This page lists publicly nominations, as they are made, for the election for the Board of Directors of W3C, Incorporated. Each person has been nominated by at least one W3C Member.
The W3C Membership elects a majority of the voting seats of the Board of Directors of W3C, Incorporated, to bring a diverse multi-stakeholder perspective from the W3C Membership. For this election, W3C Members will fill seven seats.
Timeline:
The election results are to be announced publicly before 26 September 2024.
Note: The deadline for votes is 03:59 UTC 2024-09-17 (23:59, Boston time on 2022-09-16.)
The following nominations have been made (listed in random order):
The following nomination statements have been made (listed in random order):
Andreas Efthymiou is nominated by Visa
I am a part of the global Authentication, Identity, and Tap product leadership team at Visa, Inc., leading the teams responsible for Visa Payment Passkey (including WebAuthn and Secure Payment Confirmation), Biometric Checkout Experiences, and Visa Intelligent Data Exchange. I joined Visa 8 years ago after graduating from UCLA with a degree in Applied Mathematics, and a minor in Entrepreneurship (including Accounting courses). In my time at Visa, I have worked on many authentication and digital identity initiatives, including EMV 3-D Secure (“Visa Secure”), the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in Europe, Open Banking, Real-Time Money Movement (“Visa Direct”), and my current responsibilities. Many of these products I have worked on are API- and web-focused. Throughout my time at Visa, I have focused on all aspects of the product lifecycle, including new product development, feature writing, go-to-market & commercialization, product governance (including privacy and security), legal, risk, and product operations.
It is an honor to be considered for a W3C Board of Directors seat, and I believe that I have much to offer the organization given my background at Visa, experience in the payments industry, and from a previous board of directors appointment. In my time at Visa, I have built a strong and vast network of payment technology experts, which will allow me to bring forth perspectives from Visa and the payments industry at large. The W3C’s mission of “bringing together international stakeholders to develop open standards for an interoperable web to meet requirements for accessibility, internationalization, privacy, and security – so that humanity can experience all that the web has to offer,” closely aligns with Visa’s mission “to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network – enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive.” I believe that Visa would bring a fresh perspective to the Board, with our trusted brand recognition and broad expertise as a leader in the financial services sector.
I have previous experience serving on a board of directors with a local non-profit. As such, I have experience with managing fundraising, fiduciary accountability, budgets and financial reports, bylaw creation, review, and approval, and many aspects of board responsibilities.
I am fluent in English and Greek and have intermediate proficiency with Spanish. I have spent my life split between the United States and Cyprus, and work with people from all around the world in my global product role at Visa. I travel frequently from the US to Europe to see family, and around the country and globe for my role at Visa; my travel schedule is very conducive to supporting W3C board meetings and conferences wherever they may be.
My nomination is reflective of Visa’s expanding commitment to W3C, with our organization (and myself, through the team I manage) currently supporting the following groups:
Tobie Langel is nominated by Protocol Labs
I am delighted to nominate Tobie Langel as a candidate for the Board of Directors.
If you're involved in W3C work, you're using something that Tobie created, maintained, or improved. You might not know it, but he has already made your life simpler more than once. Tobie has a deep understanding of how standards are made and of how the Consortium operates, and has used that to help people across all areas that we operate on. Together with his in-depth understanding of the web, of the web's values, and of the developer community, this gives him a clear vision of what W3C needs to do in order to succeed.
Tobie also has stellar governance experience. He has set up or contributed to the governance of many organisations, such as Web Platform Tests. Through his work in the Open Regulatory Compliance WG, he is working directly on how regulation and standards can function together, a topic on which W3C sorely needs strategic guidance.
Finally, Tobie has solid real-world experience with how a Board of Directors operates and more than anything else we need that. The Board is very different from a working group. For the Board, we need people who can see the big picture, provide oversight without micromanaging, and who can think strategically. As chair of the Board’s Audit Committee, I have seen first hand how Tobie operates in such an environment. This gives me absolute confidence that we need to have Tobie on the Board of Directors.
And that is why I invite you to elect Tobie to the Board.
Hi, my name is Tobie Langel.
