Board Meeting 1/2026 Minutes: Wed 25 Feb 2026 17:00-18:08 EET

Present board members:

  • Kaj Arnö, Chairman 
  • Ashish Bhan, representing DBS Bank (from item 2)
  • René Bonvanie
  • Kurt Daniel (from item 2)
  • Frédéric ‘lefred’ Descamps (from item 2)
  • Sergei Golubchik (ex-officio as Developer Representative; MariaDB Corporation)
  • Sean Xiang Peng (Google, until item 1)
  • Jignesh Shah, representing Amazon AWS
  • Rohit de Souza, representing MariaDB plc

Absent board members:

  • Todd Boyd (IBM, until item 1)
  • Frank Karlitschek (NextCloud), having assigned his voting rights to Kurt 
  • Steve Shaw (HammerDB, until item 1)
  • Michael Widenius (ex-officio as Founder; MariaDB Corporation)

Present observers:

  • Tarus Balog (AWS)
  • Serguei Beloussov (Constructor)
  • Michal Schorm (Red Hat)
  • Stanislav Protassov (Acronis)

Absent observers:

  • Barry Abrahamson (Automattic) 
  • Jim Zemlin (Linux Foundation)
  • Espen Håkonsen (Crayon Group)
  • Peng Khim (DBS Bank)

Additionally, as non-voting secretary:

  • Anna Widenius, CEO

1. Opening of Meeting

The meeting was opened by the Chair, Kaj Arnö.

Attendance was noted. 

Todd, Frank, and Steve had excused themselves due to conflict with other appointments. 

It was stated that Monty Widenius had chosen not to attend in order to avoid influencing discussions due to his close affiliation with MariaDB plc.

2. Decision: Election of Board Members and Board Observers

Proposal: DBS Bank to be elected as Board Member as represented by Ashish Bhan, with Peng Khim resigning from his Observer position; Kurt Daniel and Frédéric Descamps (lefred) to be elected as Board Members.
Todd Boyd, Sean Peng, and Steve Shaw to step down as voting members and continue as Observers.

Decision: Proposal approved unanimously. Ashish, Kurt, and lefred were welcomed to the Board, with warm appreciation expressed by all. The Board expressed appreciation for the service of outgoing voting members and welcomed their continued involvement as observers.

2.1 Introduction of Frédéric Descamps (lefred)

Frédéric Descamps (known widely as lefred) introduced himself and reflected on his long-standing involvement in the MySQL and open-source database community.

Frédéric has been active in the MySQL ecosystem for nearly two decades, having served as a community advocate at Percona and later as MySQL Community Manager at Oracle. He has used MySQL since MySQL 3.20 (released 1997). He has been a visible and trusted presence at community events, conferences, and online forums, and is well known for his technical blog and community engagement.

Frédéric explained that his decision to join the MariaDB Foundation, both as a staff member and as a Board member, is driven by a conviction that MariaDB represents the most credible long-term continuation of the MySQL lineage. He described his role as one of bridge-building: helping long-time MySQL users, contributors, and ecosystem partners understand where MariaDB stands, technically and philosophically.

His motivations for Board participation include:

  • Community trust: Frédéric stressed the importance of listening carefully to community concerns, especially during periods of change, and ensuring that communication is clear, honest, and respectful.
  • Credibility and continuity: Having worked inside Oracle, he brings an insider’s understanding of how corporate decisions are perceived externally, and how trust can be gained or lost.
  • Board-level voice for the community: Frédéric emphasised that his Board role allows community perspectives to be heard at the highest level of the Foundation, complementing more commercial and institutional viewpoints.

The Board noted that Frédéric’s unique combination of technical credibility, historical knowledge, and community trust makes him a valuable addition, particularly given the Foundation’s stated goal of becoming the natural successor to MySQL.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freddescamps/

2.2 Introduction of Kurt Daniel (CEO Virtuozzo)

Kurt Daniel introduced himself and described his professional background and interest in joining the MariaDB Foundation Board.

Kurt is the CEO of Virtuozzo, based in New York, and brings extensive experience from senior executive and leadership roles across the database and infrastructure ecosystem. His background includes executive leadership positions at MongoDB and Microsoft SQL Server, giving him first-hand exposure to both open-source and commercial database platforms at global scale.

Kurt explained that a recurring theme throughout his career has been transformation: helping technically strong platforms evolve into durable, well-positioned products with clear value propositions, sustainable go-to-market strategies, and credibility with enterprise customers.

