Frank Karlitschek is a long time open source contributor and former board member of the KDE e.V. He managed engineering teams for over 20 years and worked as head of unit and managing director at different internet companies. In 2001 he created the openDesktop.org social network as well as GTK-Apps.org, GNOME-Look.org, KDE-Apps.org and other 'AppStores' before AppStores existed. He founded ownCloud in 2010 and the successor Nextcloud in 2016 to create a fully open source and decentralized alternative to big centralized cloud companies. Frank was an invited expert at the W3C to help to create the ActivityPub standard. Frank has spoken at MIT, CERN, Harvard and ETH and keynoted LinuxCon, Latinoware, FOSSASIA, Campus Party and many other conferences. Frank is the founder and CEO of Nextcloud GmbH. He is also a fellow of Open Forum Europe and an advisor to the United Nations.