I run a boutique consulting firm through which I advise organizations on how to best navigate open tech ecosystems such as open source and web standards.
I started my career in tech as web developer in the early days of the 2nd Browser War. I quickly became involved in open source, helping web developers worldwide manage browser interoperability issues by documenting, contributing to, and ultimately co-maintaining one of the very first JavaScript frameworks.
I have been involved with web standards and W3C ever since.
I’ve been the Advisory Committee Representative of one of the largest tech companies in the world (Facebook) and of one of the smallest (my own consultancy). I have created and co-chaired one of W3C first and largest community groups (Coremob). I have edited multiple specifications (Web IDL, Generic Sensor API) and contributed to many others at W3C and in other standard bodies. I leveraged my open source background to help accelerate and open up the spec editing process by moving it to GitHub, producing documentation to help editors get started and open source tools that you most probably still rely on today if you’re contributing to a spec.
As a W3C Fellow, I led the effort that built the foundations of Web Platform Tests, working in close collaboration with W3C staff and the community to create the infrastructure, governance, process, and culture for the membership to embrace this effort and turn it into the incredibly successful initiative it is today.
More recently, I helped source and select W3C's auditor as part of my role on the Board Audit Committee.
I've straddled the open source and web standards communities my whole career, and that also reflects in my volunteering outside of W3C: I sit on the Advisory Committee of OASIS Open and Ushahidi's Advisory Board; I helped co-found the Organization for Ethical Source; I am a Board Director of the OpenJS Foundation, Vice Chair of its Cross Project Council, and represent the foundation at the Open Policy Alliance, the Open Source Initiative, and W3C (as alternate Advisory Committee Representative).
I've been a long time advocate of bringing more ethical considerations into technology, and leveraging standards as way to bridge the gap between tech and policy (and have spoken on multiple occasions about these topics in various industry events). As part of my consultancy, I'm driving the Eclipse Foundation's new Open Regulatory Compliance Working Group, collaborating closely with the European Commission to help secure the software supply chain through standardization.
I have a track record of collaborating effectively with W3C staff and with the broader community, rolling my sleeves up, and not shying away from unglamorous infrastructure work that underpins the community. I would be honored to serve on W3C's Board. Thank you for considering me for this role.
Koichi Moriyama is nominated by Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. (NTT)
NTT (Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp.) is delighted to nominate Mr. Koichi Moriyama at NTT DOCOMO, INC. (an affiliate of NTT) for the election of a Board of Directors at W3C, Inc. (2024).
Mr. Koichi Moriyama is the Chief Security Architect (a Corporate Evangelist) and head of Security Innovations Management in the Corporate Strategy and Planning Department at NTT DOCOMO, INC.
He has been serving on the first term as one of the Boards of Directors at W3C, Inc. and contributing as Chair of the Governance Committee (he has served as a Co-Chair 2022.10-2024.1 and solo Chair since then) as well as a member of the Financial Committee.
His strong leadership has driven various large-scale innovative projects within the NTT group. Notable examples include the deployment of passkeys based on W3C standards aligning with the FIDO Alliance and unifying the domain name from hundreds to 'docomo.ne.jp' for security and privacy. His contributions extend beyond the group internally to the global tech industry, academia (as a Ph.D. candidate), and Japanese society (as an invited consultant for governmental organizations, such as the Digital Agency).
He has served on the Boards of Directors of both non-profit and for-profit organizations. (FIDO Alliance (6 years+ current) and Japan Smartphone Security Association (2 years) for non-profit and FeliCa Networks, Inc. (3 years+ current) for-profit, including organizations with a budget of at least US$ 5,000,000. Also, his experience covers financial and legal acumen and risk management at large organizations. (no fundraising experience among the list of skills and expectations of committed Board members).
His unique profile, developed through global communication and collaboration, makes him an exceptional candidate. His extensive experience at companies (Sony, Sony Ericsson, and NTT DOCOMO) in multiple countries and work at worldwide offices in Belgium, Sweden, the U.S., and Japan, including lives / extended stays in the Bay Area, Atlanta, and Brussels, sets him apart. He received a Bachelor's degree in Electronics in 1992 and a Master's in Computer Science in 1994 from Keio University.
