Suchi for Drupal Association Board

Suchi for Board

We’re proud to have one of our very own, Suchi Garg (gargsuchi), going for a prestigious place on the Drupal Association Board (see the Board elections for more information). We may be a bit biased, but we think Suchi would make an incredible addition to the Board and is in a great position to help the Board support the Association’s vision and mission. Her technical expertise is phenomenal and she’s also a great communicator and Drupal advocate. Plus she effectively represents India (where she grew up and lived until 2017) and Australia (where she lives now).

The Board includes two At-large Board Members, who are elected from within the Drupal community, by the Drupal community.

View Suchi’s normal Drupal profile (gargsuchi)

View Suchi’s nomination profile

View Suchi's nomination video

About Suchi

Suchi has an impressive list of qualifications and professional experience. This background sets her up well for the Drupal Association Board.

Her educational and professional qualifications and certifications include:

• Bachelor in Computer Science

• MBA

• Drupal Grand Master

• Certified Scrum Master

• Acquia Drupal Certified Developer

• Acquia Drupal Certified Backend Specialist

• Acquia Drupal Certified Frontend Specialist

She’s been at Salsa since May 2017 and came to us straight from Acquia in India. At Acquia she started as a technical architect but was soon promoted to Manager, Technical Services. Before that, Suchi worked at Axelerant, Halabol, HCL and Srijan Technologies.

She has over 21 years’ experience, with more than 18 years in open source web development.

Although her development credentials are exceptionally strong, Suchi says the board position isn’t just about her development skills and technical ability. “I’m a good people person as well, and I think it’s often very difficult to find a person with both technical and communication skills who can bridge the gap between technical experts and non-tech stakeholders. This is what I can bring to the Board.”

Suchi and Drupal

Suchi started working in Drupal in 2006 when she was literally thrown in the deep end, given a website and told to build it in Drupal. Back then it was Drupal 4.2. She didn’t know anything about Drupal when she started, but was still able to successfully deliver the project. She remembers how much the community (although much smaller then) helped her out.

Since 2009 Suchi has been working exclusively with Drupal. She’s an active contributor to the Drupal community under gargsuchi, with many posts and module contributions.

Suchi’s other voluntary (unpaid) contributions in the Drupal community include:

• Participating in more than 50 Drupal camps/ meetups across India

• Volunteering her time to submit and present 2-3 sessions for Drupal camps per year (2009 to 2017)

• Running many Drupal-in-a-day courses for newbies at camps

• Running many Drupal sessions at universities/colleges

• Initiating “Women in Drupal” sessions in India

She’s also attended three DrupalCons and was a speaker at two of them, DrupalCon Asia and DrupalCon Barcelona.

Suchi is also an Individual Member of the Drupal Association. (By the way, Salsa is an Organisation Member of the Drupal Association.)

Delivering on the mission and vision

The Drupal Association’s vision is: To establish the community-built Drupal software as the leading platform for the Web.

And its mission statement: Drupal powers the best of the Web. The Drupal Association unites a global open source community to build and promote Drupal.

Suchi is dedicated to the Drupal community and to supporting the Drupal Association’s vision and mission. While most of the At-large Board Members’ role is to discuss existing agenda items we did ask Suchi how she’d deliver on the vision and mission. She identified two key areas:

1. Making Drupal more available and easily evaluated by non-developers. “If you’re a developer you know the capabilities of Drupal. But it can be challenging to show decision-makers (e.g. CEOs, marketing directors) how and why Drupal is the best option. Making Drupal more accessible would go a long way to increasing Drupal’s market share.”

2. Making Drupal more global and more diverse — many of the key positions and Drupal events are held in the US, but Suchi feels she can help deliver on the Drupal Association’s vision of uniting a global open source community. “There’s a huge community outside of US and we should be targeting them, talking to them, catering to them as well. We should also look at encouraging more female participation in the community to increase our diversity. ”

Representing globally

Suchi was born and spent most of her life in India. This means she can represent the Indian Drupal community as a Board member. Since she moved to Australia in 2017, she’s maintained her ties with the Indian community and also recommends her Indian Drupal contacts for contract roles.

Since moving to Australia, Suchi has continued her commitment to the Drupal community, and now is also able to represent Australia as a Board member.

Interestingly, two people whose roles expire this year are Shyamala Rajaram and Donna Benjamin— an Indian woman and an Australian woman.

Voting

Voting opens on 2 July and closes on 13 July. The voting system uses preferences (it’s called an instant runoff system —see an explanatory video), so please vote for Suchi (gargsuchi) in your top three to help her secure a position!

Other key dates to remember:

• Open for nominations: 1-11 June

• Meet the candidates: 12-19 June

• Voting: 2-13 July

• Winner announced: 25 July

View Suchi’s Drupal profile (gargsuchi)

View Suchi's nomination profile

Vote for Suchi - link coming on 2 July!

The final word

Suchi truly would make a great addition to the Drupal Association Board. The combination of her technical expertise, community commitment and dedication would bring much to the Board (in Salsa’s humble opinion). Suchi has done some impressive things in her career, despite often being ‘up against’ society’s expectations in her native India, where most women don’t work, don’t pursue careers. But her dedication, persistence, and intellect has won out. Salsa wishes her the best for this next pursuit...we’ll be voting for her and we hope you will be too!