Team, Board, and Advisors

Open Factory Initiative is building transparent governance around its nonprofit mission, open-source project stewardship, technical direction, and community accountability.

Board of Directors

The initial Board of Directors will be published after organizational governance actions are completed and recorded.

Officers

Officer roles will be published after they are formally appointed and recorded in organizational minutes or written consent.

Advisors

The people currently listed here are presented as advisors or informal contributors. Formal governance role information will be published separately as records are finalized.

Advisor disclaimer

Advisor listings reflect informal advisory support and do not indicate board membership, employment, fiduciary responsibility, or authority to act on behalf of Open Factory Initiative. Formal board and officer roles will be published after governance actions are completed and recorded.

Aldon P Smith

Founder / cGMP Manufacturing Advisor

Aldon P. Smith is an automation and manufacturing systems professional focused on building reliable data foundations for AI-ready factories. His background spans pharmaceutical manufacturing, control systems, historian architecture, validation, technical documentation, and manufacturing-facing support in regulated environments. Through the Open Factory Initiative, he is helping advance open-source infrastructure for factory intelligence, including practical patterns for connecting industrial systems, preserving governance, and making AI adoption more transparent, explainable, and useful for manufacturing teams.

Mary E Taylor

AI Product & Responsible AI Advisor

Mary Taylor is an AI product leader with more than a decade of experience turning complex AI and machine learning capabilities into products people can actually use. She currently leads AI product work at UserTesting and has built products involving conversational agents, LLM-powered systems, predictive analytics, evaluation frameworks, and AI governance. She advises the Open Factory Initiative on product strategy, responsible AI practices, user-centered design, and how to translate advanced AI capabilities into practical tools for real-world teams.

Jordan P Lydon

Cybersecurity Advisor

Jordan Lydon brings cybersecurity, cloud architecture, and infrastructure operations expertise to the Open Factory Initiative. With experience spanning Microsoft Azure, systems administration, Linux and Windows environments, automation, and enterprise IT support, he helps guide the organization’s approach to secure infrastructure design. His advisory focus includes protecting open-source manufacturing systems, reducing operational risk, strengthening cloud and identity architecture, and promoting practical cybersecurity practices for industrial technology environments.

Governance roles

These role categories describe how governance and technical stewardship are expected to mature without naming people before records or appointments are finalized.

Mission oversight

Mission oversight protects the public-benefit purpose, reviews major organizational decisions, and supports accountability as governance records mature.

Administrative responsibilities

Administrative responsibilities include operational coordination, documentation, reporting, and recordkeeping appropriate to the organization's current stage.

Project maintainers

Maintainers steward the open-source technical project, review contributions, protect project scope, and keep documentation aligned with implementation.

Technical advisors

Advisors may provide manufacturing, validation, cybersecurity, AI/ML, research, or open-source ecosystem input without replacing public governance.

Community contributors

Contributors can support code, documentation, use cases, testing, architecture review, security feedback, and manufacturing-domain context.

Working groups or committees

Working groups may be formed as specific needs emerge, such as security review, validation-readiness documentation, reference architecture, or community onboarding.

Governance details will be updated as the organization matures, governance records are finalized, and advisory roles are formalized.