Meet the team

Mean and lean, driven by professionalism and a great volunteer community

Our team

We work together with seasoned professionals from the FOSS community. Meet our team:

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Bob Goudriaan

Director
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Bob Goudriaan is director of Commons Caretakers BV as well as general director of the parent organization NLnet foundation. Goudriaan was previously partner and co-founder of the Amsterdam based management consultancy Gendo, specialised in technological innovation. Since 2014 he is also involved with the ethical security company Radically Open Security, a socially driven enterprise that at its start committed to donate its profit to NLnet foundation.

Goudriaan studied fiscal law at Leiden University, and afterwards moved back and forth between functions with large organisations like PWC and Deloitte across the globe and entrepreneurial activities.

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Deborah Meibergen

Project Manager
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Deborah is a seasoned project and operations manager, and a security awareness trainer. She is self-taught and has worked in the arts, digital rights, information / cyber security and FOSS community for 20+ years. She started working in the digital rights community in 2014 by way of Greenhost as an operations manager. After Greenhost she has worked for eQualitie, the Foundation for Public Code, and the last couple of years at Radically Open Security where she was 'herding cats' as a project and operations manager. She recently started working as an IT Coordinator for Arena for Journalism in Europe's, Collaborative Desk. As an activist, Deborah is vocal about defending human rights, inequality, digital security and privacy, especially important in this age of (surveillance) capitalism. Geeky stuff aside, she’s also a ceramist with a focus on hand-building working with both porcelain and stoneware. Her favourite firing method is the Japanese technique, Raku.

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Eric Herman

Senior Troubleshooter
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With two over decades of experience, Eric brings the perspectives of many codebases, programming languages, and development practices. Eric has experience in scaling, debugging, optimization, software architecture, codebase governance, and more. As lead codebase steward for the Foundation for Public Code, Eric facilitated development collaboration between diverse participants. Formerly a Principal Developer at Booking.com, he has lead the work on the data infrastructure of one of the top 10 largest e-commerce sites. He worked as a developer for MySQL and remains active in MariaDB and the greater Free and Open Source Software database community. In his spare time, he volunteers for Stichting Open Electronics Lab, where he writes embedded-systems software as well as designs, builds, and promotes Open Hardware. Eric loves Free and Open Source Software and will often be seen wearing a FOSS t-shirt.

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Marjolein Kassenaar

UX expert
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Marjolein is a freelance UX and product researcher based near Lisbon, with versatile experience in UX design and research. She advocates for users needs with organizational goals in mind. Her specialisation is gathering data from stakeholders and end-users, and synthesizing insights into actionable recommendations that facilitate teamwork on improved product design and UX. Currently, Marjolein focuses on sustainability and ESG compliance projects and non-profit projects. She also volunteers with the Bellingcat community, contributing to OSINT geolocation challenges. In her spare time, she practices martial arts and Pilates, and enjoys exploring the coastal landscape of Sintra.

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Miroslav Damyanov

UX expert
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Miroslav is a Bulgarian-born UX researcher based in sunny Lisbon, passionate about supporting open-source projects. With over 5 years of experience in non-profits, tech, and consulting, he helps founders and developers enhance usability, refine product roadmaps, and deliver impactful solutions. Drawing on his academic background in behavioral science from the Netherlands and expertise in data storytelling, he excels in usability testing, user interviews, surveys, benchmarking, feature prioritization, heuristic analysis, and user journey mapping. His research has driven products in SaaS, gaming, e-health, LGBTQ+ resources, and digital communities. Outside of work, he enjoys fitness, jiu-jitsu, and curating an Amazon-inspired aquarium.

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Michiel Leenaars

Liaison to The Commons Conservancy
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Patricia Otter

Finance
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Rogier Spoor

Liaison to the National research and education networks
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