Patrick Masson named Apereo Foundation Executive Director
[May 22, 2023] Apereo Foundation’s Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Patrick Masson to the Executive Director position of the Apereo Foundation. Patrick has been Interim General Manager of Apereo since founding executive director Ian Dolphin retired in 2021.
“I am excited to accept the Apereo Board of Directors' invitation to join the organization permanently as Executive Director. The Foundation is at an exciting time; ten years of commitment to open source community and ed tech innovation provides a solid foundation to continue to build greater awareness and adoption of open source software, new opportunities through broader open educational initiatives, and challenges to higher education generally offer fertile ground for expanding the organization's value proposition and extending its mission.” Patrick said.
Apereo’s Board Chairwoman, Anne-Marie Scott, had this to say about Patrick officially taking on the Executive Director position.
“Apereo had only one Executive Director since formation, and so when Patrick joined as Interim General Manager, the Board felt this was an excellent opportunity to take stock of where we were as an organisation.”
“In his capacity as Interim General Manager, Patrick has led Apereo through a highly successful operational review, rationalising our expenditures, improving our internal processes and procedures, introducing new ways of working, and bringing in new financial support better aligned to open source organisations.”
"It is with great pleasure then that I am able to confirm that with the unanimous support of the Board, Patrick has now agreed to join Apereo on an ongoing basis as our next Executive Director and lead the development of our exciting new strategy.”
Apereo Foundation’s Executive Director role is not Patrick's first leadership role within the community, having served on the Jasig Foundation's Board of Directors and on Apereo Foundation's Advisory Council. In addition, he has presented at multiple Apereo events, including keynoting the Open Apereo conference in 2015.
“Everyone at Apereo is thrilled that Patrick has become our Executive Director,” said Josh Wilson, Apereo Board Vice-Chair. “He's so skilled at leading a nonprofit organization like Apereo, and his deep knowledge of the open source landscape is phenomenal.”
Patrick comes to Apereo with thirteen years of experience running the Open Source Initiative as their first General Manager. Prior to joining OSI, Patrick spent over 20 yrs working in Higher Education, including as CIO in the State University of New York and CTO at the University of Massachusetts' Office of the President. Prior to these roles, he served as the Director of Technology at the SUNY Learning Network and Director of the UCLA Media Lab.
“Patrick has already made a considerable impact on Apereo in his time as interim General Manager, launching several meaningful new initiatives. We on the Board look forward to his continued leadership as the Foundation establishes and implements its new strategic directions,” said Vice-Chair, Josh Wilson.
Over the last 18 months, Patrick has already made a huge impact at Apereo. Being instrumental in partnering with Moodle.com and Creative Commons to create the "FOSS for Education" track at the FOSSY 2023 Conference, where the entire Apereo community is invited to gather in person for the first time since the Covid-19 shutdown.
“Patrick has raised the profile of Apereo through activities such as the AXIES 22 conference and the recently announced partnership with FOSSY, as well as establishing a so far very successful micro-conference speaker series, amongst many other activities.” shared Chairwoman Anne-Marie Scott.
The Apereo micro-conferences series was developed by Patrick and Apereo staff to enrich and educate the Apereo community, deepen relationships with partner organizations and provide ways for Apereo’s worldwide communities to feel connected more regularly. Thus far, speakers have included: Deb Bryant and Dr. Cable Green; Deb Nicholson and Pierre-Yves Gibello; Wes Turner and Alice Bibaud; and Hong Phuc Dang. Many exciting and innovative open source thinkers are scheduled to speak at upcoming micro conferences in 2023.
Patrick expressed his gratitude to the entire Apereo community for their support,
“I want to thank the Board for their trust and confidence. I would also like to recognize and thank Ian Dolphin for his years of service, helping to create Apereo and lead it to where it is today. Finally, thank you to all of you, the Apereo community, for your help in learning the ropes over the past year, for your patience as I stumbled around, and for your continued support of the Foundation and its important work in "fostering, developing, and sustaining open technologies and innovation to support learning, teaching, and research."
When not wearing his Apero Executive Director hat, Patrick is an adjunct instructor with SUNY Albany's College of Computing and Information and frequently speaks on topics related to open source software, open education, and educational technology. Patrick is the co-founder of EDUCAUSE's "Openness" Constituency Group and served on his local school board from 2014-2018. Patrick lives in upstate New York, USA, with his wife, Jamie, and their dog, Georgia. They have two young adult sons, Jack and Hank.
About Apereo
Apereo Foundation is a non-profit focused on building and supporting community-driven open source software for education institutions. With members spanning six continents and twelve communities with projects in production, Apereo continues to strive for free and open source software development by education organizations for education organizations.