How have you been involved in the Magento ecosystem?

I have been working with Magento since 2010 and have been attending Magento-related conferences for the last 10 years. I worked for Magento as an instructor for MagentoU from 2017-2021, and I and have submitted contributions to the platform.

In what ways have you contributed to the Magento Association and/or other non-profit communities?

I currently serve on the Business Control Committee for Mage-OS.

What value would you add to the Board to help us advance our mission?

I believe that I can bring an independent voice to the board. Magento is a platform that is used by small to large, enterprise-level users, yet I think that the smaller end of the scale is often overlooked and under-represented.

It was not uncommon to find small businesses using Magento in the earlier years but, in the last 5-10 years, this end of the market has moved to other platforms. There is a lot that Magento has to offer to these smaller entities when compared to other platforms. I am proof that a merchant does not need an annual development budget in the six figures to be successful on Magento.

What are the top 3 initiatives you want to see the Board accomplish in the next 6 months?

Increase membership, increase contributions to the tech stack, and work to keep the MA site up to date (there seems to be a bit of outdated information on there).

What initiatives do you want to see the Magento Association focus on in the coming years?

I tend to focus on the developer experience so, with that in mind, I would love to see a return to hackathons and other events that increase contribution to the platform. Before there were contribution days, there were hackathons where developers would create extensions and solutions for Magento that oftentimes were used for years.

As it is now, the developer contribution experience is too focused on fixing core bugs. This, while extremely useful and an important part of the the open source experience, doesn't really excite people to think of new and novel ways to use the platform.

In addition, I'd love to see more Meet Magento conferences in the Americas.

What are the biggest challenges that you think the Association has faced and how would you approach them?

Changing the assumption that Magento Open Source is a dead platform. I obviously do not believe that to be the case, but it's still a recurring theme when I speak with others in the community. I would approach it by increasing the messaging around what is going on in the community, worldwide, from events to new builds to meetups: a sort of "what's been going on in Magento" in one place where users can return to.

There are currently several newsletters around some of these topics, and working with those that are writing them and crossposting on the MA website would be very useful.

What else would you like to share to either the Election Committee or the membership of the Magento Association as they review your application? What makes you a great candidate to join the Board of Directors?

Magento has given me a solid career and innumerable friends for the past 14 years, and I want to work to ensure it's there for others far into the future. The MA is crucial to that mission.