From various perspectives, including geographic diversity, Mr. Koichi Moriyama will be able to contribute to successful growth with continuity from the initial term to the second term of the Board of Directors at W3C, Inc.
If elected for the next term, I would happily continue serving on the W3C, Inc. Board of Directors and contributing to the W3C community.
The initial term was unusual; many needed patience, and it's now becoming the norm. We have done the transition together, but there are still some remaining. My experience during the initial term, including as Chair of the Governance Committee, will help the new Board and me maintain successful growth and continuity.
I have been dedicating extensive hours to the Board and committees, especially in the early transition days and recent half a year, for more than is good enough to achieve productive and collaborative outcomes as a team of the Board. e.g., as Chair of the Governance Committee since January 2024.
My years of experience as a member on Board of Directors for non-profit and for-profit organizations will continue to help me and the Board. I am committed to working hard for the W3C community.
Chris Needham is nominated by British Broadcasting Corporation and TetraLogical Services Ltd
I have known Chris for several years, throughout his time on the Advisory Committee, as co-Chair of the Media Working Group, and through is work at the BBC. Chris is that rarest of people - someone who is quietly observant, keenly analytical, and always considerate. Whenever he offers an opinion, on the W3C Vision or W3C Bylaws for example, Chris' comments are relevant and insightful, and demonstrate his ability to think about W3C at a corporate and strategic level.
It is also worth mentioning that, like W3C, the BBC is a mission-led organization. Its Royal Charter defines its governance and regulatory arrangements, and its mission to educate and inform through broadcast media including the Web - where it has one of the largest presences of any organization in the world. As such, Chris will bring a unique perspective to the Board of Directors that I believe will help W3C as it looks ahead to the next 30 years.
I have been a contributor at W3C since 2014, and Advisory Committee representative for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) since 2017.
I currently chair both the Media Working Group and the Media & Entertainment Interest Group. In these roles I've built relationships with other standards bodies in the media industry to help adoption of web technologies and bring input into W3C. I also participate in a number of other W3C groups across a range of topics, including privacy, accessibility, graphics, and networking. I have given input to the W3C Vision document, the TAG's Privacy Principles, and the Team's AI and the Web report.
For the last seven years, since becoming an AC rep, I have taken a strong interest in the overall activities of W3C and how it operates as a consortium, e.g., through AC reviews of charters and specifications, at AC meetings and the AB-led member meetings, and in the Process Community Group. This experience gives me a good understanding of W3C's governance and the respective roles of the Team, AC, AB, TAG, and the Board.
In addition to W3C contribution, my position at the BBC involves advising on emerging technologies and standards, looking at the opportunities and impacts in order to influence the BBC's strategy and policy. This gives me visibility of the wider context that W3C operates in, e.g., with regulators and standards bodies like the IETF and ITU. The BBC is a public service media organisation, where impartiality, trust, and a focus on the end user are of primary importance, values which are reflected in my participation at W3C.
I have chosen to stand for election because as a member of the Board of Directors, I can bring a perspective that's based on public service values, which will benefit W3C given its new status as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and combined with my technical and organisational insight.
I have the BBC's support to take on this additional responsibility, and to continue to participate in my other W3C roles.
Theresa (Tess) O'Connor is nominated by Igalia
On behalf of Igalia, it is with great enthusiasm that I nominate Theresa O’Connor (Tess) for the W3C Board of Directors. Tess’s extensive experience within W3C (in so many roles) and her contributions to other organizations have not only demonstrated her expertise but also her unwavering commitment to the Web and a desire to help W3C to be a good steward in every way. Her track record gives us the utmost confidence that she will be an invaluable asset in getting the work done to ensure the W3C’s financial and organizational strength and empowerment for the future.
Hi, I’m Tess, manager of the Web Standards team at Apple. My pronouns are she/her.
W3C is at the tail end of a transformative period in its history. Transitioning to a legal entity, becoming a Director-free organization, and onboarding a new CEO all happened at roughly the same time, and the outgoing Board of Directors deserves a ton of credit for successfully navigating a path through what was at times a very difficult journey. Because of their success—and the hard work of everyone else involved in these efforts—the incoming Board will be able to focus on maintaining the steady state operation of the organization and supporting W3C’s strategic path into the future.
