We are excited to announce Kaitlyn Barnard and Lexi Nadolski as CNCF’s new Marketing Committee Co-Chairs! Kaitlyn and Lexi will follow in the footsteps of Mark Coleman and will lead the committee to define its goals and achieve progress through working groups and collaboration with CNCF staff. Their election is a demonstration of CNCF’s diversity-powered resilience where individuals with varying skill sets and strengths come together for the proliferation of cloud native. Welcome aboard, Kaitlyn and Lexi – let’s make cloud native ubiquitous, inclusive, and welcoming for all!
About Kaitlyn
Kaitlyn leads Developer Marketing at Kong, the leading cloud connectivity company that created widely adopted open source projects such as Kong Gateway, Kuma and Insomnia. Prior to joining Kong, Kaitlyn worked at The Linux Foundation where she focused on awareness and adoption of open source cloud-native technologies and developer engagement for CNCF. She is currently the editorial lead for the Kubernetes blog and a co-chair of SIG-Docs where she is passionate about growing both code and non-code contributions to the project.
“I’m thrilled to be elected co-chair of the CNCF Marketing Committee alongside Lexi. One of the things I enjoyed most during my time at CNCF was getting to work with member companies to drive business value through CNCF marketing programs, and I look forward to continuing that work in this new position,” said Kaitlyn Barnard, developer marketing manager at Kong Inc. “This year has not only changed how we approach marketing but also how we come together as a community, especially with many of these new digital mediums here to stay. I’m excited to collaborate with Lexi and the committee on new programs that embrace both online and in-person channels to extend diversity and accessibility within the cloud native ecosystem.”
About Lexi
Lexi is Head of Events at Kinvolk, a small Berlin-based company building open source products and providing cloud native engineering services. Lexi worked in marketing and community building for thirteen eventful years, from NYC, Berlin and now globally.
At Kinvolk, she has been responsible for events like Cloud Native Rejekts and All Systems Go! since 2017. These events not only brought people together to network, learn and collaborate in a more intimate setting, they also created opportunities for over 400 speakers and advocates across the Cloud Native ecosystem. She is passionate to increase market exposure for CNCF Marketing Committee members and, at the same time, help to support the CNCF leadership and marketing team in their efforts to drive adoption of cloud native computing in 2021.
“Thanks to a vibrant ecosystem this committee has seen vast member growth in recent years. At the same time, 2020’s shift in global interpersonal and presented communications have changed the needs of the group. COVID-19 has closed many avenues for promotional initiatives and so this brings a new opportunity to rethink our marketing strategies,” said Lexi Nadolski, head of events at Kinvolk. “This committee will benefit from having bilateral leadership, and I am so looking forward to setting out on this path with Kaitlyn. Together we bring complementary experience, which I believe can bring significant growth to the CNCF through the success of the members of this group. I look forward to the things we can accomplish together in the new year!”
“As CNCF Marketing Chairperson for the last 4 years, I’ve had the huge honor of being a tiny part of Cloud Native’s explosive success. The role exposed me to many new people, places and challenges, and my personal and professional lives have been transformed because of it,” said Mark Coleman, Director of Developer Relations Equinix Metal. “While the demands of the role changed significantly over the years, the one constant was the energy and enthusiasm of the community, the members, and the foundation staff. Thanks to all of you, and good luck to the next marketing chairs!”
Kaitlyn and Lexi have been elected for a one-year term and were voted for by member companies, who each possess one vote.
As the Marketing Committee co-chairs, Kaitlyn and Lexi will bring the cloud native community together, via marketing and other initiatives, underscoring that the web of a connected community results in strength, increased resilience and greater innovation. By working to nurture diversity, which is at the heart of open source, in the CNCF community and beyond, they will help increase excellence and delivery of innovation that matters.
The CNCF marketing chairperson responsibilities include:
- Helping to determine what new programs to launch, if desired by members
- Bringing new ideas to the Marketing Committee (MC) and seeking to improve current processes as needed
- Being the member voice leading and setting the goals of the MC
- Being the bridge between the MC and CNCF while representing the interests of the committee to CNCF
- Providing guidance and assistance to Subcommittees and other initiatives that emerge from the MC
- Reviewing the MC meeting slides each month, as well as contributing content and agenda items
- Moderating discussion sessions during the MC meetings
CNCF today hosts over 70 projects with over 103,000 contributors representing 177 countries.
Kaitlyn and Lexi will be critical in helping move forward CNCF’s amazing story as it continues to grow in size, influence, and spirit.