Nominations and Statements for W3C Advisory Board 2025 Election Nominations and Statements for W3C Advisory Board 2025 ElectionForm for W3C Advisory Committee to vote (W3C Members only) | Advisory Board public page
This page lists public nominations and statements for the 2025 election to W3C Advisory Board (AB). Each candidate has been nominated by at least one W3C Member in accordance with the AB election process.
The W3C Membership elects the members of the Advisory Board. For this election W3C will fill seven seats. W3C expects to announce the results on 3 June 2025.
Timeline:
Note: The deadline for vote is 03:59 UTC, 31 May 2025 (23:59 Boston Time, 30 May 2025).
The following nominations have been received (listed in random order):
An asterisk (*) indicates that the nominee is a current participant and has been renominated for election.
The following nomination statements have been made (listed in random order):
Logius is pleased to nominate Hidde de Vries. With a background in Philosophy, and a resume that consists of companies that are known to contribute to the web, Hidde is meant to be part of the AB, simply to continue doing what he's already doing, but with more impact from now on. His positive attitude, his 20+ years of experience with web development, and his insights from working at a public sector body, including a monitoring perspective, will be of great value to help move W3C further in the next couple of years.
The statement is also available in Nederlands.
I'm running for the W3C's AB election. This is my nomination statement.
My name is Hidde de Vries, accessibility standards specialist at Logius (part of the Dutch government). I would appreciate your support of my running for the W3C's Advisory Board.
I fell in love with the web ever since I built my first website in high school, almost 20 years ago. What a cool platform to build for! Since then, I worked professionally as a web developer and accessibility specialist, often building bridges between these fields.
At W3C, I've been a member of the Team (at WAI, 2019-2022), where I worked on accessibility guidance, authoring tool accesibility, the WCAG Report Tool and the ATAG Report Tool. I'm currently a participant in the Open UI Community Group, various accessibility-related Working Groups and the Web Sustainability Interest Group.
If elected, I want to:
What I'd like to bring to the AB, in no particular order:
Any questions: feel free to reach out via W3C Slack or email me on hidde@hiddedevries.nl.
This statement is also available on https://hidde.blog/ab/.
Dear esteemed W3C AC colleagues, I am nominating Brent Zundel from Tradeverifyd, formerly Mesur.io as a candidate for the upcoming W3C Advisory Board election.
Brent has effectively chaired various W3C groups, helping to shepherd Verifiable Credentials (VC), and Decentralized Identifiers (DID) from incubation stages to recommendations. He has a deep understanding of the W3C process, and broad experience in collaborating with diverse stakeholders to reach common goals.
Prior to making his decision to run for this election, Brent made the effort to speak with and listened to present AB and board members to gain perspective of the challenges, and the level of commitment to be an effective AB member.
As a former AB member who is currently serving on the Board of Directors, I have a good understanding and appreciation of the level of commitment to serving on the AB. It is evident to me that Brent cares deeply about making an impact and would serve the community effectively. I have no doubt that he will be an asset if elected.
It is my privilege to nominate Brent as a candidate for your consideration. Thank you in advance for supporting his candidacy.
My name is Brent Zundel. I am currently the VP of Standards and Ecosystem at Tradeverifyd and represent my company as W3C AC Representative. I have been involved in W3C for 7 years. I currently serve as chair of the Verifiable Credentials (VC) working group and was also co-chair of the Decentralized Identifiers (DID) working group.
During my time chairing and co-chairing the various groups I have worked with many intelligent, passionate and hardworking people to incubate, develop, and standardize specifications. Debates and disagreements are part of the standardization process, not only in W3C but in other standards development organizations. The key to progress is listening to and coming to an understanding of one another’s concerns while working toward resolutions that achieve consensus.
W3C has evolved over the years: the transition from being hosted by four different organizations to a standalone legal entity and the adjustments to the Process document and Patent Policy. For the most part, the changes I have seen have been positive. I applaud those who worked so hard to accomplish them.
