Directors Election: Meet Your 2021 SCM Board of Directors Nominees

The Scrum Alliance Board of Directors has a minimum of nine members. Of these, at least five are appointed by the board and known as Board Elected Directors, or BED.  Three are elected by the membership of the organization and referred to as Scrum Certified Members or SCM. One is the Chief Executive Officer.

Meet the Finalists 

In May of this year, we opened up the nomination period for the 2022 SCM election and received an impressive 400 unique nominees. We are pleased to introduce the following three finalist candidates selected by the Nominating Committee. As an active Scrum Alliance member, you have the opportunity to vote on one candidate whose term on the Scrum Alliance BOD will commence on 1 January 2022.

Aanu Gopald CEC; CTC; CAL I; Path to CSP® and Scrum Foundations Educator; CSM®, CSPO®, A-CSM, CSP®-SM, CSP®-PO

My professional career has been dedicated to positively impacting lives and organizations around the world as an Engineer, Change Catalyst, Executive Coach, Speaker, Philanthropist. Agility is a way of life for me and its sheer power spurs me to expand the agile knowledge to the world around me. Through coaching, mentoring, love, giving, leadership, I help people become the best version of themselves. My passion for youth empowerment and growth is the inspiration behind the launching of African Girls-in-Tech for low-income earners and unemployed female graduates. The organization’s goal is to increase the earning power of 10,000 girls by 2025. 50% of graduates are in employment, 15% are freelancing for companies in different parts of the world. Along the way, I have learned it is only when we listen to each other and support each other, especially the less privileged, that we find the best solutions for our career, industries, organizations, and society.

Aanu is the:

• The first black female to achieve the Scrum Alliance CTC & CEC.
• Founder of agile Africa Alliance– a virtual platform that connects 2000+ Africans with the global Agile community, its resources and mastery.
• Mentored hundreds of low- and-middle-income earners for six-figure positions.
• Founder of Africa Agility Foundation an NGO using digital skills and Agile methods for social goods.
• Launched Women in Agile Nigeria and Women in Agile DFW Chapters.

By trade, I worked as a Transformational Coach at companies like Nike, Toyota, AT&T, Capital One, TD Bank, and the UK Government.

To learn more about Aanu, click here.

Ruchika Sagar; CTC; Scrum Foundations Educator; CSM®, CSD®, CSPO®, A-CSD®, CSP®-SM, CSP®-PO

I am an agile coach and a mother with a purpose to empower others to discover their innate talents, inner wealth, and ways of reaching their goals.

I feel that we already have an innate wisdom within our subconscious brain. When awakened, this wisdom is capable of exponentially increasing our results and fulfillment. This also applies to organizational collective performance, especially when a supportive and visionary board of directors backs the community.

I have done formal academic coursework from the University at Buffalo on roles and responsibilities of board of directors in nonprofit organizations. I empower the c-suite in abilities of setting awe inspiring, courageous goals, assisting in fundraising activities and pinpointing strategic opportunities from the rest. Some of this also takes being comfortable with public outreach while one has the genuine interest of the organization at heart. Among other attributes, I emphasize the importance of moral accountability, agile modelling, and a mindset of inclusion.

Over the years, I have had a close relationship with Scrum Alliance. Added to personally growing through my CSP and CTC certifications, I frequently volunteer through agile coaches clinics or in the development of the Scrum Alliance PO/PI advisory tool. I also hosted the first ever virtual agile games conference. My hope is to leverage my academic exposure, related experience, and opportunities as a member of the Scrum Alliance Board of Directors to accelerate my impact for the agile community.

To learn more about Ruchika, click here.

Angel Diaz-Maroto; CST®; CEC; CTC; Path to CSP®, CAL and Scrum Foundations Educator; CSM®, CSD®, CSPO®, A-CSM®, A-CSD®, CSP®-SM, CSP®-PO, CAL-E, CAL-O

I am an energetic, outspoken, and forward-thinking Spaniard. I’m naturally driven to be an early adopter and to spark innovation in the teams in which I belong. I would be honoured to put myself at your service and represent the community on reinforcing the true essence of scrum. I hope to ensure that the Scrum Alliance brand continues to stand out from other certification entities through results; and turning disappointment in scrum into successful implementations by providing unique, modern training, coaching and consulting alternatives.

Throughout my 16- year history as an agile practitioner, I enjoyed a unique learning journey. At the ING group, In 2010, I became the first Agile Champion in Spain and chairman of the Global ING Agile Experts Group. Since 2014, I have supported organizations and leaders in Europe, Americas, the Middle East, and Asia, fostering the agile transformations of companies, including eBay, King, Toyota, Falabella, Banco de Chile, Roche, BBVA, Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank, and the Dubai Electricity & Water Authority. All the while, I was discovering the world of work we want to transform and the impact of different cultures and realities in this equation. I also enjoy serving in universities and outreach initiatives as a trainer and participating as a speaker at international conferences. Being a significant contributor to the international agile community since 2009, particularly in Latin America. In 2015, I became a CEC and later CST, Path to CSP and CAL educator, being enriched with a comprehensive perspective of the Scrum Alliance community.

To learn more about Angel, click here.

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Voting for the SCM Election will run from 15 September  - 30 Sept 2021 and is open to all active Scrum Alliance Members. To vote in this year’s election: Check your email! Your ballot will be sent to the email associated with your Scrum Alliance Account. You can also log into your dashboard and check your notifications when voting begins.

For questions, please email [email protected].

Learn more about what it is like to be a Scrum Alliance Board member from current SCM Elected Director, Marjon Pouran.