Kurt Acker and Neale Ferguson were chosen for the year 2021.
IBM Champions are selected from among technology experts in order to share their knowledge. From the program website:
As part of the ongoing efforts to import security and reliability of macOS, Apple has asked developers to transition products from Kernel Extensions to System Extensions. System Extensions allow software to extend the functionality of macOS without requiring kernel level access. In order to accommodate macOS Big Sur, as well as to position OpenAFS for future versions of macOS, Sine Nomine migrated network operations out of the OpenAFS kernel extension and has contributed the code changes to the OpenAFS open source project.