We’re now a Member-led organization. It’s the responsibility of the incoming Board to ensure that we mean it when we say that. Those in leadership must be attentive to the membership. If elected, I will work with the rest of the Board, the CEO and Team, the other elected bodies, and the Advisory Committee to ensure the organization’s strategic direction is rooted in the vision and priorities of the Members and is in W3C’s best interest.
I have a proven track record of helping standards participants find consensus despite the many obstacles they may encounter—from strong personalities to disparate, conflicting interests. Over the last twenty years I’ve worked on CSS, HTML, and other foundational Web technologies here at W3C and at the WHATWG. I’ve edited specs and chaired groups. I’ve held an elected seat on the TAG since 2019. While on the TAG I’ve participated in hundreds of design reviews, contributed a number of Web Platform Design Principles, edited the Security & Privacy Questionnaire, and served on every W3C Council since we adopted this new approach to handling Formal Objections, chairing one of them. If elected, I have the experience to find consensus among fellow Board members and will bring my deep knowledge of W3C’s operations, participants, and work to inform Board decisions.
My commitment to ensuring the long-term viability and flourishing of the Web began before I got involved in standards work, right after graduating from college, when I was one of the first engineers to work on Wikipedia. Over the course of my career, I’ve served on the staff of organizations big and small, in industry and academia. I’ve worked at startups as well as long-established institutions. I’ve been a software engineer, a systems administrator, an engineering manager, and a standards wonk. (For a more complete survey of my work experience, see my résumé.)
W3C has been leading the Web to its full potential for thirty years. I believe the best years for it and for the Web are yet to come. To get there, it’s of course essential that the people guiding W3C be as diverse as the billions worldwide who depend on the Web in their daily lives. I strive to approach my work here with an intersectional lens, and I hope the AC continues to prioritize seating elected bodies of diverse backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences.
Thank you for your consideration. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
This statement is available on the Web. Translations of this statement will be made available in the coming days.
Avneesh Singh is nominated by VitalSource Technologies and Fondazione LIA
The statements below are available on the DAISY Consortium's website in 日本人 (Japanese), 中文 (Chinese), Español (Spanish), Français (French)
VitalSource technologies is pleased to nominate Avneesh Singh to the board of directors, and encourages everyone to support him.
For more than 10 years I have observed, and worked alongside Avneesh and have first-hand experience to his exceptional leadership, organizational, and communication skills (all highly desired in a board member!), as well as the depth of this technical prowess in understanding the interrelationship between many of the W3C specifications. He is a highly competent mission-driven leader with extensive experience in managing a global non-profit consortium serving people with disabilities. He has earned a high reputation for developing accessibility standards and is well known for his strategic insights and bringing the worldwide perspective. His great ability to understand diverse perspectives and work collaboratively across cultures to solve complex situations is a huge asset.
I am confident that Avneesh will be instrumental in the work of a board of directors in transforming W3C into a mission-oriented and community driven organization, increasing focus on social values and worldwide representation, and reinforcing W3C's leadership in the changing global environment.
I have been working with Avneesh for many years in the field of accessibility.
He is a very serious and reliable person, capable of managing with leadership teams of people with different skills and experience.
He is also very capable of handling complex situations and finding solutions thanks to his ability to listen and take into account the context and different needs.
I am convinced that he could be a very good candidate for a role in the Board of Directors.
Avneesh Singh, a strategic leader leading a life of purpose.
I am Chief Operating Officer at the DAISY Consortium, the global organization which pioneered worldwide standards for accessible digital books and a longtime W3C member, highly active in W3C accessibility standards and publishing groups.
Thank you for electing me to the Advisory Board over the last five years. It has been a journey full of strategic analysis, development, and learning. When I joined the Advisory Board, my experience in managing a non-profit consortium helped me discover the crucial strategic issues which are likely to disrupt us in the future. Therefore, I initiated the work on organizational strategy (purpose, vision, values, principles, and strategic goals) with three-way collaboration among the AB, the W3C team, and the greater W3C community. I have worked towards ensuring that the W3C vision includes the views of the worldwide community and is expressed in a way which is easily understood by all.
