Baddy Sonja Breidert honored with Drupal's Aaron Winborn Award 2020
Yesterday at DrupalCon Global, Baddý Sonja, the CEO of 1xINTERNET, received the Aaron Winborn award. This award is presented annually to an individual who demonstrates personal integrity, kindness, and above-and-beyond commitment to the Drupal community.
Baddy has been known for her active engagement in the Drupal Community for many years. She was one of the co-organizers of Drupal Europe 2018 as well as the Northern Lights and Solstice DrupalCamps in Iceland. She has been been one of the organizers of both the local and international Splash Awards, as well as being a very active member of the German Drupal community. Baddy also influenced the fundraising challenge #DrupalCares Matching Challenge.
She is currently a member of the Drupal Association Board of Directors, where she serves as a Treasurer. She is a founder and president of both the German Drupal Business Association and the Icelandic Drupal Association. Since early this year, she became a board member of the Drupal Event Organizers Working Group.
"I am extremely happy to have received this award. Drupal has so many opportunities for individuals and businesses. During my work with the community I have met so many passionate and inspiring people who have a big part in my heart. I have enjoyed every minute that I spent working for the Drupal Community"
Baddy’s story with Drupal began back in 2007 when she and her husband Dr. Christoph Breidert, Managing director of 1xINTERNET, started using Drupal for their personal projects. In 2011, Baddy and Christoph founded 1xINTERNET and decided to use Drupal as their company’s main technology. It was not until 2013 that Baddy went to her first DrupalCamp in Germany and the following year she attended her first DrupalCon in Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam, Baddy was very surprised when Dries Buytaert, founder and project lead of Drupal, walked past and asked how it was going at the event, if the team was having fun, and enjoying themselves. This was an eye opener for Baddy, she was so fascinated by the power of the community, impressed how there was no hierarchy and how everyone was willing to collaborate and share knowledge and contacts. Needless to say, Baddy has been to every DrupalCon since and she never tires of inspiring her employees and everyone else around her in the community to be involved and take part by contributing in one way or another. She has ever since this Drupal event dedicated a lot of her energy and free time to the Drupal community.
The award was given right before the keynote of Mitchell Baker Executive Chairwoman and CEO of Mozilla. Mitchell talked about how open source has evolved and how active communities play an important role in open source, for which Drupal is one of the most prominent example.
Baddy studied computer science at the University of Reykjavik and earned her Master in Engineering at the Technical University of Vienna. She is a frequent speaker at various tech events in Europe and an active advocate for women in tech.
"I think it's really important that everyone wanting to be involved in the tech industry can do so, background or gender do not matter, everyone has something to contribute. I love seeing people finding their strength and do something they love. "
The Aaron Winborn award
The award has been established by the Community Working Group, with the support of the Drupal Association, in honour of long-time Drupal contributor Aaron Winborn, who lost his battle with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (also referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease in the US and Motor Neuron Disease in the UK) in early 2015.
How is the winner selected?
A committee consisting of the Community Working Group members and previous award winners, select a winner from the submissions from the community. Multiple people nominated Baddy for this award. Here are some of the things they said:
“She has consistently and tirelessly worked for the good of Drupal across event organisation (Drupal Europe), in Drupal Agency life promoting Drupal to wider audiences and running an ethically grounded business (which contributes back in bucket loads).”
“She has been an amazing force in so many areas to even count. As a community organizer on crucial events like Drupal Europe to [foster] a contribution culture at her company. Then spreading the word about how that makes the best business sense. She cares so much for diversity and inclusion at her company and in the Drupal community as well.”
This year, there were 22 individuals nominated for the award.
Previous winners of the award are:
2015: Cathy Theys
2016: Gábor Hojtsy
2017: Nikki Stevens
2018: Kevin Thull
2019: Leslie Glynn
and now 2020: Baddy Sonja Breidert (announcement)
The award
The physical award that was hand-crafted by Drupal community member Bo Shipley. The award was sent to Iceland where Baddy is currently on vacation with her family. The award is hand made out of vegetable strap belt leather and with a lot of love for the Drupal community, Bo told Baddy. Here are some pictures from the award and also from the production process (thank you Bo for sending us the photos and allowing us to share them here).
