Board Meeting 5/2025 Minutes: Wed 17 Dec 2025 17:00-18:00 EET

Present board members:

  • Kaj Arnö, Chairman 
  • René Bonvanie, from item 2
  • Todd Boyd (IBM)
  • Sean Xiang Peng (Google)
  • Jignesh Shah, representing Amazon AWS
  • Steve Shaw (HammerDB)
  • Rohit de Souza, representing MariaDB plc
  • Michael Widenius (ex-officio as Founder; MariaDB Corporation)

Absent board members:

  • Eric Herman (until item 1)
  • Sergei Golubchik (ex-officio as Developer Representative; MariaDB Corporation)
  • Frank Karlitschek (NextCloud)

Present observers:

  • Tarus Balog (AWS)
  • Serguei Beloussov (Constructor)
  • Michal Schorm (Red Hat)
  • Jim Zemlin (Linux Foundation)

Absent observers:

  • Barry Abrahamson (Automattic) 
  • Espen Håkonsen (Crayon Group)
  • Stanislav Protassov (Acronis)
  • Peng Khim (DBS Bank)

Additionally, as non-voting secretary:

  • Anna Widenius, CEO

1. Decision: Election of Board Member and Board Observer

Proposal: René Bonvanie to be elected as Board Member, after Eric Herman, who has resigned.

Tarus Balog (AWS) to be elected as Observer.

Discussion: René Bonvanie (from the Netherlands, based in California; long-time Silicon Valley executive) introduced himself as a seasoned technology leader with a career spanning both databases and security.

René described his early professional roots in database technology, including work connected to a “very original database” originating from UC Berkeley (the Ingres lineage). He later joined Oracle early in his career and characterised that period as formative in understanding how a leading commercial database organisation builds products, developer mindshare, and market position. He worked extensively on open source initiatives, adding first-hand experience of how large vendors engage with open ecosystems and communities. René also highlighted that he was part of the founding team at Palo Alto Networks and served as Chief Marketing Officer, giving him substantial experience in market positioning, go-to-market strategy, and building strong communities around mission-critical infrastructure software.

René said he was excited to “go back to databases” because database work has “always shaped” him professionally. He joined in response to being asked to help MariaDB and the Foundation, and he expressed gratitude for the election and a desire to contribute actively to the Board’s work.

A light-hearted exchange followed, where René joked that he has no remaining vested interest in Oracle and would be “happy to help make MariaDB number one,” underscoring enthusiasm and alignment with the Foundation’s mission.

Kaj emphasised that René’s appointment addresses an important gap on the Board: the current Board has deep experience in MySQL/MariaDB, but less direct experience from other major database ecosystems. René brings perspective from a leading commercial database environment (Oracle) as well as broad executive experience across databases and adjacent infrastructure domains. Kaj highlighted that René is expected to contribute valuable lessons in developer relations, community building, positioning and messaging, and in generally strengthening the Foundation’s strategic outreach and credibility.

Tarus Balog  of AWS introduced himself as a long-time open source practitioner and executive, with a particular background in building and sustaining open source projects and communities over decades. Tarus explained that he founded an open source project called OpenNMS in 1999, built a company around it, and ran it for roughly 20 years. He sold the company in 2019, was later let go by the acquiring company, and then moved on to his current role. Tarus said he joined AWS in 2022. His role is to act as a liaison between AWS and third-party commercial companies and foundations, based on his experience operating open source businesses and working with open source communities. He expressed that he had already been involved with the MariaDB Foundation for some time and was eager to contribute further in his capacity as an observer, learning from and supporting the group.

Kaj noted that Tarus has effectively served as a bridge between AWS (as a sponsor/partner) and the Foundation for years. Kaj recalled first meeting Tarus at a MariaDB Server Fest in Finland in 2022, and credited him with being a constructive coach and practical supporter in building a strong and productive relationship between AWS and the Foundation. The observer role formalises that ongoing collaboration and ensures continuity.

Decision: Proposals approved unanimously. René Bonvanie was welcomed as a Board Member and Tarus Balog as a Board Observer, with warm appreciation expressed by all. The Board also extended its gratitude to Eric Herman for his long-standing contributions and service as Chairman and Board Member, and for stepping down in order to enable René’s appointment.

2. Status report: State of MariaDB 2025 Survey

The Chair reported that 17 December 2025 marks the official publication of the State of MariaDB 2025 Survey. The report is based on responses from 275 respondents, collected during October 2025.

