Brian is a Managing Director at Mithril Capital Management. He has had stints in startups, government, and international organizations, focusing the positive impact that open technologies can have on society.
He was a primary developer of the Apache Web server, the most popular web server software on the Internet, and started the Apache Software Foundation. Brian also launched CollabNet, which pioneered open source tools and development methods to transform how organizations write software.
After 8 years leading CollabNet as its CTO, Brian left to work on the 2008 Obama campaign as a technology advisor, and then at the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House, developing strategies for open access to data and APIs. Later he advised the Department of Health and Human Services on the launch of two Open Source software projects designed to accelerate the adoption of standards for the exchange of electronic health records.
In 2011 he moved to Geneva to start a 20-month stint as CTO at the World Economic Forum, where he rebooted a 30 year old legacy environment with open software and open thinking. Brian is now back in San Francisco with Mithril Capital, and remains an advisor to the WEF. Brian is on the Boards of Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Benetech, and CollabNet. Now he’s on the hunt for great young companies tackling hard problems and disrupting industries.