board. Having now been in that position for almost two years, I have developed more understanding of the role, and believe I can continue to stand for the interests of all OpenJDK developers.
As priorities, I would under-score the same themes that I listed last year, namely stewardship of OpenJDK, co-operation between all involved for the continued success of Java, professionalism in the community, and ensuring the infrastructure meets the needs of the developers.
As a developer, with a long history of working on OpenJDK Projects, I have an appreciation of how the community works, and have at one time or another interacted with a significant fraction of that community. Any OpenJDK community member is free to contact me directly if they have an appropriate issue they would like the board to take up, or just to ask me for my opinion on a matter.
Another thing I will advocate for is that the long term success of Java is in part dependent on OpenJDK being a welcoming place for new developers, whether they contribute as individuals or on behalf of an organization, so that we can re-seed the community to keep it vibrant and successful in continuing to deliver the technology that keeps Java thriving.
A few words about myself : I have worked on Java client technologies for many years, pre-dating OpenJDK from the Sun Microsystems days through Oracle. I lead the client-libs Group and several associated Projects. I also contribute to OpenJFX. And I think that the at-large members should be developers involved in the community day-to-day so they really understand what is working and not working through direct day-to-day experience.
So thank you for reading this and thank you in advance for your votes.
- Roman Kennke, Amazon
I am pleased to stand for election for one of the seats on the OpenJDK Governing Board. This is the first time that I have this opportunity, and I've been thinking about what it means to me, and how I can make it mean something to you.
I've been working on Java and JVMs for more than 20 years, and on OpenJDK since the project exists. It's been an immense source of inspiration to me over all those years. Where does this inspiration come from? It is the opportunity to work with an amazing community of some of the brightest minds on this planet, working together on a project that has an incredible impact across the software industry (and far far beyond). And I would like OpenJDK to stay that way - an inspiring project that brings smart people together, a healthy community with efficient processes that facilitate working together on interesting problems, even across the boundaries of various contributing companies and individuals.
Now, where do I see the role of the Governing Board? Ideally - and I think this is actually the case most of the time - the project just runs, chugging along nicely and the GB has nothing to do. If that is so, then great! However, when there is something that doesn't run too well, the GB - me, if you vote me into the position - should be there to make things work again, greasing the wheels.
This is where I see my role in the GB: to make sure OpenJDK stays the same inspiring project that it has been to me, to watch out for inefficiencies in the project and to bring the right people together to improve it. And so I hope that I can earn your trust on my first election to the GB.
