Today we are launching the process to elect three Project Directors to the Rust Foundation Board of Directors. This is the second round of slots, following from last year's election.
We will briefly explain the goals and procedures here, but this is mostly copy-pasted from last year's post and the official process documentation.
We ask all Project members to begin working with their Leadership Council representative to nominate potential Project Directors. See the candidate gathering section for more details. Nominations are due by September 18, 2025.
What are Project Directors?
The Rust Foundation Board of Directors has five seats reserved for Project Directors. These Project Directors serve as representatives of the Rust Project itself on the Board. Like all directors on the Foundation board, the Project Directors are elected by the entity they represent, which in the case of the Rust Project means they are elected by the Rust Leadership Council. Project Directors serve for a term of two years and will have staggered terms. This year we will appoint three directors and next year we will appoint two directors.
See the role description document for more details about what is involved in being a Project Director.
The current Project Directors are Carol Nichols, Ryan Levick, Santiago Pastorino, Scott McMurray, and Jakob Degen. This year, Santiago Pastorino, Scott McMurray, and Jakob Degen's seats are open for election.
We want to make sure the Project Directors can effectively represent the Project as a whole, so we are soliciting input from everyone on the team. The elections process will go through two phases: 1) candidate gathering and 2) election. Read on for more detail about how these work.
Candidate gathering
The first phase is beginning right now. In this phase, we are inviting the members of all of the top level Rust teams and their subteams to nominate people who would make good Project Directors. The goal is to bubble these up to the Council through each of the top-level teams. You should be hearing from your Council representative soon with more details, but if not, feel free to reach out to that person directly.
Each team is encouraged to suggest candidates. Since we are electing three directors, it would be ideal for teams to nominate at least two candidates. Nominees can be anyone in the Project and do not have to be a member of the team who nominates them.
The candidate gathering process will be open until September 18, at which point each team's Council representative will share that team's nominations and reasoning with the whole Leadership Council. At this point, the Council will confirm with the nominees that they are willing to accept the nomination and fill the role of Project Director if selected. Then the Council will publish the set of candidates.
This then starts a period where members of the Rust Project are invited to share feedback on the nominees with the Council. This feedback can include reasons why a nominee would make a good Project Director or concerns the Council should be aware of.
The Council will announce the set of nominees by September 19 and the feedback period will last until October 2. Once this time has passed, we will move on to the election phase.
Election
The Council will meet on October 3 to complete the election process. In this meeting we will discuss each candidate and once we have done this the facilitator will propose a set of three to be the new Project Directors. The facilitator puts this to a vote, and if the Council unanimously agrees with the proposed set of candidates then the process is complete. Otherwise, we will give another opportunity for council members to express their objections and we will continue with another proposal. This process repeats until we find a set of nominees to whom the Council can unanimously consent. The Council will then confirm these nominees through an official vote delivered to the Foundation.
Once this is done, we will announce the new Project Directors. In addition, we will contact each of the nominees, including those who were not elected, to offer feedback. For those who accept feedback we will follow up to tell them a little bit more about what we saw as their strengths and opportunities for growth to help them serve better in similar roles in the future.
Timeline
This process will continue through all of September and into October. Below are the key dates:
- Candidate nominations due: September 18
- Candidates published: September 19
- Feedback period: October 19 - October 2
- Election meeting: October 3
- First board meeting starting the new term: October 14
After the election meeting happens, the Rust Leadership Council will announce the results and the new Project Directors will assume their responsibilities.
Acknowledgments
A number of people have been involved in designing and launching this election process and we wish to extend a heartfelt thanks to all of them!
We'd especially like to thank Eric Holk, Ryan Levick, and TC for helping to improve our process.