Despite the progress, there is still work to do to help W3C grow and improve. The issues captured in the W3C-member-visible AB GitHub repository describe much of it very well.
I am particularly interested in working with others to:
The Process document is the result of countless hours of effort and hard-won consensus over the years. As such it should not be changed trivially. However, I believe that we can improve the group chartering process to reduce confusion and improve efficiency. Some items have already been identified and are works in progress. There are additional problems which need to be addressed such as the lack of guidance for re-chartering groups.
Horizontal review of draft specifications is a vital component of the Process. Unfortunately, the efforts to seek and provide review are often significant and at times delayed. It may be worth exploring additional options for guiding documents through this process more efficiently.
The AB is to be applauded for their work to effect the transformation of W3C into an independent legal entity. I would like to help define the role of the AB in this new W3C so that we can represent the community in communicating our needs and work with W3C management to improve the membership experience. We should continue to explore, define, and improve the relationship between the AB and the Board of Directors, the CEO, the AC, and the W3C Team. By working together in a trusting and collaborative manner, we can make W3C more successful together.
There is a correlation between positive experiences with regional W3C communities and greater AC Representative engagement. I would like to work to explore this correlation to gain insights and capture the learnings from these regional communities to develop best practices for use elsewhere in W3C.
The AB can play a key role in creating a greater sense of community and shared responsibility among the AC Representatives.
I would love to serve on the AB in tackling these and other issues. If elected, I commit to listening and doing the work necessary to serve the community.
The statement is also available in 日本語, 中文, Français, Español.
Fondazione LIA is pleased to nominate Avneesh Singh to the advisory board. For more than a decade we have worked alongside Avneesh and have first-hand experience of his exceptional leadership, organizational, and communication skills as well as the depth of his technical prowess. He is a highly competent mission-driven leader with extensive experience in managing a global non-profit consortium serving people with disabilities. He has earned a reputation for developing accessibility standards and is well known for his strategic insights, wisdom and bringing a worldwide perspective. His great ability to understand diverse views and work collaboratively across cultures to solve complex problems is a huge asset. we are confident that Avneesh will be instrumental in the AB’s work in furthering W3C into a mission-oriented and community driven organization, increasing focus on social values and worldwide representation, and reinforcing W3C's leadership in the changing global environment to prepare for the great future of W3C.
A strategic leader with a drive for leading a life of purpose.
I am Chief Operating Officer at the DAISY Consortium, the global non-profit organization which pioneered worldwide standards for accessible digital books and a longtime W3C member, highly active in W3C accessibility standards and publishing groups.
Thank you for electing me to the Advisory Board for the last six years and enabling me to help W3C in transitioning through one of the most crucial times. The transition to a new legal entity is complete; Now, we need to come together to prepare for the future of W3C.
I believe my experience outside W3C building global non-profit values will be especially useful in our mission. In W3C, I initiated work on organizational strategy (purpose, vision, values, principles, and strategic goals), and contributed to making the governance structure member led and ensuring diversity in the board of directors. I was a strong voice advocating for a collaborative approach including W3C Steering Committee, W3M, AB and views from the community for all important decisions for transitioning to the new legal entity.
Recently I have been deeply involved in redesigning our global community meetings, especially for making Advisory Committee representatives key participants in the governance and the future direction of W3C. I am also participating in the W3C branding task force and working towards increasing the involvement of the members in such important decisions.
In my term on the AB, I have earned the reputation of being the voice of logic and wisdom, by providing thoughtful guidance no matter how complex the situation is.
I am based in Delhi, India, in the emerging Asian economy which will add more than 1 billion internet users in the next decade. My participation in the Bureau of Indian Standards and grassroots initiatives in developing countries have helped me to understand the needs of underserved communities and the potential that the world wide web holds for transforming lives.
I am a computer engineer with extensive experience in developing international standards and software implementations. I earned an Executive MBA in Strategy and Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management and further expanded analytical and strategic skills at Harvard University, studying approaches for mobilizing non-profit Boards and optimizing governance.
