I want to kindly thank all OpenID Foundation members who voted in the 2026 elections for representatives to the OpenID Foundation Board of Directors.

Per the Foundation’s Bylaws and as of December 1, 2025, there was one Corporate Representative seat and two Community Representative seats up for election in 2026. 

Each year Corporate members of the Foundation elect up to two members to represent them on the Board for one-year terms with all Corporate members in good standing eligible to nominate and vote for candidates. Unfortunately, we are shrinking to one Corporate Representative seat in 2026 due number of Corporate members as of December 1^st.

I am pleased to welcome Mark Verstege back to the board of directors again in 2026 as the Corporate Representative. In addition to his professional roles in Australia, Mark has supported the Foundation in many ways. To name a few, Mark is a founding co-chair of the Ecosystem Support Community Group, Board representative to the Bank of International Settlements “Project Aperta,” volunteer leader of FAPI 2.0 submission to ISO as a Publicly Available Specification (which passed the ISO ballot December 2025), and he is an active contributor to the Strategic Task Force and the Australian Digital Trust CG. I am sure the Board will benefit greatly from his leadership again this year.

I want to thank Atul Tulshibagwale for his many contributions to the Board of Directors as a Corporate Representative in 2025 including stepping up to participate in a number of board subcommittees including the Strategic Task Force and the Mission/Vision Subcommittee. Atul continues to Co-chair the Shared Signals WG, is a founding Co-chair of the AIIM CG and recently elected Co-chair for the AuthZEN WG. Atul has also taken on considerable work for the foundation by leading multiple interop events for the Shared Signals WG, work which supported the first three Shared Signals specifications going to final in 2025. Atul’s positive impacts will carry on in 2026. I also want to thank Atul for his numerous contributions to the Board and the Foundation overall, contributions which I am sure will carry forward in his leadership of three WG/CGs.

Four individual members represent the membership and the community at large on the board as Community Representatives, with offset-terms. Nat Sakimura and John Bradley have one year remaining on their two-year terms and I look forward to their continued contributions in 2026.

I am delighted to welcome back Dima Postnikov and Mike Jones who were elected to two-year terms as Community Representatives starting in 2026. Mike Jones was re-elected to another two-year term and Dima to a new two-year.   I want to thank Dima for his ongoing support as Vice Chairman of the board a role he has committed to serving in 2026 subject to board confirmation. Dima has actively embraced his Vice-Chair role, representing the Foundation at World bank and Western Balkan events, SIDI Hub events, and speaking at other OIDF events while also taking on the mantle of FAPI WG Cochair, Australian Digital Trust Cochair and Ecosystem Support CG Cochair. Similarly I want to thank Mike for his long going support and contributions to the Foundation as a board member, WG co-chair, mentor to the Secretary, Board representative to the Certification team, and many other contributions as AB/Connect Cochair (including hosting the Federation interop last Spring). Both Dima and Mike have also been active contributors to the Executive Committee and the Strategic Task Force. I look forward to continuing work with Dima and Mike in 2026.

This election does come with a significant loss in that George Fletcher was not re-elected as Community Representative. George far predates my time at the Foundation so I will not do his many contributions to the Board and to the WGs the justice they deserve, but I do know that they will have a lasting impact. George has always brough a unique perspective to the Board deliberations and he is the embodiment of the OIDF culture of consensus building and integrity. I want to thank George for his many years of service to the Foundation especially as a consistent thought leader on the Board. I know George plans to remain very active in several OIDF WGs/ CGs like DADE, AIIM and eKYC & IDA and with luck he will also bring his experience and leadership to special projects in the months ahead as well.

Please join me in thanking Atul and George for their commendable service and contributions to the Foundation.

And join me in thanking Dima, Mike, and Mark, as well as the entire board, for their service and support of the Foundation and the community at large. Here’s to a successful 2026!

Gail Hodges
Executive Director
OpenID Foundation

About the OpenID Foundation (OIDF)

The OpenID Foundation (OIDF) is a global open standards body committed to helping people assert their identity wherever they choose. Founded in 2007, we are a community of technical experts leading the creation of open identity standards that are secure, interoperable, and privacy preserving. The Foundation’s OpenID Connect standard is now used by billions of people across millions of applications. In the last five years, the Financial Grade API has become the standard of choice for Open Banking and Open Data implementations, allowing people to access and share data across entities. Today, the OpenID Foundation’s standards are the connective tissue to enable people to assert their identity and access their data at scale, the scale of the internet, enabling “networks of networks” to interoperate globally. Individuals, companies, governments and non-profits are encouraged to join or participate. Find out more at openid.net.