2018 Committee Election Candidates
By Rachel Magruder
Clojurists Together is holding its first annual elections for community elected committee members. Thanks to everyone who applied to join the Clojurists Together Committee. Here we present the nine candidates, their motivations for joining, and a brief biography so you can learn a little bit about each one. If you’re a Clojurists Together member, you should have recently received an email with your link to vote with CIVS, an online election voting system. Only Clojurists Together members as of the 14th November 2018 are eligible to vote. Every member gets one vote.
Voting will be open until end of day Wednesday 28th November, 2018 PST. Election results will be announced shortly afterwards. The poll results will use Condorcet IRV (instant runoff). In the case of a tie on the cutoff point, the tie will be broken with random.org/draws, a third-party drawing service. There are three seats open for election this year. The remaining four seats will come up for election next year. Committee members are elected for a two year term.
The candidates are (in a randomised order): Nola Stowe, Laurens Van Houtven, Vijay Kiran, Nicolas Modryzk, Ghadi Shayban, Ikuru Kyogoku, John Stevenson, Travis McNeill, and Fumiko Hanreich.
Thanks to everyone who applied, we really appreciate it.
Candidate Profiles
Nola Stowe - Cisco
Why they’d like to join
Because I like seeing open source projects get funding. I’m a woman and like to see that the committee has lots of perspectives. An avid user of many of the past projects that was funded.
Bio
Nola Stowe is a Software Engineer at Cisco Systems in the Security Business Group. She has over 16 years software experience and loves Clojure the most. She blogs at rugygeek.com about Clojure and other things of interest.
Laurens Van Houtven (lvh) - Latacora
Why they’d like to join
I have personal experience with the Python Software Foundation and the Software Freedom Conservancy. I’m an information security engineer, so I may be able to assist projects as well as Clojurists Together itself to improve its operational security posture.
Bio
I’m an information security person. My background is in cryptography, but these days I mostly focus on cloud infrastructure, though I do a ton of IT security and application security as well. I’m a Principal and co-founder at Latacora, where we specifically bootstrap information security practices for startups.
I’ve been using Clojure for over five years now, both personally and professionally. I’ve been a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation for about a decade, and have been heavily involved in PyCon organization in particular. PyCon is an annual Python conference of about 3500 people, for which I managed the Financial Aid program for several years. I expect this experience will help me to successfully serve on the Clojurists Together board. (Psst! Wanna know a secret? The PyCon financial aid process was briefly entirely dependent on a piece of Clojure code to do hotel room assignments.)
In my spare time, I do woodworking and miscellaneous makery things (CNC plasma cutters and lasers, that sort of thing). I have an adorable mutt named Enzo (after Ferrari). I live in and generally adore Chicago.
Vijay Kiran
Why they’d like to join
I have been Clojure enthusiast for several years now and interested in helping out the eco-system. I firmly believe in the way Clojurists Together is supporting and funding the projects to keep Clojure flourishing. I would like help out in continuing the objectives of the organisation that helps the clojure community.
Bio
Vijay Kiran is a software developer with 16 years of product development and consulting experience using JVM languages (Java, Clojure, Scala). He’s a co-organiser of Dutch Clojure Days and co-host of defn podcast.
Nicolas Modrzyk - Karabiner Software
Why they’d like to join
Started Clojure in 2011, long experience running and maintaining healthy Clojure project. I love concise, expressive and passionate code, I expect the same in people too!
Bio
Nico has gathered the best of all countries he has lived in, Powerful French wines straight from the cradle, deep taste Guinness from Ireland, Tasty Curry from India, Chinese dumplings and ducks in China, and Japanese Sushi at the finger for the last few years.
International Geek, focusing on getting the job right and done, loves to push friends and team members to give their best to start and reach the goal. Nico has been involved into designing large scales server applications for a video conferencing company, managing enormous gigantic clusters of databases through hand written middleware, boosting Japanese design companies with Content Management and Process Management systems, pushing the boundaries of Business Processes for Leading Financial Asia Businesses, and now enjoying independent consulting around the world.
During his spare times, write books, play live music and looking forward to some great project together.
Ghadi Shayban - Healthfinch
Why they’d like to join
I have spent a long time in the community and am intimately familiar with its strengths and weaknesses, and possess the sensitivities required to know where to direct resources.
Bio
Ghadi Shayban is an engineer, pianist, and long-time community contributor. Over the years he has spent many hours teaching and evangelizing Clojure, and has worked on compiler, data structures and runtime, and core.async.
Ikuru Kyogoku - Parkside Securities/Xcoo
Why they’d like to join
I spend a good chunk of my life just staring at twitter/reddit for Clojure updates. I have a breadth of insights from working for several companies that are Clojure OSS consumers, both server side and client side.
Bio
Ikuru is a Clojure/ClojureScript developer working for several companies. He is always excited to see innovation happening in the Clojure Ecosystem, and firmly believes that is supported by a core that is committed to stability.
John Stevenson
Website, @jr0cket, Online Clojure guides, ClojureBridge London
Why they’d like to join
I would like to support the continued growth in adoption of Clojure worldwide, building on my efforts running the London Clojurians community and ClojureBridge London events.
Bio
A community driven developer who loves Clojure and functional programming. Worked with companies large and small over 20+ years in the industry, including Atlassian, Heroku/Salesforce, Citi, Dimension Data.
Currently leading the London Clojurian community and running several events per month. Also co-organises ClojureBridge London events several times per year.
I am currently writing an online book for Clojure development with Spacemacs with a supporting YouTube channel. I have also started a Clojure study group via YouTube and Slack.
Travis McNeill - Horizon Investments
Why they’d like to join
I want to help grow and nurture the Clojure community.
Bio
Travis McNeill is a Software Engineer at Horizon Investments. He is interested in community development and making helping Clojure become more open.
Fumiko Hanreich
Why they’d like to join
I have been programming in Clojure at work since 2012 and have been a user of various Clojure libraries. I believe Clojurists Together is such a great idea to support the Clojure community. I would like to contribute as a committee member and learn more about how the community can be better supported by the organization. I hope having no projects of my own would contribute to offer fair and unbiased opinions when it comes to decision making.
Bio
Fumiko Hanreich is a Software Engineer and became a Clojurist at work in 2012. She enjoys writing software in Clojure ever since. She was a speaker at 2015 Clojure/West conference (HoneySQL as Clojure Data structures). She also served as an Opportunity Grant Committee member, a Selection Committee member, and a Conference Guide member at Clojure conferences.