I have gained vast relevant experience in non-profit governance and international strategy development while working with the Board of the DAISY Consortium, a community-based non-profit with members and partners in more than 100 countries. My 19 years of experience of working with multicultural and multilingual participants has well sensitized me for the needs of the non-English speaking communities.
Based on insights that I gained over the last six years in AB; I will be instrumental in:
I have relevant experience, and I have a listening and reflective personality. This offers the ideal balance of the required skills, with the ability to comprehend and synthesize diverse views.
With a new Vision and renewed strategy, we are preparing W3C for playing a key role in the future of the Web. Well-considered strategic decisions will transform this point of transition into a historical, positive inflection point for W3C.
I am looking forward to representing you in the AB.
Please do not hesitate to contact me at asingh@daisy.org.
On behalf of Samsung, I would like to nominate Daniel Appelquist as a candidate for the W3C Advisory Board. Daniel is well known to many in the W3C community, having served as chair of the Technical Architecture Group (TAG) since 2013. He previously worked in the Samsung from 2016 to 2022 as leader of Web Standard team, and currently serves as an Open Source Strategist in Samsung’s Open Source Group.
I have a long history with the web and with W3C. I first attended a W3C Working Group meeting in 2001, and have been more regularly involved in the community since 2004. During that time, I have served as Advisory Committee representative for two companies, chaired a Working Group and several Community Groups, and have been both an elected and appointed member of the TAG—a group I've had the great privilege of co-chairing since 2013.
I've contributed to the development of numerous Working Groups and standards efforts, and have helped shape both the W3C process and the Code of Conduct. I helped develop and implement a more agile work mode for the TAG—particularly for design reviews—as well as a virtual face-to-face process that allowed us to continue functioning effectively through the pandemic. I also initiated work on both the Ethical Web Principles and the Privacy Principles, and have been a strong advocate for increasing diversity across W3C.
As W3C process does not allow individuals to serve simultaneously on both the AB and the TAG, joining the AB would mean stepping down from my role in the TAG. I would not take this step if I didn't feel the TAG is in a strong and healthy place today—thanks to the collaborative work of its members over the past few years.
Outside W3C, I have increasingly taken on leadership roles in the open source community—most notably in the JS Foundation (which later became the OpenJS Foundation), the Open Source Security Foundation, and more recently, the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA). I also co-founded Open Web Docs, an open-source-style initiative that produces and maintains web developer documentation and compatibility data.
So why am I running for the AB? Since the creation of W3C's new legal entity and the establishment of its Board of Directors, the AB has been undergoing a bit of an identity crisis. I believe there is a clear role for the AB—as an extension of the membership—to advise the W3C Team, steward the evolution of key documents like the Process Document and Code of Conduct (including enforcement procedures), and to provide effective governance in collaboration with the Team.
In my view, the AB is due for a soft reboot. I support an activist approach to the AB, though I do not believe it should seek additional formal powers. Instead, it should lead by example—through its words and actions—as demonstrated by the publication of the Vision document.
I also believe W3C should work more closely with other industry groups that share our values and goals, particularly in the open source ecosystem. The AB can help make W3C an excellent place to do technical work aligned with our vision for the web—especially by making it easier to incubate new ideas and to bring greater community involvement into our processes.
The web—and W3C—face significant challenges in today's technological and societal context. I believe the AB has a vital role to play in helping us meet those challenges, ensuring that we continue to evolve the web as a unique and open platform while staying true to our values.
If elected, I will work to ensure the AB becomes a driving force for positive change—advancing transparency, inclusivity, and technical excellence in service of a better web for everyone.
Song XU - China Mobile, is leading the technical architecture department in web-based solutions covering AI, cloud computing, UHD audiovisual production in media and gaming sections. As the technical director, he managed the Web and mobile platform for broadcasting Paris Olympics 2024/FIFA World Cup with peak traffic by 200M access per day, and clouding gaming platform by 110M MAU. As the Rights Holding Broadcaster, we deployed the web-based production and distribution platform working with hundreds of media studios.
