Program Committee

At FOSS Backstage, we want to shape a program that truly is “by the community for the community”. To achieve this goal, we are honored to have a dedicated program committee of renowned experts in the field of Open Source.

The program committee is responsible for reviewing the session submissions we receive in our Call for Papers, and are thus instrumental in creating the schedule for FOSS Backstage.

Sharan Foga

Sharan Foga has over 20 years in the IT industry working on the delivery and implementation of IT projects. She is currently based in Stockholm, Sweden and works for Encube Technologies as Head of Operations and Customer Success. Sharan has been involved with the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) since 2008 and has presented at several conferences about the ASF’s unique approach of engaging and empowering communities. She enjoys working actively with projects on open source community management and spent 3 years as a Director on the ASF Board.

Sander van der Waal

As Waag’s research director, Sander van der Waal is responsible for its research agenda, working in close collaboration with the four heads of the research groups and leads of the 8 constituent labs. His focus is on ensuring Waag’s research contributes to lasting positive change locally in Amsterdam, nationally in The Netherlands, and on the European level, in line with Waag’s principles of openness, fairness and inclusivity. He maintains and develops a strong network of research partners and represents Waag on stage in debates, events and webinars.

Lina Böcker

Dr Lina Boecker is a well experienced lawyer for information technology (IT) law and one of the few experts in the field of open-source-software (OSS) compliance. She advises a broad range of clients from software developers to international OEMs and public research institutions on all aspects of IT-law.

Lina was admitted to the bar in 2011. After having spent nine years (thereof more than five years as a partner) at a Berlin based boutique law firm for IT law, she joined Osborne Clarke as a partner in 2022.

Myrle Krantz

Myrle is an Engineering Director for Application Observability at Grafana Labs. She has over 20 years of experience as a software developer. Myrle is a member of The Apache Software Foundation, where she has served in multiple ways including through roles in operations and in governance. She’s exuberant about open source and passionate about making software that solves important problems facing humanity.

Eriol Fox

Eriol has been working as a designer for 10+ years working in for-profits and then NGO’s and open-source software organisations, working on complex problems like sustainable food systems, peace-building and crisis response technology. Eriol now works at Simply Secure on design, research, open-source and technology projects.

Stefan Rudnitzki

Stefan worked as a software developer, business coach, and manager with over 15 years of experience in various domains and technologies. He helps people and organizations adapt to change and grow through coaching, organizational development, and strategic management to create customer value. He is passionate about agile and collaborative ways of working. Furthermore, he is also a co-founder of FOSS Backstage.

Thomas Steenbergen

Thomas Steenbergen specializes in strategic open source management, helping organizations align their open source practices with business objectives. An expert in open source adoption, community building, and compliance – including Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs) – he previously led Open Source Program Offices at EPAM Systems and HERE Technologies. He is a maintainer of OSS Review Toolkit, SPDX, TODO group and a regular contributor to FINOS’s Open Source Readiness and OpenChain. A frequent speaker at global open source conferences, Thomas welcomes discussions on open source topics. For more information about the projects he is involved in and his contact details, visit github.com/tsteenbe.

Felix Reda

Felix Reda (he/they) is the Director of Developer Policy at GitHub. He has been shaping digital policy for over ten years, including serving as a Member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2019 and working with the strategic litigation NGO Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF). His areas of interest encompass copyright reform, freedom of expression, and the sustainability of the open-source ecosystem. Felix is an affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard and serves on the board of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany. He holds an M.A. in Political Science and Communications Science from the University of Mainz, Germany.

Paloma Oliveira

Paloma bridges technology and affections. She is a full-stack developer with a user-centric approach turned growth engineer. She is community-driven [PyLadies Berlin & Germany organizer] contributing to open-source foundations [PySV Python Software Verband board member & OpenJS Foundation program committee]. She is a passionate advocate for free libre open source. She is deeply committed to gender equity and accessibility. She exercises critical thinking about the technology we create and use – as a curator and artist, and instigates critical technology research and production with the Zentrum für Netzkunst Berlin.

Ana Jimenez Santamaria

Ana is the OSPO Program Manager at the TODO Group, an open source project and community of OSPO practitioners who want to collaborate on best practices, tools, and other ways to run successful and effective Open Source Projects and Programs, under the auspices of the Linux Foundation. Formerly she worked at Bitergia, a Software Development Analytics firm, while she finished her MSc in Data Science, whose final thesis focused on measuring DevRel’s success within Open Source development communities