I also contributed to bringing diversity, inclusion, global participation and balancing the business interests to the legal entity’s Board model.
Now I want to bring my talents to the W3C Board of Directors, and I need the support of the Advisory Committee!
I am a computer engineer with extensive experience in developing international standards and software implementations. I earned an Executive MBA in Strategy and Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management and further expanded analytical and strategic skills at Harvard University, studying approaches for mobilizing non-profit Boards, optimizing governance, and strategizing fund raising for non-profits. At W3C I chair accessibility task forces in the EPUB 3 WG, the Publishing CG, and participate in WAI developments.
I have gained deep experience in non-profit governance and international strategy development while working with the Board of the DAISY Consortium, a community-based non-profit with members and partners in more than 100 countries. My eighteen years’ experience of working with multicultural and multilingual participants has sensitized me to the needs of the non-English speaking communities.
I am based in Delhi, India, in the emerging Asian economy which will add more than 1 billion internet users in the next decade. My participation in the Bureau of Indian Standards and grassroots initiatives in developing countries such as providing strategic guidance to the board of DAISY Forum of India has helped me to understand the needs of underserved communities and the potential that the world wide web holds for transforming lives.
Recently W3C became an independent legal entity. We need to continue our dedicated work on the transition and achieve stability, while evolving the organization to reinforce its worldwide leadership position. The first Board of Directors did commendable hands-on work in this transition. I believe that now the board needs to switch to a strategic and oversight role without interfering in the day-to-day operations. But the board needs to maintain W3C’s specific uniqueness and reinforce the strong connection with the W3C community. The board also needs to ensure various parts of W3C work together and that fair and trustworthy decision-making systems are established across W3C.
Based on the insights that I gained on the Advisory Board and the extensive governance experience I gained outside W3C; I will be instrumental to:
I have relevant experience, and I have a listening and reflective personality. This offers the ideal balance of the required skills, with the ability to comprehend and synthesize diverse views.
We are at a crucial crossroad in W3C’s journey. Well-considered strategic decisions will transform this crucial point into a historical, positive inflection point for W3C. I am looking forward to representing you at the W3C Board of Directors.
Please do not hesitate to contact me.
Florian Rivoal is nominated by Kadokawa Corporation
In January 2023, W3C was reborn as a new member-led independent legal entity. As a member of the Advisory Board, I advocated for this transition and played a key role in designing the new entity and its governance. This was an important step: the earlier director-led hosted structure, while initially effective, had become increasingly constraining, hindering effective governance and decision making. The initial challenges of this transition are now largely behind us. However, with our new independence comes heightened responsibility in governance. While W3C has a strong track record on standards development, it is still learning how to run itself as an organization.
With in-depth familiarity with W3C and experience in nonprofit management, I aim to help the next board ensure W3C is fully set up with the legal and organizational structures needed to fulfill its mission. I am not seeking radical reforms that would transform the nature of W3C, but rather incremental improvements to ensure it meets expectations for efficiency, transparency, representativity, accountability, and good governance.
My main priorities are:
I have been actively involved in W3C for over 10 years, taking on many roles such as: WG participant and editor of Recommendations, Advisory Committee representative, Community Group chair, W3C Process Editor, Member of the AB, Chair of the W3C Council, or AB liaison to the Board.
I have served for 8 years on the board of the APEK, an international educational non-profit with a headcount similar to W3C, successively as secretary, treasurer, and president. This experience has equipped me with valuable skills which I am eager to bring to W3C in areas such as governance, financial management, organizational oversight, grant and donor management, legal and regulatory affairs, labor relations, or risk management.
Born and raised in France, I now live in Japan, and am comfortable working in any of English, French, and Japanese. I have also lived and worked in Norway and China.
For more information about my background and skills, see also my answers to the self-assessment questionnaire prepared by the 2022–2024 W3C Board of Directors for candidates to this election.
I am an independent W3C participant; however my expenses for this role will be covered by Kadokawa, Kodansha, Media Do, Shogakukan, and Shueisha, (5 major actors of the Japanese publishing industry).
