The OGF's new board-of-directors is comprised of world-class organisations and individuals tasked with providing guidance and helping to ensure the ongoing health of the organisation. Members of the new OGF board are:

• Ian Baird (EMC);
• Bernd Kosch (Fujitsu-Siemens);
• Martin Walker (Hewlett-Packard);
• Ken King (IBM);
• Tom Gibbs (Intel);
• Tony Hey (Microsoft);
• Mike Szelong (Network Appliance);
• Bob Thome (Oracle);
• Chris Purpura (Platform Computing);
• Malcolm Atkinson (UK e-Science);
• Dr. Bill Nitzberg (Altair Engineering);
• Paul Strong (eBay);
• Dr. Hiro Kishimoto (Fujitsu);
• Jason Carolan (Sun Microsystems); and
• Charlie Catlett (TeraGrid, University of Chicago/Argonne Labs).

OGF's new operational leadership is composed of Mark Linesch, President, and 7 Vice Presidents, responsible for leading the organisational functions critical to delivering results. The Operational leadership team and their functions are:

• Enterprise, Robert Fogel, Intel
• eScience, Geoffrey Fox, Indiana University
• Standards, David Snelling, Fujitsu
• Marketing, Hanoch Eiron, HP
• Operations, Steve Crumb, OGF
• Regional, EMEA: Bernd Kosch, Fujitsu-Siemens; Asia: Toshihiro Suzuki, Oracle.

OGF's mission is to accelerate Grid adoption to ensure business value and scientific discovery. Driven by this mission, the organisation will focus on two strategic priorities over the next 12 to 18 months:

1. Establishing a more productive environment for Grid innovation, outreach and communication. One near term deliverable in this area is the development of a comprehensive white paper to clarify the positioning and value proposition for Grids within the broader distributed computing ecosystem. The white paper is planned for release in January 2007.

2. A redoubling of efforts to deliver specifications that enable Grid software interoperability. A new committee has been established and chartered with developing an ongoing OGF Technical Strategy and Roadmap. A series of workshops are planned, beginning with GGF18 at GridWorld, to ensure alignment of the strategy and roadmap with key end user and software communities. The initial document will be published in Q1, 2007.

"Our new organisation combines two simple but synergistic concepts: 'Open Forum' and 'Open Standards'", stated Mark Linesch, President and CEO of the OGF. "As an Open Forum, OGF brings the Grid community together to identify and align requirements, workshop specifications and best practices, and communicate progress. As an Open Standards organisation, OGF aligns with broadly adopted industry standards while developing new specifications to enable Grid software interoperability."