What is Business Advisory Committee?

The Business Advisory Committees (BACs) are designed to advise the OpenSSL Foundation and the OpenSSL Corporation. The BACs focus on business-related decisions, including the project roadmap and future feature set. The Business Advisory Committee members will serve as the voices of their respective communities - distributions, committers, small companies, large companies, individuals, and academics. Their primary responsibility is representing their communities’ interests, concerns, and insights within the broader discussions of the OpenSSL Foundation and the OpenSSL Corporation. This ensures that decisions made reflect the diverse stakeholders involved in the project.

There is a separate BAC for the OpenSSL Foundation and for the OpenSSL Corporation, reflecting the different primary focus of each organization (non-commercial for the OpenSSL Foundation and commercial for the OpenSSL Corporation). Community members can nominate for a single BAC or separately for both BACs. A given person can only represent a single community in a BAC.

Directors and managers of the OpenSSL Foundation and the OpenSSL Corporation are precluded from holding a community representative position within the BAC. Directors and managers may participate within each community that they are part of and may vote in elections - they are simply precluded from accepting a nomination for election. Employees, contractors, and members who are not directors or managers of the OpenSSL Foundation and the OpenSSL Corporation may participate in the same way as any other community member.

For more information, please contact us at [email protected].