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Nominee for 2026 Python Packaging Council Election

Dan Yeaw

  • Previous Packaging Council Service: New Packaging Council member
  • Employer: Anaconda
  • Other Affiliations: Python Software Foundation Supporting Member, Conda Core Maintainer, Michigan Python Organizer, GNOME Foundation Member, BeeWare Core Team (Emeritus), Jupyter Foundation General Member Representative
  • Nominee Statement:

      In 2012, the Python Packaging ecosystem had a divide when PyPA-based tooling and conda emerged to solve different problems. I am running for a seat on the council to help bridge the two ecosystems together to solve user pain points. I also want to help build governance that serves the council well for many years to come. I have a community focus and a diverse range of contributions that I'll use to strengthen the council while working as a team with the other members.

      For the last year I have been on the conda-maintainers team while leading the conda OSS team at Anaconda as an Engineering Manager. I have been making technical contributions and helping to lead a team to deliver conda-pypi, a bridge from conda back to PyPI which allows conda to install wheels natively. This is a community-focused effort, and it is the type of bridge that I envision could bring the ecosystems together.

      As part of this work, I have also been helping to strengthen the conda community and make it more vendor neutral. For example, earlier this year I helped work with the community and NumFOCUS to shift conda from an Anaconda-owned GitHub organization to a non-profit one. I also have been heavily involved with Conda Enhancement Proposals over the last year. I authored the draft standard for the wheels integration work described above. I have also reviewed and provided feedback on the broader set of foundational standards approved this year, including conditionals and extras support and a new backwards-compatible repodata update strategy. I would take that same community focus and vendor neutrality while serving on the council. I will also recuse myself from any votes that present a direct conflict with my employer.

      Packaging touches build systems, distribution channels, and installers, and I've worked across all of them including smaller contributions to:

      1. PyPA tools such as pipx
      2. Cross-platform app packaging such as PyInstaller and Briefcase
      3. Build systems such as Meson
      4. Distribution such as being a conda-forge recipe and Gvsbuild (GTK stack for Windows) maintainer, and creation of and contributions to Homebrew, Winget, Flatpak, and AppImage packages.

      For the last 6 years, I've also been a Python community organizer by running and frequently presenting at Michigan Python.

      Prior to Anaconda, I also spent the last two decades engineering software systems and leading teams in the automotive and military sectors.

      As a member of the packaging council, I will be able to leverage this experience to serve the community by helping to build these bridges across our current ecosystems and create lasting governance so that packaging becomes one of Python's strengths.

  • Nomination Statements:
    • Nomination by: Jannis Leidel

      I’m nominating Dan Yeaw because I see his work on packaging and open-source maintenance up close. He leads Anaconda’s conda OSS team, and we work together across conda itself, its solver plugins, lockfiles, infrastructure, and conda-pypi. Dan co-authored the Q4 2025 conda roadmap, which put sharded repodata, safer PyPI integration, and more consistent handling of environment files on the same plan. In Building a Better conda CLI, he set out a broader direction for conda that includes native wheel support, declarative project environments, lighter startup, and continued use of plugins for developing new ideas outside conda core. I was one of the maintainers who reviewed that direction with him, and he has reviewed my work on startup performance, installer metadata, lockfiles, and pip handling. We do not always begin with the same answer, which is useful. I have seen him take detailed feedback, revise a proposal, and keep the work moving. His work on conda-pypi also led him upstream to propose a structured-marker API in PyPA’s packaging library instead of keeping a private workaround. Outside conda, he is a GNOME Foundation member, maintains Gaphor and gvsbuild, and contributes to PyGObject and GTK. He sees how packaging decisions affect solvers, downstream distributors, Windows builds, and people trying to ship applications. I want that experience on the Council.