Open Stack

Lauren,

I've witnesses first hand how your contributions to openstack have meant so 
much to so many people in this community, all over the world.

Early on we laid out what seemed (to me) like ambitious goals, like 
building a community of dozens of people from 5 or 6 companies, to build 
some open source software components in hopes of ensuring that open source 
was a credible force in the future of automated cloud infrastructure.

I quickly realized that with your insatiable ambition and belief in our 
mission, unparalleled creative thinking, and compassion for the people we 
serve, our initial goals were actually conservative! Take it from me: no 
one sets the bar higher than Lauren Sell! I've never seen anything like it 
in my [checks calendar] pretty darn long career.

Here we are 9 years later, with 100,000 members in 187 countries, with an 
open source developer community that in 2018 alone was one of the 3 most 
active on the planet! Right up their with the Linux kernel and Chromium. Wow!

Had I known the force of nature we had on our side with Lauren, we'd never 
have aimed so low :)

I know, I know... No one person made this happen. That's the whole point of 
the power of our community, right? But I'm not going to pass up the 
opportunity to recognize Lauren for being, in my humble (yet fixed) opinion 
a unique and singular force, without which I firmly believe we'd never be 
where we are today. A world where open source is more ubiqiutous than ever, 
with greater participation across users, developers, and massive multi 
billion dollar ecosystems.

In summary: no one raises the bar like Lauren Sell. She a leader in open 
source, a leader in tech, and a leader in whatever she puts her mind to.

She also happens to be a friend, and an all around bad ass, who I know I 
can always rely on. I know many of you know exactly what I'm talking about.

We fully expect to see you in Denver, and to cheer you on in your next 
journey, wherever that takes you!

Mark


On March 22, 2019 3:20:36 PM Lauren Sell <lauren at openstack.org> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I have bittersweet news. After 9 years working with the OpenStack 
> community, it’s time for the next chapter in my career. I’ll be wrapping up 
> my work at the Foundation over the coming weeks, but the good news is that 
> we’ve built a strong bench at the Foundation to continue executing on our 
> mission!
>
> This community means so much to me, and I’ve enjoyed this job and working 
> with all of you more than I can express. We spend a significant amount of 
> our lives working, which is why I feel so fortunate to love my work and the 
> people I work with. And from Snowden to Snowpenstack, it definitely hasn’t 
> been boring!
>
> I can’t emphasize enough how this is a true community. It’s not just open 
> source code. It’s not just a bunch of logos on a slide. It’s a group of 
> people who have built an incredible platform and culture of collaboration. 
> We’ve had some really amazing wins and some tough days, but we’ve been in 
> it together and have made such a huge impact on the industry. Most of all, 
> I’m proud that we’ve always gone high and stuck to our values, even when 
> others try to tear us down.
>
> I’m FULLY invested in and passionate about this community and will do 
> everything in my power to continue contributing and supporting everyone. In 
> fact, I will be at the Denver Summit to cheer everyone on and help where I 
> can, so please say hi and selfishly come celebrate my birthday with me on 
> Tuesday the 30th :)
>
> Going forward, if you need anything from the Foundation marketing team, 
> please reach out to marketing at openstack.org to reach Wes Wilson, Allison 
> Price and others. And of course Jonathan and Mark are always available to 
> help with anything.
>
> Thank you again for all of your work, your support, your friendship. If we 
> don’t catch up in Denver, I’m always a phone call or DM or email away. 
> Please don’t hesitate to reach out!
>
> All the best,
> Lauren
>
> Personal contact info:
> email: laurenenis at gmail.com
> cell: 713-398-8700
> Twitter: @laurensell
> Wechat: laurenlynsell
>
>
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