Start Of The First Governance Board Elections

I'm very proud to announce the first elections for the new AsyncAPI Governance Board (GB). They start today and finish in July.

In a few weeks, I can step down as Executive Director without worrying about the AsyncAPI Initiative and the community that supports it.

Who Can Vote

Voting is open to all members of the Technical Steering Committee (TSC).

We currently have 43 members.

How to Vote

GB voting is not the typical automated voting process we use for simple "yes" or "no" decisions with emojis in GitHub issues and pull requests. These elections are a manual process.

As described in the Governance document, we use a "first-past-the-post" voting system.

You should:

• Send your vote to info@asyncapi.io no later than two weeks after the elections begin.
• Your vote should be a list of the candidates' names you wish to appoint as GB members.
• Since we are initially selecting three GB members, you should send three names of candidates.

Here's an example of a ballot (it should be a bulleted list, and the order does not matter):

1I vote for:
2- Candidate A
3- Candidate B
4- Candidate D

The candidates with the most votes win.

Candidates

Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by their first name.

Francisco Méndez Vilas

Entitled to candidacy as a maintainer

• Location / Time Zone: Badajoz, Spain (GMT +2)
• GitHub Profile: http://github.com/fmvilas
• LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fmvilas
• Personal Introduction: I'm the creator of the AsyncAPI Initiative, donated it to Linux Foundation, and served as its first Executive Director. Since then, my professional life has been pretty much AsyncAPI. AsyncAPI Impact: Joined in day zero and have stayed since then.
• Motivation Statement: After a year-long break, getting a good rest from responsibilities, I feel entitled to help the initiative go through its next growth chapter.
• Contact Information:
  1Email: fmvilas@gmail.com
  2Slack: Fran Méndez (id: U34F2JRRS)

Hugo Guerrero Olivares

Entitled to candidacy as an ambassador

• Location / Time Zone: Greater Boston Area, Massachusetts, US (GMT -4)
• GitHub Profile: https://github.com/hguerrero/
• LinkedIn Profiles: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugoguerrero/
• Personal Introduction: I’m Hugo I am a developer advocate with over 20 years of hands-on experience in software development. I've worked across the stack as a developer, consultant, architect, and software factory manager. I try to be a strong advocate for event-driven systems and actively contribute to open source communities.
• Contact Information for questions:
  1Company Email: hugo@konghq.com
  2Personal: hguerreroo@yahoo.com
  3Mobile: +1 (978) 489-4887

Naresh Jain

Entitled to candidacy as an ambassador

• Location / Time Zone - Mumbai, India (GMT +5.5)
• GitHub Profile: https://github.com/nashjain
• LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nareshjain/
• Personal Introduction: Naresh is an internationally recognised Technology & Product Development Expert. Over the last 25 years, he has played a key role in streamlining the product engineering culture at many unicorns and fortune 500 companies. Naresh is the Founder, CEO of several companies - Xnsio, ConfEngine, Specmatic, Industrial Logic and Edventure Labs. In 2004, Naresh started the Agile movement in India. More details: https://nareshjain.com
• AsyncAPI Impact: I've played a key role in AsyncAPI adoption at TM Forum. I'm in the process of helping several companies adopt AsyncAPI and also trying to contribute to the initiative.
• Motivation Statement: As a key contributor to AsyncAPI adoption at TM Forum and an active advisor to companies/organisations implementing AsyncAPI, I’ve seen firsthand the potential of this initiative to reshape event-driven architectures. With the transition to a Governance Board, AsyncAPI needs strong, community-driven leadership to expand its impact. I bring deep technical expertise, experience in standardisation efforts, and a track record of building ecosystems around open-source tools. My goal is to help steer AsyncAPI’s strategic direction, ensure community voices are heard, and drive broader adoption across industries. I’m committed to helping AsyncAPI grow into a robust, widely adopted standard—empowering teams to build more resilient, interoperable event-driven systems.
• Contact Information for questions:
  1Email: nashjain@gmail.com
  2Mobile: +91 99309 33302

Thulisile Sibanda

Entitled to candidacy as a maintainer

• Location / Time Zone: South Africa, Africa (GMT +2)
• GitHub Profile: https://github.com/thulieblack
• LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/v-thulisile-sibanda/
• Personal Introduction: I am an Open Source Community Builder with a strong track record in organizing impactful events, nurturing contributor growth, and empowering global ambassador networks. With five years of experience and a diverse skill set, I understand what drives sustainable communities and long-term collaboration. My leadership is rooted in empathy, consistency, and inclusiveness, core values that I integrate into every initiative I undertake.
• AsyncAPI Impact: I joined the AsyncAPI community as a documentation contributor; since then, I have grown the contributor engagement and expanded our global presence through events, and led the ambassador program. I have coordinated multiple community calls and events that have increased participation and awareness of AsyncAPI among diverse audiences. Additionally, I support other community builders in leading initiatives such as the AsyncAPI Bounty Program and Maintainership. I am dedicated to getting more contributors and advocating for Maintainership to increase the number of maintainers in our community.
• Motivation Statement: I am running for the governance board to ensure that the AsyncAPI community continues to grow sustainably, inclusively, and transparently. Governance is not just about making decisions; it is about creating opportunities for people to take ownership of the project. I believe my background and experiences equip me to advocate for long-term strategies that benefit our community members, maintainers, contributors, and newcomers alike. I am particularly committed to exploring sustainable and scalable initiatives that will keep AsyncAPI thriving for years to come.
• Contact Information for questions:
  https://thulieblack.github.io

Vote Counting and Timeline

The first elections will be managed by the Executive Director (ED).

• Emails containing votes will be labeled gbvotes2025, so that the new GB members can easily access and verify the vote counts later.
• TSC members who did not vote will be mentioned in the voting announcement. This will make it easy to verify later that no votes were removed by the ED.
• Only the winners and their votes will be announced publicly.
• Candidates who were not elected will receive information about their individual vote count.
• Every TSC member who votes will receive an email confirming that their vote was received.
• The deadline to send your vote is July 6th at 2 PM UTC.