Eric Siow is nominated by MEDIA DO Co., Ltd.
It is my honor to nominate Eric Siow for a second term on the W3C Board of Directors. For the past two years, he has contributed significantly on the board with his business executive acumen, and financial expertise as a CPA and a former CFO.
For those of us who have collaborated with him, and know him well, Eric is the consummate professional. In addition to being thoughtful and astute, he is trustworthy and forthright in addressing issues without political spins. We can rely on him to be transparent, and to perform his fiduciary duties with impeccable integrity for W3C, Inc.
Eric cares deeply about W3C, its members, and the health of the web ecosystem. I trust him to watch out for the interest of our global community. I am pleased to nominate Eric for another term on the W3C Board of Directors.
It is a privilege to be nominated by Daihei Shiohama for a second term to serve on the W3C Board of Directors. I bring a unique combination of skills and experiences in accounting, finance, and management to the board. If my term is renewed, I will continue to advocate for best business practices on the board for W3C, Inc. My profile can be viewed on LinkedIn.
Over the last two years, the Board has guided W3C, Inc. through the formative stage of operating as a new legal entity. We changed management personnel, established the governance framework, improved the integrity of our accounting information, and stabilized the organization financially. While we have made great strides, the process is by no means complete. Accounting and finance are still works in progress. As we enter an uncertain economic environment, the members are faced with increasing budgetary pressures. W3C, Inc. needs to explore new funding sources and fee structures to ease the cost of membership for the community. I also anticipate further restructuring may be needed to evolve the organization between its standards development work and its charitable mission. Careful and rigorous evaluations of viable options will be required.
During my first term on the board, I co-led the Finance Committee and pushed for greater integrity and transparency of our financial information. Key performance indicators (KPIs) were introduced to track and monitor our performance. It is imperative that W3C financials are reliable, and understandable for all stakeholders. I am committed to be a voice on the board for accurate reports that reflect actual business conditions and risks. To protect the organization, I favor prudent accounting and fiscal management, over concerns for optics management. We must guard against the temptation of expediency, and the myopia of first order problem solving without considering the unintended consequences.
I served on the Audit Committee where I recruited members from the community to evaluate and select our independent auditor. As we undergo our first financial audit, it is important that I disabuse the community of the notion that audited financial reports are unquestionable indicators of the financial conditions of an entity. Audits are primarily backward looking. While they provide assurance by an independent third-party that the reports from the previous years have materially complied with generally accepted accounting principles, they have limited efficacies in detecting current errors and future risks. High-profile audited entities have imploded due to undetected errors and overlooked aggressive accounting. The Board must remain vigilant in its oversight. I will not hesitate to question and challenge the management and professional service providers, if necessary.
In addition to finance and audit, I also served on the personnel committee where I was part of the CEO search committee. I am excited to work with Seth Dobbs, our new CEO, and have encouraged him to identify, and articulate a set of values to define the team culture. These core values would set the standards for the team and help in hiring future team members who would be the right fit for the organization and the community. The Board should set the tone for the new management and staff to operate as a single team to serve the global membership. As a director, I am committed to put the interest of the entire global membership ahead of any special interest group.
Intel Corporation supports investing my time and expertise to ensure the success of the W3C community. Thank you for your kind consideration and support.
Léonie Watson is nominated by Apple Inc.
I am delighted to nominate Léonie Watson for reelection to the Board of Directors. Her tireless efforts have been instrumental to the success of the current Board, of which she is vice-chair. She was co-chair of the Personnel committee which calmly and effectively did its job, particularly in leading the hiring of our new CEO. And in the run-up to the legal entity transition she was closely involved with the design of and planning for the legal entity in her position on the Advisory Board. Her résumé speaks for itself—prior to serving on our Board, she’s been on the boards of a number of other organizations and brings all that experience to the table.
I’ve known and worked with Léonie here at W3C for many years. We work for very different organizations and haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, but I know she has the best interest of W3C at heart and does all she can to achieve consensus. She is calm, methodical, collegial, well-informed, and possesses a strong sense of the organization’s mission. I trust her judgment and admire her grit and tenacity. It’s abundantly clear to me that she is willing to put in the hard work to secure the W3C’s future.
