Welcome to our new Community Advisory Board Members for 2025-2026

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We are excited to announce the new members of our Community Advisory Board (CAB) as of February 2025. This group of Community Leaders bring a wealth of experience and insight that will help guide our community initiatives and enhance our engagement efforts. The new CAB members for the 2025-2026 term are: 

@Amanda Barber - ACE & Online Leader
@Kristján Geir Mathiesen - ACE & Online Leader, Creator, Certification SME 
@Mikael Sandberg - Online Leader & Certification SME
@Sajit Nair _Trundl_ - ACE & Leader, Creator (Solution & Marketplace Partner)
@Trudy Claspill - Online Leader (Solution Partner) 
@Larry Brock {Praecipio Consulting} - ACE Leader & Certification SME (returning Emeritus Member/ Solution Partner) 

The above members join @Sam Nadarajan (ACE Leader) who is returning in 2025 for the second year of his two year term on the CAB.

These representatives have been selected for their commitment to our community and their ability to provide valuable perspectives across various opportunities within the broader community. The overall CAB group is established and appointed to ensure diverse representation from various viewpoints, tenure and experience within the community. This includes voices from Customers, Solution Partners, and Marketplace Partners. The contributions of CAB members play a crucial role in shaping the future of our community.

Looking Ahead 

The CAB will play a crucial role in advising on community programs, providing feedback on initiatives, and fostering a collaborative approach with the Atlassian Community & Learning team.

We look forward to the exciting work ahead and encourage everyone to engage with our new CAB members as they embark on this journey. Thank you for your continued support!

How can I ensure my topic/ suggestion is raised in the CAB? 

Community members and Community Leaders are encouraged to reach out to their CAB representatives to pitch agenda items and new ideas for discussion by the CAB.

How can I express my interest in joining the CAB in future?

Please drop us an email at communitymanagers@atlassian.com or speak with your Community Manager directly.

- Atlassian Community & Learning team

[Jimmy Seddon]

Thank you all for volunteering your time to help make the program even better than it already is!

[Tomislav Tobijas _Koios_]

Welcome everyone! (and thank you!!)

Looking forward to seeing all the great things you’ll bring to the community 😊

[Andrew Zimmerman _Appfire_]

Thank you, CAB members! 👏

[John Funk]

Wooohoooo! What an awesome group!!

[Andy Gladstone]

A star studded lineup! This next two years of CAB will be power-packed with some amazing advocates for the community in all of its forms.

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

Thanks to everyone for bringing in your voice to help shape the future of the community.

@Lana Montgomery, can you make it more obvious which member of the CAB represents which group? I have a hard time to determine who's the representative for marketplace partners.

[Lana Montgomery]

Hi @Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ thanks for the suggestion, I have added this information next to the relevant CAB member's names. 

[Patricia Modispacher _appanvil_]

Wow, not only smart but also incredibly engaged! Huge congrats to all the new CAB members!  Your dedication to the community is truly inspiring, and I can’t wait to see the ideas, improvements, and collaborations you’ll bring to the table. This community is in great hands! 👏

[Peter Van de Voorde]

Thanks to everyone for volunteering. 

@Lana Montgomery : while I like the effort to spread the representation and I think each member is an excellent choice I do feel there is a lack of representation outside North America in this CAB. Only @Sajit Nair _Trundl_ is based outside of North America. 

Our community is very diverse with members on all 6 (maybe even 7 continents), each of which brings a unique part to the community. Having it this centered on North America (and mostly USA) might not create the global feeling of belonging you want to achieve. 

I understand that this is a difficult thing to get 'right' for everyone and that things like timezones and such come into play while figuring out the logistics for something like this. But I would have loved to see a more geographically diverse CAB (especially in these current times). 

I'll happily volunteer some of my time to work on finding a solution to this.

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

@Peter Van de Voorde speaks to my heart.

I also really believe that all the CABbies are wonderful people who will influence the community in a good way.

However, the representation of the whole community can be improved. Peter talked about the geographic representation. In addition to that, I'm wondering about the marketplace partner representation since the current representative works for a solution partner who are also doing a side business of being a marketplace partner (as far as I see from the outside).
Interacting as a marketplace partner with the community whether it is at events or online, is often a thin line of talking about your use cases and sharing the knowledge in the sphere you’re operating in while mentioning your apps in a subtle way to offer them to users where it makes sense without being marketing pushy. I see this as a challenging polarity and think that people from marketplace partner focussed companies have a stronger view on that which helps the CAB to make better decisions.

Let me know if I can also help to better achieve what you're aiming for:

The overall CAB group is established and appointed to ensure diverse representation from various viewpoints, tenure and experience within the community. This includes voices from Customers, Solution Partners, and Marketplace Partners

[Teodora V _Fun Inc_]

Welcome to the new CAB crew; I am sure they will continue the good work and give a great perspective on what's happening inside and outside the Atlassian Community. 

As a proud ex-CAB member, I also voice the concerns described by @Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ . Having a member who is an active marketplace partner offers a very diverse and yet important view of the ecosystem.

[Lana Montgomery]

@Peter Van de Voorde @Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ and @Teodora V _Fun Inc_ I just wanted to thank you for your feedback, acknowledge I've read it in detail, and provide the update that I've discussed with our C&L leadership team. 

We strive to maintain a balanced representation in each CAB term, ensuring diverse community contributions, regional perspectives, tenure levels, and Marketplace/Solution Partner involvement.

At times, this may result in a higher concentration of leaders from one of these categories in certain cohorts. We are committed to continuously optimizing the composition of the CAB and its operations. I will certainly take your feedback into account as we implement ongoing improvements.

[Peter Van de Voorde]

Thanks for getting back to us so quickly @Lana Montgomery ! 

Just know that the offer still stands, if you ever need help or input, feel free to ping me.