Ton Roosendaal is to stop down as chairman and Blender CEO on 1 January 2026. The news was announced during today’s keynote at the annual Blender Conference.
Roosendaal – the original author of the open-source 3D software, and its public figurehead for the past three decades – will pass on his roles to current Blender COO Francesco Siddi.
Roosendaal himself will move to the newly established Blender Foundation supervisory board.
Other new Blender Foundation board positions will also include Sergey Sharybin (Head of Development), Dalai Felinto (Head of Product) and Fiona Cohen (Head of Operations).
“We’ve been preparing for this since 2019,” said Roosendaal, “I am very proud to have such a wonderfully talented young team around me to bring our free and open source project into the next decade.”
We aim to update this story with a brief retrospective of Ton’s time as Blender CEO and the growth of Blender during that time, so check back for updates.
Read the official announcement that Ton Roosendaal is stepping down as Blender CEO