The Linux Foundation Appoints Industry Veteran as Chief Marketing Officer

Derek Weeks brings proven leadership to accelerate growth in open source innovation and security

SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, 2021 — The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the appointment of a key addition to its executive management team, Derek Weeks, who joins the organization in the newly created role of SVP and Chief Marketing Officer. Weeks will oversee all developer and product marketing, brand strategy, direct and digital marketing, acquisition and retention marketing, analytics and marketing operations, and communications for The Linux Foundation.

As an accomplished enterprise software executive, Weeks brings over 25 years of experience in product, corporate, brand, and community marketing to the Linux Foundation. Weeks most recently helped create new market categories in open source software development and security as a marketing executive at Sonatype, while he also built massive online developer communities as a co-founder of All Day DevOps. Prior to Sonatype, Weeks held global marketing leadership positions for software portfolios in private and public companies, including: Global 360 (acquired by OpenText), Systar (acquired by Axway), Hyperformix (acquired by CA, Inc.), and Hewlett-Packard in the US and Germany.

Weeks has received wide recognition for his achievements in the industry where he has been named to the DevOps 100 by TechBeacon, distinguished as the DevOps Evangelist of the Year by DevOps.com, and received the Industry Executive of the Year from Advanced Technology Academic Research Center (ATARC). Weeks, who spent his adolescent years growing up and working in Silicon Valley, holds a degree from San Jose State University in International Business.

Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, said, “Derek is a natural addition to our leadership team as he is a highly experienced, much-admired marketing and community leader. Finding the right CMO, with a proven track record of helping open source professionals innovate faster while also recognizing the need for improved security across software supply chains they rely upon, was critical. I am delighted to have Derek join us. He has an impressive track record of growing organizations to massive scale, championing open source security research, and building some of the industry’s largest communities for education and collaboration.”

“Open source software is fueling a massive tidal wave of transformation across all industries, and I couldn’t think of a more exciting time to come onboard this exceptional team at The Linux Foundation,” said Weeks. “With its respected position in the community, I look forward to driving growth and further elevating the organization’s contributions to open software, hardware, data, and standards that serve millions of developers worldwide.”

About The Linux Foundation

Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. The Linux Foundation’s projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

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Media Contact

Jennifer Cloer
for the Linux Foundation
503-867-2304
jennifer@storychangesculture.com