Meet the Team
React development is led by contributors from companies and communities all over the world.
React work is organized into working groups, each responsible for an area of the project such as Server, DOM, Fiber, Docs & Community, Compiler, DevX, and React Native. Each working group is represented on the React Leadership Council, which coordinates direction across the project.
Leadership Council
Jack Pope
Shortly after being introduced to AutoHotkey, Jack had written scripts to automate everything he could think of. When reaching limitations there, he dove headfirst into web app development and hasn’t looked back. Most recently, Jack worked on the web platform at Instagram before moving to React. His favorite programming language is JSX.
Mofei Zhang
Mofei started programming when she realized it can help her cheat in video games. She focused on operating systems in undergrad / grad school, but now finds herself happily tinkering on React. Outside of work, she enjoys debugging bouldering problems and planning her next backpacking trip(s).
Rick Hanlon
Ricky majored in theoretical math and somehow found himself on the React Native team for a couple years before joining the React team. When he’s not programming you can find him snowboarding, biking, climbing, golfing, or closing GitHub issues that do not match the issue template.
Sebastian Silbermann
Sebastian learned programming to make the browser games he played during class more enjoyable. Eventually this lead to contributing to as much open source code as possible. Outside of coding he’s busy making sure people don’t confuse him with the other Sebastians and Zilberman of the React community.
Working Group members
Dan Abramov
Dan got into programming after he accidentally discovered Visual Basic inside Microsoft PowerPoint. He has found his true calling in turning Sebastian’s tweets into long-form blog posts. Dan occasionally wins at Fortnite by hiding in a bush until the game ends.
Hendrik Liebau
Hendrik’s journey in tech started in the late 90s when he built his first websites with Netscape Communicator. After earning a diploma in computer science and working at digital agencies, he built a React Server Components bundler and library, paving the way to his role on the Next.js team. Outside of work, he enjoys cycling and tinkering in his workshop.
Josh Story
Josh majored in Mathematics and discovered programming while in college. His first professional developer job was to program insurance rate calculations in Microsoft Excel, the paragon of Reactive Programming which must be why he now works on React. In between that time Josh has been an IC, Manager, and Executive at a few startups. outside of work he likes to push his limits with cooking.
Lauren Tan
Lauren’s programming career peaked when she first discovered the <marquee> tag. She’s been chasing that high ever since. She studied Finance instead of CS in college, so she learned to code using Excel. Lauren enjoys dropping cheeky memes in chat, playing video games with her partner, learning Korean, and petting her dog Zelda.
Matt Carroll
Matt stumbled into coding, and since then, has become enamored with creating things in communities that can’t be created alone. Prior to React, he worked on YouTube, the Google Assistant, Fuchsia, and Google Cloud AI and Evernote. When he’s not trying to make better developer tools he enjoys the mountains, jazz, and spending time with his family.
Mike Vitousek
Mike went to grad school dreaming of becoming a professor but realized that he liked building things a lot more than writing grant applications. Mike joined Meta to work on Javascript infrastructure, which ultimately led him to work on the React Compiler. When not hacking on either Javascript or OCaml, Mike can often be found hiking or skiing in the Pacific Northwest.
Sophie Alpert
Four days after React was released, Sophie rewrote the entirety of her then-current project to use it, which she now realizes was perhaps a bit reckless. After she became the project’s #1 committer, she wondered why she wasn’t getting paid by Facebook like everyone else was and joined the team officially to lead React through its adolescent years. Though she quit that job years ago, somehow she’s still in the team’s group chats and “providing value”.
Advisors
Eli White
Eli got into programming after he got suspended from middle school for hacking. He has been working on React and React Native since 2017. He enjoys eating treats, especially ice cream and apple pie. You can find Eli trying quirky activities like parkour, indoor skydiving, and aerial silks.
Jason Bonta
Jason abandoned embedded C for a career in front-end engineering and never looked back. Armed with esoteric CSS knowledge and a passion for beautiful UI, Jason joined Facebook in 2010, where he now feels privileged to have seen JavaScript development come of age. Though he may not understand how for...of loops work, he loves getting to work with brilliant people on projects that enable amazing UX.
Jimmy Lai
Like many others, Jimmy started programming with the hopes of being able to work in the gaming industry. Fast forward a few years, he somehow decided that React and Javascript were pretty fun and that helping other developers build fast experiences was a more interesting life goal. After starting his career at Meta, working on product infrastructure and (briefly) on React Native, Jimmy now works at Vercel, where he helps his team build Next.js. He sadly does not get much time for video games anymore.
Seth Webster
Seth started programming as a kid growing up in Tucson, AZ. After school, he was bitten by the music bug and was a touring musician for about 10 years before returning to work, starting with Intuit. In his spare time, he loves taking pictures and flying for animal rescues in the northeastern United States.
Emeritus
Joe Savona
Joe was planning to major in math and philosophy but got into computer science after writing physics simulations in Matlab. Prior to React, he worked on Relay, RSocket.js, and the Skip programming language. While he’s not building some sort of reactive system he enjoys running, studying Japanese, and spending time with his family.
Jordan Brown
Jordan started coding by building iPhone apps, where he was pushing and popping view controllers before he knew that for-loops were a thing. He enjoys working on technology that developers love, which naturally drew him to React. Outside of work he enjoys reading, kiteboarding, and playing guitar.
Sebastian Markbåge
Sebastian majored in psychology. He’s usually quiet. Even when he says something, it often doesn’t make sense to the rest of us until a few months later. The correct way to pronounce his surname is “mark-boa-geh” but he settled for “mark-beige” out of pragmatism — and that’s how he approaches React.
Yuzhi Zheng
Yuzhi studied Computer Science in school. She liked the instant gratification of seeing code come to life without having to physically be in a laboratory. Now she’s a manager in the React org. Before management, she used to work on the Relay data fetching framework. In her spare time, Yuzhi enjoys optimizing her life via gardening and home improvement projects.
You can find the past team members and other people who significantly contributed to React over the years on the acknowledgements page.