In recent years, Song XU has actively promoted in-depth discussions within the regional developer communities, covering technological hotspots such as AI Agents, intelligent audio-video/AI Codec, and Web3, while guiding their reasonable standardization development.
Song XU is also actively engaged in 3GPP、EBU/DVB, ITU standardization and regulation bodies. He s co-chairing WNIG and participating MEIG, Realtime CG of W3C, other regional standardization and regulation bodies. He's one of the famous and active leaders in WebRTC/Web3/IoT/WebXR developer communities in some regions, serving the web vendors, content providers and technology developers with the operator/coordinator role.
The AB is at a critical point in its existence, and Tess has the technical knowledge, governance capability, and deep familiarity with W3C, needed to help the AB remain a vital part of W3C.
Tess' belief that the AB should be attentive to the whole of our community (not just those with whom AB members have an immediate connection), and her belief that the AB should be a resource that is useful to the Team - especially when it comes to understanding the concerns and priorities of members, are worth noting in particular.
Tess' involvement with other SDO like ECMA and WHATWG means she has perspectives that will be useful as the AB considers matters of technical governance. It is also hard to disagree with Tess' wish to simplify the W3C Process and her considerable experience working on W3C specifications means she'll undoubtedly have some good ideas on how to do so.
Tess and I have known each other for many years through our time at W3C, and she has many qualities I like and admire, but two are worth mentioning in particular: Tess is one of those people who listens, even when she may disagree with you, and that's a vital skill within a community of 350 Members; and Tess is cheerfully pragmatic, a characteristic that goes beyond being important to being an absolute necessity when serving on the AB.
Hi, I'm Tess (she/her).
I'm running for the AB because I believe deeply in the W3C's mission and in the impact of the work that we do here. It's on all of us to ensure that W3C continues to be the preferred venue for the standardization of Web technologies that embody our core values, a place where Members are eager to bring new work because they know W3C is where that work is most likely to lead to well-specified, highly interoperable, and widely implemented standards. I believe the best way to achieve this is to firmly recommit ourselves to being Member-led, especially now in this post-Director era.
The AC elects the AB to "serve the Members by tracking issues raised between [AC] meetings, [to solicit] Member comments on such issues, and [to propose] actions to resolve [them]." [W3C Process Document § 3.3.1.1] I believe this is the primary purpose of the AB and the main responsibility of each AB participant: to be attentive to the entire membership (not just your employer, industry segment, or geographic cohort), to strive to address Member concerns, and to ensure the AC is adequately informed of all the relevant facts whenever questions are put to it.
The AB gives "guidance to the Team on issues of strategy, management, legal matters, process, and conflict resolution." [Ibid.] I don't believe this to be separable from the AB's responsibility to the membership: guidance given by the AB ought to be rooted in and driven by Member priorities and concerns. The AB should regularly solicit input from the AC to identify priority areas in which its leadership could be most impactful to the Consortium's work and operations. The AB should strive to make itself useful to the Team, so that the Team is naturally inclined to seek its input.
The AB is also responsible for the Process Document, although it has delegated much of that work to the Process CG. If elected, I would work with the CG and with my fellow AB participants to streamline the Process. While some of its complexity is justified, I believe there are opportunities for significant simplification without loss of robustness. For example, there are around 25 elected positions at W3C. That's probably too many. We should investigate creative ways to reduce that number while retaining the AC's power to elect the majority of each body and while ensuring the continued fulfillment of each body's duties and responsibilities.
AB participants help handle Formal Objections by serving on W3C Councils. I've sat on almost every Council that has existed, and chaired one. I hope that my prior service demonstrates my commitment to ensuring that all Formal Objections receive a fair hearing and due consideration.
I have a proven track record of helping people find consensus despite the many obstacles they may encounter—from strong personalities to disparate, conflicting goals and interests. During three terms on the TAG I participated in hundreds of design reviews, authored a number of design principles, edited the Security & Privacy Questionnaire, and (as mentioned above) served on many Councils. My technical contributions have focused on core Web platform technologies, especially in the CSSWG and at the WHATWG. I've edited several specs and chaired CGs & WGs.
