Ton Roosendaal Steps Down as Chairman of the Blender Foundation
After having worked on Blender for 32 years and leading the Blender Foundation for 24 years, Ton has announced that he will be stepping down as chairman and CEO on January 1, 2026.
As Ton commented, it’s time to step back now and focus more on himself. What the future will bring? He doesn’t know yet.
Ton will not disappear from the Blender scene entirely as he’ll have a seat in the Blender Foundation’s supervisory board where he will be able to ‘pull some strings’ as he said it.
During the last years, Ton has built an amazing team that combines the four qualities that he thinks are essential to Blender success: being an Organizer, a Designer/Maker, a Developer, and an Entrepreneur.
This will be the new board of the Blender Foundation as of January 1, 2026:
- Francesco Siddi – CEO
- Sergey Sharybin – Head of Development
- Dalai Felinto – Head of Product
- Fiona Cohen – Head of Operations
While I’m sad to witness the end of an era, it’s always best to step out when things are going well and to give the next wave of the Blender team a chance to put their own stamp on the future. Good luck, everyone, I have a lot of faith in you!
Ton: thank you for everything you’ve created for all of us and for contributing to a better world – something that’s worth a lot, especially in these times.
You can watch the entire announcement during Ton’s keynote at BCON25 yesterday:
The end of an era, but still the mark of new beginnings and an amazing future. Thank you for all of your work Ton, you have been a big inspiration to me and many others, and your work has done so much good for the world! I hope you enjoy the time after you step down to the fullest
Thank you Ton
and Happy Blending to everyone!!
Thank you Ton.
THANK YOU TON!
It had to happen one day. The question is, whether Ton has a worthy successor. Happy retirement and thanks for your contribution!
Watch the video for an answer to that :)
Ton is Mr. Blender.
I follow this project from the beginning as it start to be an open-source Project.
This small child grows to an adult. The creativity and imagination of its “father” was for me an inspiration,
to see what people from around the world in different languages, from different cultures working on, together and with this piece of tool to create Art and Fantasy.
Even if I never meet him in person, listen to his visions, ideas and jokes make you feel part of a powerful community – Thank you !
Have a well deserved retirement !
Let me be the 6th person to congratulate Ton!
Seriously Blender has been an amazing contribution to the world. I guess like Linux at time it has been a rocky ride with many different opinions, but Ton has kept it heading in the right direction when it could have so easy hit the rocks or descended into infighting. I hope the new board will continue to do that. I don’t see any serious competitors to Blender now. Blender is now all we have got! Stay true!
I first met Ton Roosendaal in Eindhoven, when he was CEO of NeoGeo, and I remember when he made the bold decision to continue developing Blender. At that time, I was working with LightWave 3D, which had far more features than Blender in its early stages, so switching never crossed my mind—I even smiled a little at Blender back then.
Now, many years later, I’ve been working with Blender myself for years, and I couldn’t be happier with it. What an incredible piece of software—completely open source and free. It gave anyone who wanted to explore 3D the chance to dive in without barriers. Today, Blender belongs among the very best of 3D software, without requiring people to pay thousands of euros. Schools and students around the world are embracing Blender more and more—and rightly so!
Ton has been nothing less than a visionary, full of determination. I can only imagine how many acquisition offers he must have turned down, all to keep Blender independent and open. I have enormous respect for him—he has truly written 3D history.
Thank you, Ton, for everything you have done.
Freddy Peters / Cyberfish / Sjonsjine
Love the fact that Blender has continued to be an open source free programme, based entirely on donations. This is amazing since Blender is an incredible 3D programme up there with paid programmes. Thanks Ton for insisting that this was to be the way and thankyou for your brilliant leadership.
This is terrifying. Is there anything in the terms of the Blender licensing agreement that would allow these new people to start monetizing – meaning destroying – Blender? Or will it now be up to them to decide what to do with it? I don’t really want to be that guy, but…
You’re fear mongering. Watch the video and see the confidence that Ton has in them – that should tell you enough.
I do hate to see a pioneer step down. I hope the Blender team continues to keep Blender free and allows add-ons to generate income. If it weren’t for free Blender, I would have never learned what I know about 3D modeling, sculpting, and animation.
So, I wish the best for Ton Roosendaal and his future prosperity. Thank you, Ton Roosendaal for having the vision that there are artists like me who have benefited from Blender’s free platform to teach a world of users.
Thank you, Ton!