Welcoming Betsy to OSI’s Team

We recently brought on Betsy Waliszewski to serve as our Director of Sustainability. She’s in charge of our fundraising efforts and sharpening up our communications with all the many stakeholders in the open source community and we couldn’t be more excited.

 

Betsy comes to us after many years of involvement with several different parts of the open source community. Some of you may have met her during her sixteen years with O’Reilly Media, the longtime organizational host of the recently, (sadly) discontinued OSCON. Others of you may have met Betsy during her recent six year stint at the Python Software Foundation where she served as their very successful Sponsorship Coordinator and Administrator. 

 

Betsy returns to the broader open source community by joining the Open Source Initiative as the Director of Sustainability, responsible for maintaining and increasing corporate sponsorships. This includes conducting research and market segmentation, creating sales, drawing connections, identifying opportunities and gaps as well as developing and overseeing OSI annual fundraising initiatives and programs. As OSI plans for a year of implementing new tactics and increased outreach (after a year of introspection and strategic planning) we are extremely fortunate to have an expert in organizational growth joining our team.

 

“I’m excited by the opportunity to help the Open Source Initiative in their community-building, education, and public advocacy to promote awareness and the importance of non-proprietary software.” says Betsy. 

 

Josh Simmons, OSI’s Board President adds, “We’ve got big plans for OSI over the next two years and Betsy’s unique skills in fostering connections and shepherding growth are exactly what we need.”  

 

Be on the lookout for an email from Betsy! She’s really excited to (re)connect with all the many people that make the open source community a friendly, sustainable, forward-looking place.