In describing his motivation for joining the MariaDB Foundation Board, Kurt highlighted:

  • Strategic positioning: MariaDB occupies a uniquely complex competitive landscape, positioned between MySQL, PostgreSQL, and closed-source enterprise databases. Kurt sees this as a challenge well suited to Board-level guidance informed by prior experience.
  • Open-source sustainability: Kurt expressed a strong interest in helping open-source projects strike the right balance between community values and long-term commercial viability.
  • Non-profit impact: Despite his commercial background, Kurt noted that his interest in the Foundation stems from its role as a steward of continuity and independence, rather than as an operational entity.

Kurt stated that he sees the Board role as primarily advisory and strategic, contributing perspective on market dynamics, customer expectations, and long-term positioning rather than day-to-day operational matters.

The Board welcomed Kurt and noted the added strength his experience brings in areas of market strategy, executive governance, and platform evolution.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtdaniel/ 

2.3 Introduction of Ashish Bhan (DBS Bank)

Ashish Bhan introduced himself to the Board and outlined his background, current role, and motivation for joining the MariaDB Foundation Board.

Ashish has been with DBS Bank for over a decade, currently leading the Database and Storage Centre of Excellence. His responsibilities span database strategy, architecture, resilience, and long-term technology direction across DBS’s global infrastructure. DBS operates one of the largest MariaDB plc customers with massive deployments in the financial sector, with several hundred production use cases and MariaDB forming a core part of the bank’s mission-critical systems.

Ashish explained that DBS views itself as a technology company as much as a bank, operating under strict regulatory and resilience requirements. From that perspective, MariaDB has proven itself over many years as a reliable, predictable, and operationally manageable database platform. He highlighted simplicity, resilience, and recoverability as key reasons for DBS’s confidence in MariaDB, contrasting this and the open source nature of MariaDB with the complexity and cost structures of proprietary alternatives.

Regarding his motivation for joining the Board, Ashish emphasised three main drivers:

  • Continuity and trust: DBS relies on MariaDB at scale and sees the Foundation as the ultimate guarantor that MariaDB will remain open, independent, and free from sudden ownership or licensing shocks.
  • Adoption and real-world validation: Ashish expressed a strong interest in helping the Foundation articulate and demonstrate serious enterprise adoption, particularly in regulated environments, and in contributing concrete use cases back to the community.
  • Strategic dialogue: As someone deeply involved in evaluating and governing database choices at scale, Ashish sees value in contributing to the Foundation’s positioning discussions around MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and proprietary databases.

Ashish stated that his participation on the Board reflects a long-term commitment by DBS to MariaDB as a strategic platform, and that he views the role as one of constructive contribution, grounded in real operational experience rather than abstract theory.

The Board welcomed Ashish and noted the significance of DBS Bank joining as an organisational member of the Foundation.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhanashish/

3. Status report: Foundation for MySQL

3.1 Overview by CEO and Chair

Anna Widenius and Kaj Arnö provided an overview of recent developments related to the emerging “Foundation for MySQL” initiative and broader perceptions within the MySQL ecosystem.

They reported that discussions at recent community events (mainly in Brussels 2 Feb 2022) and online forums indicate heightened scepticism and uncertainty within parts of the MySQL community regarding MariaDB’s relationship to MySQL. This scepticism is not uniform, but reflects diverging expectations and unresolved tensions within the ecosystem.

Several conflicting perceptions were highlighted:

  • Conflicting views of MariaDB Server: MariaDB was previously criticised by some MySQL community members for being “too similar” to MySQL and allegedly benefiting from MySQL without sufficient differentiation. More recently, MariaDB is by some portrayed as “too different”, with claims that it no longer represents a legitimate continuation of MySQL by way of compatibility.
  • Conflicting views of the MariaDB Foundation: Some stakeholders view the Foundation as a positive steward of openness, continuity, and long-term independence, preserving MySQL values and skills beyond Oracle. Others perceive the Foundation as not separate enough from MariaDB plc and inherently different from, or even competitive with, MySQL governance structures, and therefore as an existential threat to MySQL rather than a continuation of it.

It was noted that trademark ownership, contributor governance, and development resourcing remain key friction points in the MySQL ecosystem. In particular, trademark law limits the ability of community actors to create or name forks, while the cost and complexity of maintaining a production-grade fork significantly narrow the field of credible alternatives.

Anna Widenius and Kaj Arnö further noted that the MariaDB Foundation has, over the past year, significantly improved its internal processes for handling external contributions, transparency, and collaboration with MariaDB plc. These improvements were described as important foundations for engaging constructively with both the MySQL and broader open-source database communities.

Kaj Arnö referred to a recent blog post in which he explicitly posed the question “Is MariaDB part of the MySQL ecosystem?”. He explained that this question was deliberately framed to embrace, rather than deny, the apparent paradox: MariaDB is simultaneously a fiercely independent database and a direct continuation of MySQL’s values, code base, ecosystem, and skill set. He noted that attempting to resolve this tension by choosing one narrative over the other risks alienating parts of the community, whereas acknowledging the duality reflects the lived reality of MariaDB’s history and present position.

