Hi, While the chair isn’t a project leader, they are the ASF’s formal contact, so the board does notice who takes on that role. What matters most is that the PMC as a whole shows balance and isn’t dominated by one company. If both the Chair and most of the PMC come from the same employer, it can raise concerns about conflicts of interest or the appearance of them.
This is already a concern with the recent branding issue, where the line between the company and the Apache project was blurred. That’s why the Incubator emphasises independence at this stage. So, it’s not a problem if the Chair is from Scalytics, provided the PMC is diverse and this is openly acknowledged. However, we had a few projects that have hidden this relationship, with detrimental results. I wanted to bring this to your attention now so there are no surprises later. Best, Justin
