Hedera, the leaderless proof-of-stake network leading the next generation of the Web, has appointed Andrew Aitken as Chief Open Source Officer (COSO), to lead its realignment as a fully open source Web3 platform. Andrew is a veteran in the open source sector, having served as an open source expert to the White House, guest lecturer for Stanford’s Entrepreneur Program and founder of the industry’s only think tank. The addition of a COSO role, rarely found in the software industry, is a testament to Hedera’s commitment to promoting community collaboration both within its ecosystem and in the industry as a whole.
“Open source solutions play a vital role in standardizing transparency and re-establishing trust in the digital sphere, and the emergence and adoption of Web3 technologies provides an opportunity to elevate the level of trust and transparency,” said Aitken. “What drew me to Hedera was the opportunity to work with such an incredibly smart group of people, community, and Governing Council members, to further establish Hedera as the standard for enterprise blockchains. Though Hedera did not start out its journey as an open source project, it has always had a focus on serving the community. I’m joining the firm to ensure we build a broad ecosystem of participants, continue to deliver achievements in innovation, and provide long-term opportunities through community engagement and transparency in our actions.”
In his new capacity as Chief Open Source Officer, Aitken leverages deep domain expertise to assist Hedera in open sourcing everything from tooling, to cross-chain functionality and source code. Most recently, Andrew led the open source team at Wipro Technologies, championing open source adoption for enterprises and delivering business value through open-source service solutions. Wipro has played an important role in contributing to product development on the Hedera network, having served as a member of the Hedera Governing Council since 2020. Aitken is an elected member of the Board of the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) and previously served as Wipro Board Adviser at the Open Source Security Foundation; Linux Foundation Networking. He was also on the board of OSEHRA, a non-profit dedicated to accelerating open source health reporting.
“I’m thrilled to see an open source leader like Andrew joining Hedera as COSO, an important signal of commitment by Hedera not only to open source but to open governance and industry wide standards in the Web3 space” said Gabriele Columbro, Executive Director of FINOS and General Manager of Linux Foundation Europe. “I have had the honor to collaborate with Andrew for several years, both at the community level on several projects and at leadership level in the FINOS Governing Board, and I have no doubt his wealth of experience and strategic experience will help realize Hedera’s open source vision.”
Tasker Generes, vice president of vision and innovation at ServiceNow and Member of the Board of the Hedera Governing Council said: “It has become increasingly clear that the current lack of transparency and trust in Web2 is fueling the growth of Web3. With a proven history of overseeing large-scale system redesign and community-building projects, Andrew is uniquely positioned to help Hedera remain at the forefront of the transition to Web3. At ServiceNow, we look forward to continue working with Hedera to help our joint customers gain a competitive edge as the open source function continues to grow.”
The announcement follows the successful launch of the ‘Hedera Improvement Proposal (HIP)’ program in 2022, which exists as a medium to propose new features or upgrades to the network — and simultaneously collect community thoughts, build consensus, and document dissenting opinions on issues and proposals. Looking forward, Hedera intends to continue progressing toward full decentralization as it lays a solid foundation to grow its community action and involvement through its HIP program — and this new hire marks an important step in achieving this.
