SUSE's Alan Clark Elected Chairman of OpenStack Foundation Board

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Sep 19, 2012, 06:18 ET

NUREMBERG, Germany, Sept. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SUSE® today announced that Alan Clark, director of Industry Initiatives, Emerging Standards and Open Source at SUSE, was elected Chairman of the Board for the OpenStack® Foundation. An independent entity, the Foundation serves developers, users and the entire cloud ecosystem by providing a set of shared resources to grow the footprint of public and private clouds. In his role as board chairman, Clark will serve as an officer of the foundation which, since its inception, has attracted more than 5,600 individual members and secured more than $10 million in funding.

Clark will also help make decisions critical to getting the OpenStack Foundation off the ground as well as provide strategic and financial oversight of Foundation resources and staff.

"Alan's track record of open source leadership will serve the Foundation well," said Jonathan Bryce, executive director of the OpenStack Foundation. "The OpenStack Board of Directors draws from a variety of experienced and notable thought leaders across the IT industry, a group we're confident will work for the benefit of the entire OpenStack community."

Clark has developed a reputation in fostering the creation, growth, awareness and adoption of open source and open standards across the technology sector. Over his nearly 20-year career, he has contributed to and sponsored some of the most influential technology consortia and open source projects, including the openSUSE project, The Linux Foundation, the Linux Standard Base (LSB) work group, the Open Document Foundation's (ODF) OASIS technical committees, the Enterprise Grid Alliance Reference Architecture (an early predecessor to today's cloud computing models), the Cloud Security Alliance, the DMTF Cloud Incubator and the Open Source for America Steering Committee.

"The OpenStack community comprises some of the most influential and enthusiastic IT professionals I've ever witnessed," said Clark. "I look forward to collaborating with both my fellow board members as well as the community at-large. It is truly an honor to have their support and confidence to chair the Foundation into the next chapter of its development."

The board, comprising individual, gold and platinum Foundation members, was seated on August 28, 2012.

About SUSE

SUSE®, a pioneer in open source software, provides reliable, interoperable Linux and cloud infrastructure solutions that give enterprises greater control and flexibility. More than 20 years of engineering excellence, exceptional service and an unrivaled partner ecosystem power the products and support that help our customers manage complexity, reduce cost, and confidently deliver mission-critical services. The lasting relationships we build allow us to adapt and deliver the smarter innovation they need to succeed—today and tomorrow. For more information, visit us at www.suse.com.

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