2026 GB Elections Nomination | Rajan Shah

2026 GB Elections
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About me:

  • Name: Rajan Shah
  • Bio: Rajan works at the intersection of FOSS, industry, academia, and the broader digital commons. At Red Hat, he leads Partner Product Certification Solutions. Outside work, he has been a long-time community volunteer, organizer, speaker, CfP reviewer, and ecosystem collaborator across India and beyond. He has worked with communities, companies, academia, nonprofits, and conference teams, helping people and organizations work better together and make FOSS more accessible and sustainable. Rajan brings a practitioner’s perspective, a collaborative mindset, and a strong belief in community-led governance to the FOSS U GB.
  • Location: Pune, MH, India
  • Personal site/ Linkedin: Rajan Shah - Red Hat | LinkedIn
  • Home community: (Digital Commons community you have longstanding association/interest with): DevConf India, FOSS U, OSS Connected
  • Years of association with FOSS/digital commons: 2016

About my work:

  • My FOSS/digital commons journey:
    • My FOSS journey has evolved from software to a broader belief in free and open software, solutions, knowledge, and digital commons. Since 2016, I have contributed as a community volunteer, organizer, speaker, CfP reviewer, conference staff member, advisor, and community partner across India and beyond. Over time, my focus has moved from simply participating in communities to helping build, connect, restart, scale, and sustain them. Today, much of my work sits at the intersection of FOSS, industry, academia, nonprofits, and the wider digital commons bringing Indian perspectives into global conversations while bringing useful ideas and practices back to our communities.

  • How and when I came across the FOSS U community:
    • I came across FOSS U through the growing FOSS ecosystem in India and gradually became involved through PuneFOSS, IndiaFOSS, Open Source Day, DevConf India, and interactions with FOSS U’s community, volunteers, program teams, leadership, and board. My connection has taken many forms: hosting a PuneFOSS chapter meetup, supporting the FOSS U booth at DevConf India, sponsoring PuneFOSS, and working with speakers, volunteers, organizers, and local communities. I have also had the opportunity to get to know FOSS U board and GB members in much more informal settings from lunches and speaker dinners to, quite literally, drum-circle coffee. What started as participation became sustained collaboration around speakers, conferences, community outreach, chapters, booths, volunteering, logistics, sponsorships, and partnerships. FOSS U has consequently become one of the communities I have consistently worked with, supported, and advocated for.

  • Why I am running for the GB:
    • I am running because I believe FOSS U can play an even stronger role in making India’s FOSS ecosystem more connected, sustainable, inclusive, and community-led. My experience spans FOSS communities, industry, academia, nonprofits, government and policy discussions, and global conference communities. I have seen what helps communities grow, as well as what causes them to lose momentum. I would like to bring that experience to the GB and contribute to the decisions, governance, and long-term direction that affect the wider community. I also see FOSS U as a potential foundation for something much bigger: a nonprofit Bharat OSPO that can help India build stronger open-source adoption, collaboration, and sustainability across communities, institutions, and government. I would like to carry what I learn and contribute here into that longer-term effort.

  • Why would I be a good fit (What prior long-term volunteering experience do you have):
    • My volunteering has been long-term and hands-on. I have organized and supported communities and conferences, reviewed CfPs, recruited and supported speakers, staffed events, supported booths, helped with sponsorships and venue logistics, built relationships with academic HODs, vendors, merchandise teams, engineering leaders and CxOs, and worked alongside volunteers and organizers to make things happen.
    • This has included PuneFOSS, IndiaFOSS, Open Source Day, FOSSASIA, DevConf.IN, KubeCon India, Open Source Summit Europe, Flock to Fedora, KCD Gujarat, and the May Maintainers Meetup.
    • With FOSS U specifically, I have worked with its leadership, board, program teams, volunteers, and chapters across PuneFOSS, IndiaFOSS, Open Source Day, FOSSASIA, DevConf.IN, KCD Gujarat, and the May Maintainers Meetup.
    • Beyond events, I have spent significant time as an independent nonprofit advisor and strategist for pioneering, emerging, stalled, and scaling communities helping with community strategy, partnerships, positioning, growth, and connecting Indian communities with global practices. This has included work around Kubeflow, Fedora, Feast, vLLM, AsyncAPI, GraphQL, Ansible, and others.
    • My global conference work has similarly gone beyond attending. I have contributed as a speaker, reviewer, volunteer, staff member, community partner, and advisor. Through ConfConf, I have been able to share ideas, practices, and perspectives from the Indian ecosystem with people building FOSS conferences around the world, while learning from their experiences in return. ConfConf itself is specifically a gathering for organisers of FOSS conferences and the surrounding ecosystem.
    • I believe this combination of hands-on volunteering, community building, long-term relationship building, and governance experience would be useful to FOSS U and could help move us closer to the bigger Bharat OSPO vision.

