The new year brings a big change; I will be leaving the Eclipse Foundation at the end of January. This has been a difficult decision to make but it is time to take on a new challenge.
I am extremely proud to have been part of the Eclipse Foundation and Eclipse community since the early days. I fondly remember the chaotic and exciting early years of setting up the Foundation and the explosive growth of projects, members and users. The Eclipse Foundation was one of the first open source foundations that showed how professional staff can help bring together companies and open source developers to create innovative open source communities. In some ways, the Eclipse Foundation became the template for many of the new open source foundations started in the last 5 years.
It is great to be leaving when the Foundation is gaining tremendous momentum. In particular, EE4J, Eclipse Microprofile, DeepLearning4J, OpenJ9 and other projects are all showing Eclipse is becoming the place for open source enterprise Java. The Eclipse IoT working group continues to grow and is certainly the largest IoT open source community in the industry. The Foundation is definitely on a roll.
Of course I will miss the amazing people at the Foundation and in the Eclipse community. I am privileged to have worked with so many individuals from many different organizations. One of the best parts of my role is being able to learn from some of the world’s best.
It is time to start looking for a new challenge. I am going to take some time to look for a new position. My passion is working with smart technologists to create and implement strategies to promote the market adoption of new technologies and solutions. Today there are some fascinating new technologies being introduced, like AI/ML, Blockchain/Distributed Ledgers, Cloud Native Computing, IoT, etc. It is an exciting time to work in the technology industry and I look forward to taking on a new challenge.
My last day with the Eclipse Foundation will be January 26, 2018. The technology industry is very small so I hope and expect to keep in touch with many people from the Eclipse community. I will continue to be active on my blog, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Ian Skerrett 
Ian, Thank you for your years of service to the Eclipse community. You will be missed! All the best in your future roles.
Thanks Mike. I will definitely miss working with all the great people at the Foundation and community. It really is a special group of people.
All the best Ian. I am sure you will be missed, but its always exciting and rewarding to take on a new challenges in life.
Congrats on taking the first step. Always the biggest and hardest. Looking forward to seeing what you end up doing.
Thanks Ben, it is a great time to be in the tech industry and I am looking forward to exploring new opportunities.
Happy New Year – and all the best for your new adventure.
Thanks Jörg
Good luck Ian! The end of an era.
Hi Lynn, I am not sure about an era but it has been a great experience for me. I have been very privileged to have worked in this community.
Ian – thank you for your leadership in helping to build a robust and influential community!
Thanks Dave, I am really proud of what we have been able to accomplish. Eclipse IoT is really having an impact on the IoT industry.
Ian – It’s been great to work with you! Look forward to resuming once you’ve found your new adventure.
Hi Dima, I have enjoyed our work together too. I hope we have another opportunity in the near future.
All the very best, Ian. I admired your blog posts summarising the events of EclipseCon and all things around the Foundation. I will miss them.
Thanks for onboarding us Ian! Wish you the best in your next adventures.
Thanks Adam, I really admire what you guys are doing at Skyminds. You are in good hands with the Eclipse community.
Ian, you will be missed! You’ve been so helpful in building the IoT community. Wishing you every success in your next venture.
Thank you Alane, it has been a great experience and I have enjoyed working with you and others at Red Hat.
It’s been an honor and enjoyable working with you these last 12 years (or so). Thank you for all the hard work and a few cold beers.
Thanks Eric, it was great to have the opportunity to work with you and I hope we can do it again.
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