2027 Steering Committee Candidates

Meet the candidates for the 2027–2029 Steering Committee term. Explore each candidate’s background, community experience, and proposed priorities below.

These profiles reproduce the information in the candidate guide (PDF), published in October 2026. Candidates appear in the same order as the guide.

The 2027 election

The next term focuses on practical OSPO skills, AI governance, and stronger connections across open ecosystems:

• Connect open ecosystems: Build relationships across communities and bring OSPO adoption and governance needs into shared work.
• Bring practice into AI governance: Share experience with AI-assisted development, agentic workflows, standards, and open source AI infrastructure.
• Turn priorities into action: Maintain resources, support working groups and events, and mentor practitioners with community input.

Read the full call for nominations.

Meet the candidates

• David Walter — Kiteworks
• Diego Mastroianni — Cloudera
• Dr. Islam Gouda — Humanized AI Economy Initiative
• Natali Vlatko — Cisco
• Raj Annaladasu — Palo Alto Networks
• Sai Ashrith Gavini — Amazon
• Tracy Buckner — Red Hat

David Walter

Kiteworks
Vice President, Open Source Program Office

Background

David Walter leads Kiteworks’ Open Source Program Office, stewarding open source projects and shaping its digital sovereignty strategy. A contributor to the ownCloud ecosystem since 2014, David brings experience on both the community and corporate sides of open source. David’s work connects engineering, legal, procurement, product, and executive teams.

Contributions and community experience

David has participated in TODO meetings and presented at the 2026 TODO Group Summit in Prague. At Kiteworks, David has helped establish a new OSPO with a published governance charter, a Developer Certificate of Origin contribution model, and a policy for AI-assisted contributions.

Proposed priorities

David proposes keeping TODO’s guidance grounded in the practical experience of running an OSPO, including lessons from programs that are still developing. David’s priorities include digital sovereignty and procurement needs for European and public-sector OSPOs, alongside contribution policies for AI-generated code.

Perspective for 2027

David would bring experience translating community expectations into organizational governance, with a focus on practical policy and sustained dialogue between companies and contributors.

Diego Mastroianni

Cloudera
Open Source Program Office Lead

Background

Diego Mastroianni leads Cloudera’s OSPO, setting open source strategy and overseeing participation across a community of more than 200 contributors in data and AI ecosystems. Diego combines a PhD in Management focused on open source governance with a Computer Engineering degree and nearly two decades of technology experience.

Contributions and community experience

Diego co-chairs TODO’s Agentic AI to Empower OSPOs Working Group, has delivered a community show-and-tell presentation, and contributed to the 2026 State of OSPOs and Open Source Management report. Diego’s internal Open Source Hub uses a knowledge graph to connect contributors, projects, events, and resources.

Proposed priorities

Diego proposes improving working-group onboarding so new participants can find materials, follow discussions, and identify useful contributions. Diego also wants to keep the OSPO Book current and explore an open source version of the Open Source Hub as part of a practical toolkit for OSPO managers.

Perspective for 2027

Diego would connect governance research with hands-on OSPO operations and experience using agentic coding tools, while preserving TODO’s welcoming culture and shared learning.

Dr. Islam Gouda

Humanized AI Economy Initiative
Founder; AI Governance and Digital Transformation Researcher

Background

Dr. Islam Gouda researches AI governance and organizational transformation and founded the Humanized AI Economy Initiative. Islam’s work examines human oversight, delegated authority, and organizational readiness for agentic AI. Islam developed the Human and Organizational Readiness for Trusted Agentic AI framework.

Contributions and community experience

Islam reports no direct TODO contributions to date. Islam’s related experience includes engagement with the ITU-T Focus Group on Trust and Identity for Humans and Agentic AI and IEEE AI standards initiatives. Islam also participates in AI education and workforce development through the Global Alliance for Artificial Intelligence.

Proposed priorities

Islam proposes translating governance concepts into practical case studies and implementation guidance for OSPOs. Islam would encourage exchange on AI-generated code, licensing, attribution, and review practices, and broaden participation across sectors and regions, including the Global South. Islam emphasizes listening to existing members before shaping an agenda.

Perspective for 2027

Islam would bring an interdisciplinary perspective on AI oversight and open standards, connecting organizational accountability with practitioner-led knowledge sharing.

Natali Vlatko

Cisco
Director of Open Source Software Engineering; OSPO Lead

Background

Natali Vlatko leads Cisco’s OSPO, focusing on open software, policy, and governance, including the company’s work on the EU Cyber Resilience Act. Natali is a Kubernetes SIG Docs Co-Chair and a serving TODO Steering Committee member, appointed in 2024.