I've lead Apple's Web standards efforts for many years. I'm our AC rep and I manage our Web Standards team. I'm involved in governance at other SDOs as well. For instance, I'm Apple's GA rep at Ecma (their AC), and I serve on the ExeCom (Ecma's AB).
Being an effective AB participant requires a significant amount of time and energy. I was willing to devote both to the TAG during my six years of service, and I stand ready to make a similar commitment to the AB.
I strongly believe in the vital importance of diversity to our work. After all, those "making the Web work, for everyone" should be as diverse as the billions who depend on the Web in their daily lives. I hope the AC continues to prioritize seating elected bodies of diverse backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences.
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions:
Email: hober@apple.com
W3C IRC: hober
ActivityPub: @hober@w3c.social
W3C Community Slack: @hober
Thank you for your consideration.
This statement is on the Web at https://tess.oconnor.cx/2025/04/AB.
It is my great pleasure to nominate Hiroshi Ota for the Advisory Board (AB) and to invite you to vote for him in this election.
We need new perspectives, new voices, and new leaders who understand how to listen and turn what they hear into a vision for a better Web.
I've had many occasions to see Hiroshi Ota at work. He is thoughtful in every interaction and has done a wonderful job as both an AC rep and as one of the W3C Japan Ambassadors over the past few years. I believe the lessons he has learned from bridging the gap between the Japanese community and Global communities in W3C can be of great help to the AB moving forward.
I know that Ota-san would make an excellent addition to the W3C Advisory Board, bringing a fresh and wise perspective to our work.
Thank you for your consideration, I know that you won't regret electing him.
I am Hiroshi Ota from LY Corporation (former Yahoo!JAPAN). I have served as the AC Rep for Yahoo!JAPAN since it became a W3C member in 2018, and I continue to serve in this role at LY Corporation following the company's merger. As one of the W3C Japan Ambassadors, I have been working to bridge the Japanese local community and the global W3C community, aiming to strengthen global contributions from local communities.
Currently, I lead standardization and open source initiatives at LY Corporation. Throughout my career, I have led projects and organizations across diverse fields including product management, research and development, business development, strategic planning, sales, organizational design, and education. In addition, I have promoted educational outreach activities to public schools and local government officials, conveying the significance of technical standards and consensus building.
Drawing on my experience in leading diverse projects and facilitating consensus across different organizations and values, I am running for the Advisory Board to contribute to the future of W3C and web users.
Motivation and Awareness of Issues
Through my experiences across many projects, I have come to deeply realize that "trust is built through consensus achieved via proper processes." The trust in W3C's standards and statements rests not only on their content but also on the trust in the processes through which they are developed. Given the rapid changes surrounding the Web today, I believe it is critical for W3C to adapt and continuously enhance these processes.
In particular, I see the importance of improving aspects such as:
By working to improve these areas, I wish to give back to the Web ecosystem that has supported my professional journey and of course to the web users.
What I Aim to Achieve as an AB Member
To ensure that W3C standards and statements continue to be trusted globally, I will especially prioritize the following initiatives:
Additionally, while Advice is a crucial role of the AB, I also believe that posing thoughtful Questions is equally important. By openly raising good questions, we can stimulate broader member engagement and active participation.
If given the opportunity to serve as an AB member, I will work together with W3C members aiming to ensure that W3C remains a trusted cornerstone of the Internet society for the next 30 years and beyond. I sincerely ask for your support.
Thank you very much.
Hiroshi Ota
LY Corporation
I would like to submit a self nomination for the W3C Advisory Board. At Navy Federal Credit Union, and as attorney and technologist by training, I have spent my career building bridges between emerging technology, human rights, and global digital standards.
The Advisory Board has a critical role to play at this moment. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the web and exposing urgent gaps in interoperability, accessibility, and governance. W3C must lead with clarity, pragmatism, and a bold vision for a future where innovation remains open, equitable, and global. I am committed to advancing the Board’s mission by bringing strategic, legal, and human-centered perspectives to help navigate this inflection point.
