Bruce Scherzinger has been Secretary of Open Source Matters (the organisation facilitating Joomla) since the last election in March 2026. Now that he’s all settled in, it’s time we get to know him a little better!

Congratulations on being elected as our brand new Secretary, Bruce! Let's start with a couple of super personal questions to get to know you a bit better.

Your favourite food: Authentic Neapolitan style pizza. But besides that one, anything my wife cooks. She’s amazing! (she does not make pizza)

What do you usually have for breakfast: Protein-rich foods like cottage cheese (preferably with organic blueberries), eggs, sausage (pork or chicken), and coffee. Always coffee. Sometimes sourdough bread my wife bakes (the store bread in the USA is terrible!)

Best movie ever: The Princess Bride

Last work of fiction you’ve read: Believe it or not, I don’t read for entertainment. I only read for education. So it’s likely been 5 or more decades since I read my last novel. So…I forget.

Your best idea ever: I don’t think in these terms, though I would have to put being part of the Joomla community very close to the top of such a list. I like thinking of myself as a “crafty” person, but only in terms of small, custom software solutions. Nothing would stand out as a “best idea ever”.

Five words that describe you (“my name is Bruce Scherzinger” is not allowed): Terminal nerd with coding disorder.

And now over to the serious part. Could you tell us a little about your background (work life, where do you live, anything you’d like to share with us)?

I am retired after a 50-year career as an embedded software/systems engineer that early-on was in defense and finished in aerospace. Married in 1983, we have lived in Northern Virginia (USA), a.k.a. “NoVA”, since 1986. All 3 of our children were born here. We have not found another place in the USA we like better as a place to live, but we love traveling to places we THINK we’d like to live (but don’t make economic sense).

Why did you decide to run for Secretary? 

Angie Radtke, the previous interim secretary, twisted my arm. But I did want to be more involved in the community since I retired. Someone suggested I run for president, but I did not want a “job” that came with that amount of responsibility. I am already busier than I was before retirement.

What did you expect the role to be like, and what's it really like?

It is pretty much exactly as I expected, including being able to work alongside the other Board members, who are some of the best people I have ever met.

What do you consider your biggest challenge at the moment?

Type 2 diabetes and aging gracefully. Or do you mean in my role as OSM Secretary? 😛 In that domain, the “biggest” (continuing) challenge is knowing when I’m expected to do something I haven’t yet understood to be part of this job.

What’s your Joomla story?

I needed to build a website for my Home Owner Association (HOA) in 2003. I started with straight HTML, but then learned about Mambo in 2005 and built my first HOA site with it. Then, Joomla forked off Mambo and it was clear it would take the direction that made the most sense (to me). So I stuck with it. Being a software developer at the time, I loved its extensibility. At the time, only Community Builder (CB) provided the sort of user profile extensibility I needed for the HOA site, so I began writing my own CB plugins. Then I tried my hand at a component and it became clear I did not need that for my HOA site.

I was fairly involved with the Joomla community in 2009, when I met Dorothy Firsching and we collaborated with a few others in the NoVA area and started the NoVA JUG, which is still meeting monthly but with a greatly diminished attendance. We held the first ever Joomla Day DC in 2010 at a Microsoft facility in Chevy Chase, Maryland, which was an enormous success. But as a JUG, most of the original members left the area over time and we struggled to remain relevant.

So, jump to 2025, Angie’s arm-twisting, and my real love for this community brought me back to the point of wanting to be more involved.

What does the Board of Open Source Matters do?

Briefly, the Board mainly focuses on the future of Joomla as both an open source product/project and a community. This community is incredibly strong, but Joomla is losing market share. The Board listens to the community and tries to find ways that fit into our community mindset to advance funding and to continue to support an embracing community of gifted and talented contributors.

What’s it like to be part of that?

As OSM Secretary, I feel my role as a 100% supporting role. I don’t consider myself a decision maker, but my opinion is valued by the other Board members. As I alluded earlier, I like this balance as I prefer to avoid conflict (stress is not my friend).

What’s the biggest misconception about the Board of Open Source Matters? 

I can only repeat what I have heard from certain community members. Some apparently think the Board is a bureaucratic obstacle that stifles progress. That is absolutely NOT the case. The Board is at least as compassionate (probably moreso) as any other members of the community in keeping Joomla relevant and making the world aware of how good it really is.

Where would you say Joomla stands at the moment?

We, as a community, have a lot of work to do to remain relevant in the CMS “industry”. It’s tough being 100% community-driven and keeping pace with an industry that, as we will see, becomes more reliant on AI and commercial backing, something we have felt the resistance to do ourselves. Trust me, we are very sensitive to that position.

What do you consider the best things about Joomla and its community?

#1: the people and their commitment to the project. Period.

#2: the passion to create and maintain the best possible open source CMS despite industry pressure

#3: the product itself. I cannot see myself ever using another CMS.

If you had to pick three words to describe Joomla now, what would those words be and why?

“On the mend”. This was to a large degree the motivation behind the recent Sovereign Tech Fund (STF) proposal effort initiated by our previous president. The hope of the STF project is to provide a much-needed, timely boost in the area of accessibility. The Board will continue to look for other ways to stay abreast of constantly changing international standards, but we hope the STF effort might spark more enthusiasm for volunteering in the Joomla community in the coming years.

What role do you see for the secretary when it comes to growing Joomla?

Remain supportive and a contributor (with a voice) to opportunities that present themselves to the Board. And trust me, there are many, many such opportunities. We just have to be mindful of our ability as a volunteer project to meet challenges that require talent we may not currently have, or which comes and goes. Volunteer work can be a fleeting experience, a temporary undertaking for many people, which can disrupt the ability to continue ongoing efforts unabated.

Anything else you'd like to share with us?

I am incredibly proud and thankful to be a contributing member of this project. And I appreciate the trust the community has placed in me and the other Board members.