  • Things I would like to focus on as a GB member:
    • Collectively build a nonprofit Bharat OSPO that helps make open source more accessible, sustainable, and impactful across India
      • Community-first governance: keeping FOSS U transparent, accountable, and responsive to its communities
      • Ecosystem collaboration: connecting communities, academia, industry, nonprofits, and global FOSS networks
      • Sustainable growth: enabling chapters, volunteers, maintainers, and organizers to grow while reducing burnout and dependency
      • Growing contributors and leaders: making it easier for people to move from discovering FOSS to contributing and leading
      • Long-term sustainability: strengthening funding, knowledge sharing, succession, and organizational resilience

  • Optional: Anything else you’d like to share with the community. For instance, what impact or change do you want to bring about in the FOSS U or the Indian FOSS community?
    • India is at an important moment, with technology policy, government digital initiatives, IndiaAI, Bharat-focused missions, growing consumer demand, and many companies establishing global capability and development centres here. FOSS can connect these efforts while giving students, engineers, and professionals meaningful platforms to contribute with passion and build FOSS into a mainstream career. I believe India has much to contribute to the global FOSS movement, not just in scale, but in how we build inclusive, diverse, and volunteer-driven communities. A large part of my recent work has been about being that bridge. I would like to continue doing that through FOSS U, while keeping the community firmly at the centre.
41 Likes
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Rajan looks like a great candidate for this with his experience in different open-source initiatives.

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I’d like to recommend Rajan for GB, given his extensive experience and exposure to global conferences and Open Source communities. I have attended few conferences with him, he has a strong ability to bring people together and rally communities around shared goal. I’m confident he can contribute tremendously to the growth of FOSS U.

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I know Rajan personally, and he is both an exceptional engineer and an outstanding leader. He has extensive engineering experience, combining strong technical expertise with excellent interpersonal skills. Rajan has a remarkable talent for simplifying complex problems. FOSS U. would definitely benefit from having someone of his caliber who can contribute significantly on both a technical and a human level.

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Rajan is a very active contributor to the open-source community. He consistently drives and supports Red Hat meetups in the office and is an active contributor to DevConf India. He also regularly participates in industry conferences and community initiatives. His passion, engagement, and commitment to the FOSS ecosystem make him a strong contributor and someone who would be a valuable asset to the FOSS community.

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Rajan seems like a great candidate for this, given his experience with various open-source initiatives.

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Rajan is an excellent manager and, more importantly, a genuinely great person to work with. He brings a great balance of technical expertise, leadership, and empathy to the team. He is always approachable, supportive, and willing to help whenever needed. It has been a real pleasure working with him, and his contributions go well beyond just being a great manager. He would be a great addition to the IndiaFOSS Governing Board.

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Your work, motivation, and the force that drives you are truly inspiring! All the very best for this. You make an incredible candidate for this. Rooting for you! :sparkles:

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Rajan would be a great addition to the IndiaFOSS Governing Board. His experience across open-source communities, industry, and conferences, along with his strong focus on community building, makes him a strong candidate. Wishing you the very best, Rajan! :raised_hands:

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Rajan would be an excellent addition to the FOSS Governing Board. His strong leadership, strategic vision, and long-term perspective have played a significant role in contributing to Red Hat’s success. I’m confident that the FOSS Board would greatly benefit from his leadership, industry expertise, and ability to drive meaningful transformation. His experience and vision would make him a valuable addition to the committee.

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Rajan and I work as adjacent managers and I always found him to be an excellent leader: reliable, thoughtful, trustworthy, and someone you could genuinely count on. I think he would be a great addition to the Governing Board.

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Highly recommended

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Rajan is an exceptional community leader in the open source ecosystem, with excellent organizational and communications skills. He would be a great addition to the FOSS United governing board.

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+1 to everything above! All the best Rajan! :muscle:

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Highly Recommended!!! Rajan Shah would be a great fit!!! Best wishes, Rajan!

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I recommend Rajan Shah for the FOSS U Governing Board based on his sustained contributions to the FOSS ecosystem since 2016. His hands-on experience in community building, event organization, and collaboration across industry and academia makes him the right fit for this role. Having worked with him at Amdocs, I have had a great experience collaborating with him and have seen his commitment to the community firsthand. He has continued this journey at Red Hat, bringing a practical, collaborative approach and a genuine commitment to the long-term sustainability of FOSS.

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Thank you, @neel_shah, for the support, and hoping for continuing our collaborative partnership to have a wider impact.

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I hope to continue toward broader, collaborative impact. Appreciate the endorsement and support. Thank you, @kapil_nema.

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I hope to continue toward broader, collaborative impact. Appreciate the endorsement and support. Would love to see the hacker mindset engineer around in the long-term journey. Thank you, ~M @miguel_alvarez.

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I hope to continue toward broader, collaborative impact. Appreciate the endorsement and support. Would love to see an excellent problem-solving engineer and a leader around for the long-term journey. Thank you, @Sushilkumar_Deshmukh.