I will champion open dialogue, diplomatic conflict resolution, and forward-thinking strategies that anticipate the next generation of web challenges. With a background in enterprise leadership, standards development, and human rights-centered design and development, I am ready to help the Advisory Board drive thoughtful, durable outcomes that serve the web community as a whole.
The future of the web depends not just on technical excellence, but leadership that's both innovative, ethical and people-first. I am ready to do what I can to help W3C meet this moment.
I'm committing to financing my own participation.
Hi, I'm Tantek Çelik and I'm running for the W3C Advisory Board (AB) to build on the momentum the AB has built with transitioning W3C to a community-led and values-driven organization. I have been participating in and contributing to W3C groups and specifications for over 25 years.
I am Mozilla's Advisory Committee (AC) representative and have served on the AB for several terms, starting in 2013, with a two year break before returning in 2020. In early years I drove the movement to shift W3C to more open licenses for specifications, and more responsiveness to the needs of open source communities and independent website publishers.
Most recently on the AB I led the AB's Priority Project for a W3C Vision as contributor and editor, taking it through wide review, and consensus at the AB to a vote by the AC to adopt the Vision as an official W3C statement.
Previously I also co-chaired the W3C Social Web Working Group that produced several widely interoperably deployed Social Web Standards. Mastodon and other open source software projects built a social network on ActivityPub and other social web specs which now require maintenance from implementation experience. As such, I have participated in the Social Web Incubator Community Group and helped draft a new charter to restart the Social Web Working Group and maintain these widely adopted specifications.
With several members stepping down, the AB is experiencing much higher than usual turnover in this election.
I am running for re-election to both help with continuity, on the Vision project and other efforts, and work with new and continuing Advisory Board members to build a fresh, forward looking focus for the AB.
I believe governance of W3C, and advising thereof, is most effectively done by those who have the experience of actively collaborating in working groups producing interoperable specifications, and especially those who directly create on the web using W3C standards. This direct connection to the actual work of the web is essential to prioritizing the purpose & scope of governance of that work.
Beyond effective governance, the AB has played the more crucial role of a member-driven change agent for W3C. While the Board and Team focus on the operations of keeping the W3C legal entity running smoothly, the AB has been and should continue to be where Members go to both fix problems and drive forward-looking improvements in W3C to better fulfill our Vision and Mission.
I have Mozilla's financial support to spend my time pursuing these goals, and ask for your support to build the broad consensus required to achieve them.
I post on my personal site tantek.com. You may follow my posts there or from Mastodon: @tantek.com@tantek.com
If you have any questions or want to chat about the W3C Advisory Board, Values, Vision, or anything else W3C related, please reach out by email: tantek at mozilla.com. Thank you for your consideration. This statement is also published publicly on my blog.
I'm an engineering manager on the Microsoft Edge team and serve as Microsoft's Advisory Committee alternate representative. I strongly believe in the mission and vision of W3C. The web has become an integral part of the human experience, connecting people, ideas, and opportunities worldwide. As I said in a recent AC meeting presentation (https://www.w3.org/2025/04/AC/talk/jackson#talk), when the web works for everyone - regardless of device, location, or ability — we all benefit, fostering innovation, inclusivity, and progress.
The web has fundamentally shaped my career. I've worked as a web developer on ecommerce platforms and contributed code to three different Microsoft browsers. Today, I oversee Microsoft's Web Platform investments focused on accessibility, layout, composition, input, editing, and web components. Prior to that, I managed teams focused on enhancing web developer tools and expanding the capabilities of progressive web applications. These experiences strengthened my appreciation for the web as a powerful tool for connection, innovation, and knowledge-sharing, shaped by the creativity of web developers.
However, the success of the web is not guaranteed. If elected to the AB, my focus will be on addressing two critical challenges:
I am committed to actively listening to every voice and ensuring that diverse perspectives are acknowledged and valued.
Thank you for your consideration.