Linux Foundation Expands Management Team to Respond to Growth

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Dec 4, 2014) - The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating Linux and collaborative development, today is announcing the addition of industry veterans Steve Westmoreland, Laura Kempke, Philip DesAutles and Russell Farnell to its team. The Linux Foundation is experiencing steady growth due to the increased use of Linux, open source software and collaborative development to advance technology. The new leaders will help the organization continue its position as a primary destination for open source software projects, large-scale collaboration and open source ecosystem development.

Over the last four years The Linux Foundation has become home to open source projects spanning many areas of the software infrastructure stack: networking, Internet of Things (IoT), drones, mobile, virtualization, embedded Linux and more. As its work protecting and advancing Linux has also increased with the expanded use of Linux, the new management team will provide the experience and guidance needed to continue the focus on quality collaborative development, innovation and open source advocacy.

The additions to the existing Linux Foundation team include:

Philip DesAutels, Senior Director of IoT and Leader of the AllSeen Alliance
DesAutels will be working with members of The Linux Foundation's Collaborative Project, the AllSeen Alliance, to define strategic direction and execution for the world's largest open source effort to advance IoT. DesAutels was most recently CTO of LogMeIn's Internet of Things Platform, where he was responsible for business strategy, technology roadmap and the launch of the Xively product. Prior to LogMeln, he spent nearly 10 years at Microsoft driving .Net evangelism and adoption. As a co-founder of Ereo, chief scientist at Excite and part of the research team at the W3C, he has vast experience in cloud-based services, security and privacy issues. He earned a PhD in Industrial Marketing from Lulea� Technical University (Sweden) and M.S. and B.S. degrees in Industrial and Management Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic University. He is based in Boston, Mass.

Laura Kempke, Vice President of Collaborative Projects Operations and Marketing
Kempke joins The Linux Foundation from MSLGROUP, a communications firm within Publicis Groupe and a top five public relations agency, where she was a senior vice president in the Boston office. In this position she was responsible for setting PR and content marketing strategy for technology and life sciences clients. Prior to MSLGROUP, Kempke was with Schwartz Communications, one of the largest PR firms working with entrepreneurial technology companies. She's been working with open source companies since 2001, including Ximian, JBoss, Black Duck, Digium and Alfresco. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University. Kempke is based in Boston, Mass.