Our great Foundation made a decision to have me as their Chairman of the Board again, which I thank most humbly, but this will be my last year. I have been considering dropping out from the Robot Framework Foundation Board for a while and I made my decision to do so at the beginning of the summer 2020. Here are some motives behind this decision.
Long-lived voyage
When we had a founding meeting in summer 2015, I was not prepared to be chosen as the Chairman and how long the job will last. Now when this term ends the Foundation will be my second longest employer with a time of 6 years and 6 months. Nokia beats that by only 1 month and as a position that is the far longest epoch that I have ever had. So it’s my time to move on.
Focus
I have referred to my day jobs in Omenia, Siili and now in NorthCode as my Bruce Wayne job and the work for the Foundation as my Batman job. We have very unique and special things in NorthCode. Not so much in what we are doing, but how we are doing it. You can read more about that in our CEO’s Toni’s blog post here. Nowadays the Foundation is at the level that it needs to have it’s own full time super hero!
Power dynamics
Now when Jani Haapala is back on the Board, I’m no longer the only one from the original board of 2015, but still. There is a reason why presidential terms are limited. Like said, 6.5 years is a long time and it will be good for the organization to change the leader from time to time.
Future of the Foundation
The Foundation is more vital than ever before. There are huge amounts of enthusiastic people to carry on the work. It’s not time for goodbyes yet. We have an amazing year ahead of us and we will rock!