At the COAR General Assembly on April 14, 2015 the election of the new Executive Board (2015 – 2018) have been takenplace. The new Board, which has been expanded from three to six members, reflects the increasingly international nature of COAR with representatives from Europe, Africa, Latin America, and North America.

Beginning on October 1, 2015, Eloy Rodrigues from University of Minho, Portugal will serve as the new COAR Chair. Eloy has been an active participant in COAR since its inception in 2009 and offers a wealth of experience with repositories and open access. He is known and respected around the world and brings a valuable strategic perspective about the role of repositories in the future of scholarly communication.

Both Carman Gloria Labbé, Vice-Chair (CLARA, Chilé) and Márta Virágos, Treasurer (University of Debrecen, Hungary), will continue to serve for another term and ensure we have continuity as we transition to the new Board. They also offer key links with the Latin American and Eastern European regions.

Additionally Daisy Selematsela from the National Research Foundation (South Africa), Oya Rieger from Cornell University (USA) and Wolfram Horstmann from Göttingen University Library (Germany) will contribute their considerable experience, knowledge and diverse outlooks to COAR.

The full bios of all new Executive Board members will soon be available on the COAR website.

The current COAR Chair, Norbert Lossau from University of Göttingen, (Germany), did not stand for re-election. We would like to thank Norbert for his exceptional vision and leadership.