Please join me in reelecting Léonie Watson to the Board.
W3C was on the brink of change when I wrote my nomination statement for the Board of Directors election in 2022. W3C was about to metamorphosize into a Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) and it had yet to be granted 501(c)(3) status as a not-for-profit organization. At the time I ended my nomination statement with these words:
"I have served on the Boards of organizations like W3C for more than 15 years. I understand the challenges and I recognize the solutions, because I have done it time and time again. Most of all I’m prepared to do the hard work that will be needed of all Board members because I believe in the future of W3C."
There was a lot to do! Working with the Team, the Board oversaw the successful transfer of assets from MIT to W3C, our registration as a 501(c)(3) organization, the formation and renewal of agreements with our three enduring Partners (Keio/WCAP, Beihang, and ERCIM), the appointment of Ralph Swick as Interim CEO then the search for and appointment of Seth Dobbs as CEO, the creation of key policies and processes for the Board itself, and the achievement of financial stability including a healthy operating reserve.
One of the first things the Board did was to charter the Personnel, Finance, and Governance Committees. Dom Hazael-Massieux and I were appointed Chairs of the Personnel Committee, and with help from numerous Directors as well as the Committee's standing members David Singer, Eric Siow, and Gonzalo Camarillo, we managed the selection and appointment of the Interim CEO, the search and appointment of the new CEO, and the first of the annual executive compensation reviews required by the W3C Bylaws. Since then, we have established a framework and process for setting the CEO's strategic goals and conducting the CEO's annual performance reviews, and we have been working with Seth in an oversight capacity on matters relating to personnel.
This first term was not typical for a Board, but it was a necessary rite of passage. I am glad I had the opportunity (and the energy) to help W3C through those challenging times to its current place of stability, and I am now excited by the chance to help W3C build on that foundation as it continues its metamorphosis into a forward-thinking organization ready for the future.
If I am elected to the Board again (and if the new Board agrees), I would like to continue co-chairing the Personnel Committee. As I mentioned, the Personnel Committee has accomplished a great deal, but we have only had the opportunity to use our processes once, and in one or two cases we will only just manage that before the current term ends on 25 September. The Board has put in place documentation explaining how things work, but I would like to be there to offer newly elected Directors a sense of continuity and support, and to introduce them to the Committee's processes instead of pointing to the documentation and wishing them luck.
I would also welcome the chance to continue working with Seth, who has brought with him a tremendous sense of excitement for the future of W3C. Under Seth's leadership, I feel like W3C is once again on the brink, but this time it is on the brink of positive change.
Whatever the outcome of this election, I want to acknowledge my fellow Directors; Chunming Hu, Dominique Hazael-Massieux, Eric Siow, Gonzalo Camarillo, Hongru Zhu, Jun Murai, Koichi Moriyama, Mark Nottingham, Robin Berjon, and in particular David Singer (Chair). It has been an honour and a privilege to serve on W3C's first Board of Directors with you all. Thank you.
This statement is available on the web with translations into French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Hindi.
Chris Wilson is nominated by Google LLC
The Web’s success is fundamentally important to Google, so we are pleased to sponsor the nomination of Chris Wilson. His statement follows.
I care very deeply about evolving the Web to make it serve users better. I care deeply about W3C as an organization because W3C is the collaborative space where we can come together to make the Web work for everyone.
My affiliation with Google tends to be seen as a detriment, but I believe this is a short-sighted view. My tenures at Microsoft and Google have been motivated by recognizing the impact these companies have on the Web, and working from within to make their impact better for the world. “Big Tech” is not going anywhere, and I have a deep belief in guiding it to work for the common good rather than in mere corporate interest. My agility working with tech companies large and small is an asset to ensuring the Web puts people before profits and exists as a space of connection, as well as an important connection for funding and participation.
