OpenPOWER Foundation Executive Director Seeks to Accelerate Ecosystem Growth

By James Kulina, Executive Director, OpenPOWER Foundation

[caption id=“attachment_7535” align=“alignleft” width=“300”] “It’s my goal to make OpenPOWER one of the easiest platforms to go from an idea to a silicon chip.”
- James Kulina, Executive Director, OpenPOWER Foundation[/caption]

Hey everyone - I’m a new face here, but I’m very excited to finally say “hello” and formally introduce myself.

First, I want to thank my predecessor, Hugh Blemings. Hugh, the OpenPOWER Foundation is one of the most open and high-performance architecture and ecosystems in the industry today, and in no small part as a result of your commitment. On behalf of our members, thank you for your leadership. We’re lucky to have you continue on as an advisor to our board of directors!

I’ve worked in open source infrastructure software throughout my career. Most recently, I was COO at Hyper.sh, an open source software startup focused on secure container technology. We co-developed and launched the Kata Containers project, one of the industry’s first hypervisor-based container runtimes, as well as contributors to other open source projects including Kubernetes, Docker, and Open Containers Initiative before a successful exit.

Prior to that, I worked in product management focusing on OpenStack at Paris-based startup eNovance and Red Hat (which acquired eNovance).

I believe the success of open source software has paved the way and set the stage for open source hardware. As Executive Director, our mission of growing an open sustainable ecosystem for the POWER Architecture and its associated technologies remains more important than ever.

The open-sourcing of the POWER ISA last August was a seminal moment for the Foundation. My objective is to build momentum on that achievement and to accelerate the development of a more complete ecosystem and supply chain around the POWER ISA. It’s my goal to make OpenPOWER one of the easiest platforms to go from an idea to a silicon chip.

You’ll continue to hear updates from me here on the OpenPOWER blog, but you can also find me on LinkedIn and Twitter. We’re also opening up our OpenPOWER Foundation Slack workspace, and I’d love for all members and followers to join us there. Slack will become a forum for OpenPOWER advocates to connect and collaborate with each other. Please submit this form to receive an invite, and feel free to ask any questions you have for me in the #Social-James Kulina AMA channel.