Contributions and community experience

Natali serves as liaison to the OSPO Book and OSPO Metrics/CHAOSS working groups, participates in community calls, and has represented TODO on panels at Linux Foundation events. Natali is helping develop a charter for the OSPO Book Working Group as it explores a broader education and advocacy mission.

Proposed priorities

Natali seeks to continue Natali’s liaison work, incorporate practitioner needs into educational resources, and explore closer collaboration with TODO Ambassadors. Natali also proposes topical touchpoint calls, gatherings at industry events, and regional activities that maintain human connection as AI becomes more prominent in daily work.

Perspective for 2027

Natali’s stewardship of AI projects at Cisco, including submissions to the Linux Foundation and CNCF sandbox, would inform peer discussions on AI governance, project maintenance, and open standards.

Raj Annaladasu

Palo Alto Networks
Cortex Technical Customer Success Lead

Background

Raj Annaladasu leads Cortex Technical Customer Success at Palo Alto Networks, working with enterprises on vulnerability management, cloud-native security, and automation. Raj’s research and community work focus on application security, software supply chains, and agentic AI.

Contributions and community experience

Raj’s contributions to date are in adjacent communities rather than TODO. Raj contributes to OWASP’s GenAI Security Project and participates in Cloud Security Alliance working groups, with engagement across CoSAI and OpenSSF’s AI/ML security community. Through Protect.NGO, Raj supports nonprofits with cybersecurity assessments and practical guidance.

Proposed priorities

Raj proposes practical OSPO guidance for dependency selection, licensing, provenance, and security review in AI-assisted development. Raj would focus on approval boundaries, policy enforcement, evidence, and accountability for autonomous workflows, while helping maintainers manage automated contributions without increasing review burdens.

Perspective for 2027

Raj would connect enterprise security experience with cross-community collaboration, translating emerging standards and risks into usable controls for organizations with different resources and levels of maturity.

Sai Ashrith Gavini

Amazon
Software Development Engineer

Background

Sai Ashrith Gavini is a Software Development Engineer at Amazon specializing in agentic AI, multi-agent systems, generative AI, and cloud-native development. Sai holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of North Texas and has experience building enterprise AI applications and automation workflows.

Contributions and community experience

Sai reports no direct TODO contributions to date. Sai’s related community experience includes mentoring student AI teams, reviewing technical research, judging AI hackathons, and technical speaking. Sai wants to apply that engineering and mentoring experience to TODO working groups and shared resources.

Proposed priorities

Sai proposes clearer contributor onboarding, practical resources for AI-assisted development, and pathways that connect emerging developers to open source opportunities. Sai’s technical priorities include responsible AI adoption, reliable and maintainable AI-assisted software, transparent contributions, evaluation frameworks, and open standards for agent interoperability.

Perspective for 2027

Sai would bring a hands-on development perspective to discussions of agentic workflows and maintainer tooling, with an emphasis on collaboration, contributor trust, and project sustainability.

Tracy Buckner

Red Hat
Principal Community Architect, Open Source and AI Program Office

Background

Tracy Buckner is a Principal Community Architect in Red Hat’s Open Source and AI Program Office. Tracy develops learning programs and resources that help people move from understanding open source to contributing and sustaining healthy practices. Tracy’s background spans community architecture, program management, learning design, and coaching.

Contributions and community experience

Tracy describes Tracy’s direct TODO contributions as limited to date. At Red Hat, Tracy is developing learning pathways on open source strategy, governance, community participation, responsible AI use, and AI-assisted contribution. Tracy wants to bring that experience to TODO resources, working groups, events, and mentoring.

Proposed priorities

Tracy proposes making community knowledge easier to discover and apply, identifying emerging skill gaps, and creating stronger pathways from learning to participation. Tracy’s focus includes translating AI governance into everyday behaviors for contributors and maintainers, with explicit human judgment, provenance, accountability, and attention to maintainer capacity.

Perspective for 2027

Tracy would bring a learning and enablement perspective to OSPO skills development, while strengthening links with adjacent communities and preserving TODO’s open, collaborative, practitioner-led approach.

Voting with LFX PCC

The 2027 TODO Steering Committee election will use the LFX Project Control Center (PCC) voting tool. General Member voting is limited to the primary contacts of TODO Group General Members.

1. Confirm your voting contact. Eligible voting contacts will receive an email from TODO to confirm that they are the designated voting contact for their organization. Please review the message and confirm or provide any corrections.
2. Look for the LFX voting email. Once the poll is created and activated in LFX PCC, eligible voting contacts will receive an automated email from LFX with instructions for casting their vote.
3. Submit your organization’s vote. Follow the instructions in the LFX email and complete your ballot before the voting deadline.

Election and appointment timeline

Download the candidate guide (PDF).