It is critical that we elect individuals like me who have the time, expertise, and drive to ensure the long-term viability of W3C rather than electing individuals who use their seat to represent their own narrow perspective or special interests. Despite calls for fresh faces and admonitions that serving on the Board is not a huge time commitment, I believe serving on this Board (and more importantly working on its Committees) is a serious time commitment and responsibility. A responsible board member is one who shows up ready to put aside special interests for the greater good of the Web through communication, collaboration, integrity, and action. A high functioning Board of Directors is critical to W3C’s structural success, because W3C Inc does not yet have the long-term financial structure or sustainable nonprofit status to ensure a stable future.
Financial integrity and oversight are second nature to me. I was raised by two accountants (personal and corporate) who taught me financial management at a young age, and I have run multiple side businesses as an adult. I know the value of staying calm and patient in the storm of numbers, while ensuring that important details are properly examined. I recognize that budgets tell a story of where an organization has been and where it has the capacity to go.
Finally, I have had decades of exposure to the intricacies of nonprofits through my spouse who has worked at both programmatic and strategic levels in a variety of nonprofit settings and roles. She has taught me the importance of having a seamless connection between mission, vision, values, budget, and constituents. W3C Inc does not have a coherent story that links all of these together, but it can, and it must for the Web to function properly. The Board owns an important piece of that story with its oversight of resources and structure.
I would be an asset to the W3C Board of Directors because I bring:
Thank you for considering my nomination.
Hongru (Judy) Zhu is nominated by Zhejiang University
We are delighted to nominate Ms. Hongru (Judy) Zhu for election to the W3C Board of Directors. Judy’s dedication and contribution as a Board of Directors member over the past two years have demonstrated that she is a good fit to serve the governance and strategy position of W3C.
As the founder of Standardization Department of Alibaba, Judy leads Alibaba Group’s standardization strategies on international regulatory standards, technical standards, etc., and activities in W3C, ISO, ITU-T, IEEE, IETF, CEN-CENELEC, 3GPP, etc. With 20+ years of professional standardization experiences, she has served multiple governance and technical leadership positions in various international and national standard organizations, such as W3C Board of Directors member, W3C Advisory Board member, ISO TC154 Chair, FIDO Board Member, CCSA TC11 Vice Chair, member of GS1 Marketplace Advisory Team, and 3GPP SA3 Vice Chair, etc. She founded a few noted standard bodies such as ICA (IoT Connectivity Alliance), SAEE (Security Alliance of E-Commerce Ecosystem) and IIFAA (International Internet Finance Authentication Alliance).
During her previous term on the W3C Board of Directors from 2022 to 2024, Judy brought her great passion and strong sense of responsibility to the strategic discussions, especially on W3C legal entity transition, W3C policy development, bylaw revision, CEO search, Partner relationship, strengthening W3C as the venue where various communities in the globe can collaborate to lead the Web to its full potential.
Before serving on the W3C Board of Directors, Judy had served as a W3C Advisory Board member from 2015 to 2022, during which she contributed to various work items including Next Big Things, Globalization and Diversity, Vision and Mission of W3C, and persistently promoted industry participation in W3C by recognizing the great value of Web standards.
As a persistent, passionate and public-spirited individual, Judy has consistently been a strong advocate for diversity, inclusion and industry requirements within W3C community. Ever since joining the W3C community, Judy has been providing creative thinking and constructive ideas to improve the global participation, especially the participation of the less-represented groups in W3C. She works closely with the Internet communities in Asian regions such as China, Japan, India, and South East Asia countries and sets up channels to facilitate their participation, so as to promote a better Web with diverse perspectives and insights.
Over the past two years, W3C has successfully transitioned to a single legal entity. Moving forward, there is a lot of work that needs to be done, including refining appropriate governance model, managing external relationship with regulations, expanding W3C’s global footprint, etc. All these are essential in the sense of sustaining W3C as a vibrant platform for global collaboration on Web standards.
Judy is passionate about continuing her service as a W3C Board of Directors member, and is ready to rigorously and diligently fulfill the required responsibilities. If re-elected, Judy could continue her efforts to collaborate with her Board colleagues, the Members and the Team to forge a Consortium with appropriate governance and stability, to make W3C more diverse, inclusive and globalized, to ensure that the Web becomes more open, accessible, and interoperable for everyone around the globe, and to make W3C continuously a better place for all stakeholders to work together for the next 30 years.
If you have any questions, please contact Judy via email.