We have some structural changes to announce within the Company. We’re sad to announce the upcoming departures of both @nicklambert and @pierrechevalier83 from the team. Both have contributed immeasurably during their time with the company (7.5 years and 15 months respectively) and we wish them all the very best for the future. Pierre will be working until the 5th of July and Nick will be working until the 30th of August.
The community will understandably want to understand the reasons here. So the facts are as follows. As we all know, we recently announced the resignation of our CTO, @Viv. This change meant @dirvine (our CEO) took up the role as interim CTO. As @dirvine focused closely on the upcoming Fleming launch, it was determined that a change of track (which included creating a project management team and plan to beta) could speed up the progress. The impact of this meant the scope of Fleming would very likely change. You will have seen the results of this revised approach in the recent publication of the Roadmap and Github project boards amongst other things.
With a revised approach, there are always different views. And of course which one is optimal can only be judged in retrospect when we can see the results that it produced. In this case, after lengthy discussions about the best route forwards, Pierre and Nick have made the decision to move on although the guys still very much support the SAFE vision.
It’s an unfortunate transition but it’s also worth addressing head on. The company has supported the decisions made by the guys to move on and as we always say, the success of this project will ultimately come down to the fact that heavy shifts have been carried out by many people over a very long period of time. We’re creating an infrastructure to change the world. And like any creative pursuit, at times there will be artistic differences. We will always be incredibly transparent around these things and this is, alas, one of these occasions.
However, there’s more news to share. Before Nick’s resignation, David had approached @dugcampbell and @nadia to strengthen the Board. The reasons here were to ensure that Marketing had a direct link to the Executive and also to cement the crucial project management role into a Project Director position. With Nick’s resignation, there was a gap in the Exec team so Dug with his years of experience of law, fundraising, crypto presentations, running meetups and relationship-building in general was proposed as a replacement COO in order to ensure that there is a smooth transition in the role. And we’re happy to say that this proposal was warmly accepted by the Board.
So what does this mean for MaidSafe and the SAFE Network? Any realignment in direction often brings with it an element of discomfort because we’re all human. However, everyone remains on good terms and, crucially, everyone - past or present - with this project is desperately keen to see SAFE launch and be successful. So while it will be sad to see the guys go over the next weeks/months, we hope that everyone will join us in wishing them well in whatever they decide to move on to.
We’re heading into an extremely exciting period - with a combination of deliverables planned and definition of the path forwards that we believe is as clear as it has ever been - and we remain as committed as ever to getting SAFE out and into the wild. So - as ever - we’d like to thank you all once again for your support. When it comes, success for the SAFE Network will be down to the Team. And the Team has always been - and will always be - far more than simply those of us within MaidSafe.
so back to it for all of us. SAFE is bigger than any person, company or team. It is a dream that turned into a deep desire by many for a better world. Time to deliver that dream is now, so lets do just that.
