CodePlex Foundation appoints executive director

The CodePlex Foundation has announced that it has appointed an executive director. The Microsoft created non-profit Foundation, which had missed its 100 day target to appoint a executive director, will be headed by Paula Hunter who will be responsible for running the Foundations operations, evangelise the Foundation's mission and reach out to "key open source organisations".

Hunter was previously the Director of Operations for SEMPO, the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organisation, a non-profit association which promoted the technique of manipulating web pages to get better visibility in searches. Hunter does have a history working with open source though; she was general manager at UnitedLinux, the consortium of Linux distributors created in 2002 which became an early casualty of SCO's Linux lawsuits. Hunter moved on to OSDL, the Open Source Development Labs, a non-profit organisation which went on to merge with the Free Standards Group and create the Linux Foundation.

Andy Updegrove, specialist in consortiums and open source foundations and previous critic of the Codeplex Foundation, welcomed the appointment on the ConsortiumInfo.org blog saying "Paula knows her way around the block ... I'm glad to see that the new CodePlex Board has been able to land someone with Paula's experience and integrity."

(djwm)