Joomla! is happy to announce today, that following a much deserved break from official duties, Andrew Eddie has accepted an appointment as the third Lead Developer of our project, joining Louis Landry and Johan Janssens. Many will remember Andrew's previous role in the project that goes back to early 2003 with his involvement in other projects including phpDocumentor and dotProject. Andrew is among the top 1% of open source developers in the world.

The 'masterchief' (his forum handle) has never been too far away though. He has been an active member of the Development Working Group and his assistance with bringing Joomla! 1.5 to where it is today is noteworthy.

Andrew's lead-level contributions are properly recognised with this appointment — without the administrative burden that comes with core team member responsibilities. In short, this mean Andrew is now a lead dev but not a core team member.

"I don't regret my time in the top job, though it's not one you really ask for because it is very tough on your person and your family," Andrew said, "but being down in the engine room once again has been good for me, and ultimately for the project. We are really quite lucky I think, because we have a great team at the moment and continue to attract people to the Joomla! project who are fair-dinkum about Open Source and have genuine outward-giving hearts. That's a pretty good legacy for a project in my book."

When asked about his favourite bits of the next version: "There are lots of things, but I'd have to say the biggies are the the MVC architecture we have in the frontend, the revamped template override system, and the new menu manager. These are among the many new features that release so many of the shackles we had to 'hack' around as developers in the current version."

When asked about his vision for Joomla!: "The CMS genre is very different from what it was when I entered back in 2003. Back then it was about putting content back in the hands of the regular folks. Now, with the advent of the Web 2.0 phenomena, the requirements for a CMS to provide artistic freedom for designers is also being pushed to the limit. I can never forget when we were back doing Mambo, I don't think a release was out for a day and people were pushing the envelope and asking for more. The people I've had the pleasure of working with over the years have always had the knack of being able to find a good balance between user needs and toys for developers. So, my vision would be that this continues, and that Joomla! continues to embrace the new technologies that will come and craft them in such a way that it empowers the regular user to do more and more with their websites."

Andrew lives near Toowoomba, Australia, with his family, and the red-back spiders and brown snakes from the farm next door. Prior to being a full-time Joomla! consultant, Andrew worked at the Toowoomba City Council as a developer of their Content Management Systems and Web Based GIS, and as a Civil Engineer before that.