3.2 Contribution by Kurt Daniel

Kurt Daniel provided a strategic perspective based on his prior executive experience with database platforms and open-source ecosystems.

Kurt observed that ecosystem fragmentation and identity disputes are common indicators of success, not failure. In his experience, communities tend to become most protective, ideological, and emotionally invested precisely when a platform becomes economically and strategically relevant.

He noted that MariaDB’s current situation reflects a transition from being perceived as a derivative or niche alternative to being seen as a credible platform with real market impact. This shift naturally triggers anxiety among incumbents, adjacent ecosystems, and community actors who previously did not view MariaDB as consequential.

Kurt further emphasised that:

  • It is unrealistic to expect universal consensus within an ecosystem as large and historically complex as MySQL.
  • Attempts to “prove legitimacy” through excessive alignment or defensive messaging often backfire.
  • Long-term credibility is built through consistent behaviour, operational excellence, and clarity of purpose rather than rhetorical positioning.

He suggested that the MariaDB Foundation’s role is not to arbitrate MySQL’s future, but to demonstrate stability, continuity, and seriousness over time, allowing perceptions to evolve organically. In his view, MariaDB’s combination of technical maturity, enterprise adoption, and open governance places it in a uniquely strong position, even if that position remains contested.

3.3 Additional remarks

Rohit de Souza commented that the intensity of recent reactions should be interpreted as a sign of MariaDB’s increasing relevance and market traction, rather than as an anomaly. He noted that heightened scrutiny and criticism are common side effects of success and should be expected as MariaDB continues to grow.

The Board discussed the topic as informational and exploratory, recognising that perceptions in the MySQL ecosystem are fluid and multi-faceted. No decisions were taken.

4. Decision: MariaDB Foundation’s stance about MariaDB plc’s Galera sunset decision

Discussion: Rohit de Souza explained the business rationale behind MariaDB plc’s decision to no longer develop Galera Cluster as part of the MariaDB Community Server. 

4.1 Background Presentation

At the request of the Chair, Rohit de Souza explained MariaDB plc’s decision to:

  • Retain Galera Cluster in MariaDB 11.8 LTS through EOL.
  • Exclude Galera from MariaDB Community Server starting with 12.3.
  • Position Galera as an Enterprise offering going forward.

Rohit outlined the rationale:

  • Galera primarily serves high-volume production use cases.
  • MariaDB plc made an investment in the Galera IP, acquiring Codership Galera rather than forking their GPL code (thus taking the high road from an Open Source perspective)
  • MariaDB plc fully funds Galera development.
  • Open source does not equate to “free for everyone in perpetuity”.
  • Long-term continuity of the Foundation depends on a healthy MariaDB plc.

4.2 Initial Board Discussion

A broad and at times emotionally charged discussion followed, covering:

  • Community trust and perceptions.
  • Timing of the decision.
  • Licensing implications.
  • Expectations placed on the Foundation as an independent entity.
  • Concerns about divergence between MariaDB plc and the Foundation.

Several members expressed concern about the community impact; others emphasised the importance of commercial sustainability.

4.3 Decision Framework

The Chair presented three conceptual options for the Foundation’s stance:

  1. Full Alignment: The Foundation treats the Galera decision as its own and communicates it without distinction from MariaDB plc.
  2. Independent Divergence: The Foundation explicitly diverges from MariaDB plc, coordinating or accepting community work around Galera GPL code contributions.
  3. Respect and Mitigation (Middle Ground): The Foundation respects MariaDB plc’s decision by not coordinating community work, maintains institutional independence, and focuses on mitigating impact on users and community.

4.4 Discussion

Kurt Daniel expressed his clear support for Option 2, emphasising the importance of visible independence of MariaDB Foundation from MariaDB plc. He was supported by Jignesh Shah, Frédéric Descamps, René Bonvanie (in an email note half an hour after the meeting clarifying that his oral support for Option 3 was based on a misreading and actually was for Option 2), Ashish Bhan and indirectly Frank Karlitschek (by way of having assigned his voting rights to Kurt Daniel). 

The other four voting board members fall under the category of “having a financial interest in MariaDB Corporation” as decided in the Board Meeting 2/2025: Wed 12 Mar 2025 under the header 6. Decision: Officer Financial Interest Transparency.

4.5 Decision

It was decided for MariaDB Foundation to coordinate and accept community work around Galera GPL code contributions going forward. 

5. Board Meetings 2026

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

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