Announcing Istio's 2026 Steering Committee Elections
Source: Istio Blog
Contribution seats
The calculation for the 2026‑2027 term reflects the deep investment of our vendors in the Istio open source project. Four companies are represented in the Contribution Seats:
| Company | Seat allocation |
|---|---|
| Solo.io | 4 |
| Microsoft | 3 |
| Red Hat | 1 |
| Tetrate | 1 |
The full allocation can be seen in our formula spreadsheet.
Community Seat election
As in previous years, the Community Seat elections immediately follow the allocation of the Contribution Seats. It is now time to collect nominations for candidates and ensure the voter list is correct.
Candidates
Eligibility for candidacy is defined in the Steering Committee charter as a project member who does not work for a company that will hold a Contribution Seat during the upcoming term.
Nominations are due by March 6.
Voters
Eligibility to vote is defined in the charter as either:
- a project member who has had at least one Pull Request merged in the past 12 months, or
- someone who has submitted the voting exception form and has been accepted by the Steering Committee as having standing in the community through contribution of another kind.
The draft list of voters has been published. If you’re not on that list and you believe you have standing in the Istio community, please submit the exception form.
Exception requests are due by March 6. Voting will start on March 9 and last until March 20.
Announcement of the new committee
Upon completion of the election, the entire 2026‑2027 committee—election winners and company‑selected Contribution Seat holders—will be announced.
The Steering Committee thanks its members, old and new, and looks forward to continuing to grow and improve Istio as a successful and sustainable open‑source project. We encourage everyone to get involved in the Istio community by contributing, standing for election, voting, and helping shape the future of cloud‑native networking.