João Henrique Gouveia

Gouveia, 2026

Involved with IT since 1989, connected to Python and Plone since 2004, public servant at the Brazilian Federal Senate, CIO of the Interlegis Program, and current member of the Plone Foundation Board.

Who am I?

I have been involved with information technology since 1989 and have served as a public servant at the Brazilian Federal Senate since 2002. I am a former CIO of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply and currently serve as CIO of the Interlegis Program at the Brazilian Federal Senate.

I have been connected to Python and Plone since 2004 and have been part of the Brazilian Plone community for more than two decades. I am a member of the PloneGov-BR community and the Interlegis/GITEC community, and I was a co-organizer of both Plone Conference Brasília 2013 and Plone Conference Brasília 2024.

I currently serve on the Plone Foundation Board and am seeking reelection for another term.

Why am I interested?

Plone has been part of my professional life for more than twenty years. It has supported projects I care deeply about, introduced me to an extraordinary international community, and given me countless opportunities to learn, collaborate, and grow professionally.

I strongly believe in contribution and giving back. Open source projects only remain healthy when those who benefit from them also help sustain their communities and institutions. Serving on the Plone Foundation Board has been one way for me to give something back to a project and a community that have given me so much.

I would like to continue that work for another term.

I am not a software developer, and I believe that is also part of what I can bring to the Board. A strong open source foundation needs technical expertise, but it also needs people who can build bridges between technology and organizations, communicate with non-technical stakeholders and senior leadership, negotiate within large institutions, develop partnerships, and help organizations understand why contributing to open source is in their own long-term interest.

These are areas where my professional experience can complement the technical expertise that is already so strong within the Plone community.

What can I contribute to the Plone Foundation?

My experience combines more than three decades in IT with public-sector leadership, institutional negotiation, open source advocacy, community building, and a long relationship with Plone.

I believe I can contribute a perspective that is particularly relevant to the Foundation: that of a large institutional user of open source software and, at the same time, someone working to turn institutional adoption into active participation in the community.

Through the Brazilian Federal Senate and the Interlegis Program, I have had the opportunity to see how Plone can support public institutions of very different sizes and levels of technical capacity. Interlegis has also demonstrated how open source technology can be shared across institutions, creating public value far beyond the organization that originally adopted it.

I would like to continue helping the Plone Foundation strengthen its relationships with governments, public-sector organizations, universities, large institutional users, and other organizations that can become not only Plone users, but active participants in its ecosystem.

I can also contribute to strengthening the connection between the international Plone community and Latin America, particularly Brazil, where Plone has a long history and where there is significant potential to bring new organizations, users, developers, and contributors into the community.

More broadly, I hope to continue helping the Foundation communicate an idea I consider fundamental: organizations that depend on open source software should not see themselves only as consumers. They can — and should — become participants in the communities that make that software possible.

How have I contributed to Plone?

My involvement with Plone spans more than twenty years and includes:

  • serving as a member of the Plone Foundation Board;
  • co-organizing Plone Conference Brasília 2013;
  • co-organizing Plone Conference Brasília 2024;
  • participating in the PloneGov-BR community;
  • participating in the Interlegis/GITEC community;
  • promoting the adoption and long-term use of Plone within public-sector environments;
  • helping connect institutional users, particularly in the Brazilian public sector, with the broader Plone ecosystem.

For me, organizing Plone Conference in Brasília twice, eleven years apart, is particularly meaningful. It reflects not only my personal commitment to the project but also the long relationship between the Brazilian community and the global Plone community.

Plone Foundation members who second my nomination

  • Érico Andrei
  • Rafahela Garcia Bazzanella
  • Martin Peeters
  • Brian Davis