ROOST Welcomes Inaugural Board of Directors to Guide Mission and Long-Term Governance

ROOST (Robust Open Online Safety Tools) is proud to announce the formation of its inaugural Board of Directors. This is an important piece of foundational work that will help ROOST continue advancing its mission to build open, transparent, and community-driven safety tools.

Founded in 2025, ROOST was created to ensure that critical online safety infrastructure isn’t locked behind proprietary walls. By developing shared, open tools, ROOST supports developers, researchers, civil society, and platforms working to keep digital and AI systems safe and accountable.

“This Board brings together extraordinary leaders who understand not only the technology, but also the communities and governance that make institutions resilient. Their guidance will help us scale our mission while staying true to our values.”

This new Board brings together leaders who have shaped technology, public policy, open source communities, civil society, and national security—and whose expertise will be instrumental in guiding ROOST’s next phase of growth.

Together, they will steward ROOST’s long-term strategy and ensure our work remains independent, inclusive, and grounded in public-interest values.

Introducing the Board of Directors

ROOST’s Board brings a unique combination of expertise—from open source governance to government leadership, from technology policy to community empowerment.

Clint Smith (Chair)

Eli Sugarman (Vice Chair)

Camille François (President)

Angela Lungati — A non-profit and open-source technology expert; Executive Director of Ushahidi, advancing community-driven data empowerment.

Audrey Tang — Taiwan’s founding Minister of Digital Affairs and Right Livelihood Laureate for advancing the social use of digital technology to empower citizens, renew democracy, and heal divides.

Jamil Jaffer — Venture Partner at Paladin Capital investing in trust & safety innovation; founder of the National Security Institute at George Mason University and former senior Hill and White House staffer.

Mark Surman — President of Mozilla, long-time open source advocate, and leader in global nonprofit governance.

Megan Smith — Former U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Former VP at Google, with deep engagement across civic tech, open innovation, and public-interest technology.

Niki Christoff — Strategic communications leader with experience at Salesforce, and multiple U.S. presidential campaigns.

Vincent Courson — A leader at Google with deep experience in trust & safety, cross-industry collaboration, and global technology policy.

Guiding ROOST’s Mission for an Open, Safe Internet

ROOST is building open, robust safety tools that can be used across AI models, online platforms, and digital communities. This includes foundational infrastructure for detecting fraud and abuse, mitigating harmful content like child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and terrorism and violent extremism content (TVEC), and supporting practitioners working to mitigate emerging harms like sadistic online exploitation.

The Board will help ROOST:

Drive opportunities that will help us build open, interoperable tools that strengthen online safety across systems

Ensure safety infrastructure remains transparent, accountable, and community-governed

Support collaboration across industry, academia, civil society, and governments

Advance the creation of a shared safety commons, including preparing that commons for both the harms and potentials of advanced AI

Looking Ahead

As ROOST expands its work, this Board will anchor the organization’s independence and ensure its tools remain open, public-interest–aligned, and accessible to all who are building towards a safer internet. Together, this group will help ROOST drive the next generation of cooperative safety infrastructure—designed for openness, built for resilience, and governed by the trust and safety communities who rely on it.