The survey has been published in two formats:

The Chair noted that the survey represents a significant milestone for the Foundation. Internally, it provides a shared factual baseline for addressing questions and debates that have previously relied on partial data or subjective impressions. The respondent base reflects a wide variety of backgrounds, which helps reduce bias and increases confidence in the findings.

More broadly, the survey was described as a neutral and evidence-based starting point for strategic reflection and goal setting, particularly with a view towards planning priorities for 2026. The Chair emphasised that the report is not an end in itself, but a tool to support informed discussion, prioritisation, and alignment.

Several Board members expressed appreciation for the depth of the material and the effort involved in collecting, analysing, and presenting the data.

3. Discussions on the conclusions of the Survey: Identification of four focus areas

The Chairman summarised internal preparatory work and informal discussions with Board members, which, together with the survey results, led to the identification of four main focus areas emerging from the data.

  1. MySQL
    The Chair noted that MySQL is the single most prominent reference point in the survey. Respondents frequently described MariaDB in relation to MySQL, including migration considerations, compatibility expectations, and future direction. This confirms that MySQL remains the dominant context in which many users evaluate MariaDB.
  2. PostgreSQL
    PostgreSQL was described as the “elephant in the room” in open source relational databases. Survey comments and broader industry context indicate that PostgreSQL is often perceived as the primary alternative when organisations consider moving away from MySQL. The Chair noted that PostgreSQL is frequently referenced as a benchmark in discussions, even when concrete feature comparisons are vague or inconsistent.
  3. Relational data for AI workloads
    The survey contained multiple references to AI-related use cases. Respondents welcomed recent developments such as support for vector embeddings and expressed interest in using MariaDB as part of AI-enabled applications. This was interpreted as confirmation that AI and relational databases is an increasingly relevant combination, even if expectations and definitions vary.
  4. Ecosystem adoption and tooling
    A recurring theme in survey comments was friction outside the core database engine. Examples included ORM support, tooling defaults, third-party documentation, and platform messaging that either favours MySQL or PostgreSQL by default, or omits MariaDB entirely. The Chair noted that such ecosystem factors can significantly influence adoption, independent of technical merit.

The Board agreed that these four areas provide a coherent framework for interpreting the survey results and structuring further discussion.

4. Discussion: MariaDB Foundation Goal Setting 2026 

Based on the survey and the discussion of its conclusions, the Board discussed the overall direction for goal setting in 2026. There was broad consensus that any future goals should be aligned with, and derived from, the four focus areas identified above.

The CEO outlined how the survey insights could inform future priorities, and described at a high level how strategic goals typically need to be complemented by tactical considerations and measurable outcomes. It was emphasised that the discussion at this stage was exploratory and directional, rather than a formal adoption of specific targets or initiatives.

A substantive part of the discussion focused on user perceptions around migration, trust, and choice, particularly in the context of moving from MySQL to MariaDB.

  • One viewpoint stressed that MariaDB should be positioned as a confident and forward-looking successor, without diluting its roadmap or innovation to preserve symmetry with MySQL. From this perspective, encouraging reversibility or emphasising “easy exit” narratives risks undermining differentiation and momentum.
  • Another viewpoint highlighted the importance of avoiding any perception of coercion or lock-in. It was argued that users make better long-term decisions when they feel safe and empowered rather than pressured, and that MariaDB should consciously avoid behaviours historically associated with predatory vendor practices.
  • René Bonvanie emphasised that long-term success in infrastructure software depends not only on features, but on how a project behaves as part of an ecosystem: transparency, openness, and visible alignment with developer and user interests. He cautioned against framing MariaDB as a “one-way door”, noting that such messaging could resemble approaches that have damaged trust elsewhere in the industry.
  • Serg Bell added that while migrations are technically always possible in software, MariaDB’s focus should be on ensuring that users do not want to leave, rather than on debating reversibility in principle.

The discussion highlighted that many of the perceived barriers around migration are as much about psychology, narrative, and trust as about technical compatibility, a theme also reflected in the survey responses.

Next steps: The Chairman expressed interest in continuing these discussions in smaller settings with individual Board members and observers, in order to refine thinking and ultimately translate strategic direction into practical action plans for 2026. It was noted that further work would be done offline and that any concrete goals or KPIs would be presented separately at a later stage, as appropriate.

5. Board Meetings 2026

Upcoming board meetings, all on Wednesdays 17:00-18:00 EET

  • Wed 25 Feb 2026
  • Wed 20 May 2026
  • Wed 9 Sep 2026
  • Wed 25 Nov 2026