Drupal Association Appoints Four New Board Members

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The Drupal Association welcomes four newly appointed members to the board. The Association’s Board of Directors confirmed the appointments of Nikhil Deshpande, Rahul Dewan, Nick Veenhof, and Mike Herchel. Mike Herchel was elected for the post of a community-at-large board member. The new board members posting became effective as of November 1st,2021.

Audra Martin Merrick, Drupal Association Board Chair welcomed each of the newly appointed board members highlighting their strong points that would benefit the association.

Merrick said,

“Governments around the world are utilizing Drupal to serve their communities in amazing ways, and having Nikhil’s voice as a government CTO and open source leader will be invaluable in expanding awareness on what is possible. Rahul brings a terrific entrepreneurial spirit to our board. I know his varied strategy and finance experience, as well as his organizing work in the vibrant Drupal India community, will help us continue to drive our strategy forward. Mike’s respected experience on initiatives like Olivero and as a camp organizer is an inspiring model of the different ways of how to be a Drupal Maker, driving innovation and community. We are so lucky to have Nick’s wide experience as a technologist, mentor, and Drupal proponent, as well as his passionate voice and organizer in the European community joining the board at this crucial time in Drupal’s evolution.”

Nick Veenhof, CTO at Dropsolid has been involved in the Drupal community for 14 years counting.  Adept at cloud infrastructure and DevOps philosophies, he coaches and mentors, leading by example. 

Veenhof said,

“After all those years trying to fill many roles in the Drupal Community, from contributor, to maintainer, from event organizer to speaking at those events and from being a small sponsor at Drupalcamps to Diamond sponsor at Drupalcon, I was offered this opportunity to give more meaning to my learnings so far. I always very strongly felt that the European Drupal community needed a more vocal voice and a strong need to get these companies united and to start talking to each other and learn from each other. I am hoping to make this a mission to make sure the European market & Drupal community feels connected to the Drupal Association. Openness here is key and that's basically what I've been passionate about ever since I know how much I loved computers and the web. Time will tell how this passion will translate in actionables in the board!"

Rahul Dewan, Global CEO (Founder & Managing Director) of Srijan is an entrepreneur, open-source and agile evangelist, blogger, green activist, and yoga/meditation practitioner.

Dewan said,

“Drupal has played a critical role in helping me get to where I am today as an entrepreneur and founder of a successful mid-sized global software services firm. While I have been at the forefront of building the Drupal community in India (specifically in Delhi and north India) since 2011, being part of the Drupal Association board I thought would give me another opportunity to give back to Drupal in many more meaningful ways.” 

Nikhil Deshpande, Chief Digital Officer for the state of Georgia,  heads the Office of Digital Services (DSGa) under the Georgia Technology Authority. Nikhil envisioned and led Georgia’s user-centric digital transition to an enterprise open-source web publishing system, GovHub. Under his direction, Georgia became the first state in the United States to use enterprise Drupal and meet the special needs of constituents with a range of disabilities affecting vision, hearing, motion, and cognition, making GovHub Section 508 and WCAG compliant. 

Deshpande said,

“As a Drupal Association board member, I hope to reach out to more state and local governments to educate about Drupal and its advantages. As a large organization partnering with Drupal agencies, I am excited to consult, assist, and help other organizations strategize from procurement to maintenance.”

The Drupal Association board members continuing their service in the upcoming term include: 

  • Dries Buytaert, Founding Director Add drupal org user links to these
  • Audra Martin-Merrick, Chair
  • Baddý Sonja Breidert, Treasurer
  • Ryan Szrama, Secretary
  • Grace Francisco
  • Owen Lansbury
  • Lo Li
  • Pedro Cambra Fernandez, At-Large
  • Tiffany Farriss

The Drupal Association board members who completed their terms in 2021 are Luma Dahlbacka, Michel van Velde, Leslie Glynn, and Vishal Mehrotra.

Drupal Association

The Drupal Association is the backbone of  Drupal: the open-source digital experience platform. It consists of a strong and dedicated community of 100,000-plus contributors enabling more than 1.3 million users on Drupal.org. Drupal Association is a non-profit organization focused on accelerating Drupal and planning out the roadmap for its growth and development. It supports the Drupal Project vision to create a safe, secure, and open web for everyone.

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