Andrew C. Oliver

Oliver started POI in April 2001 while working on a short-term contract project when he became frustrated that Actuate had purchased the previous proprietary API he had used and raised the price to $10,000. He contacted his local Java User Group and found Marc Johnson and the two ported Microsoft Compound Document Format to Java. Originally they intended to donate this to the Apache Cocoon project, but later it was decided that POI should be its own top level project.^[5]

In December 2008, Oliver resigned from the project over concerns that the team was not taking legal issues seriously, particularly that Microsoft had donated a large amount of code by proxy without being asked to make more specific patent assurances that were covered in its Open Specification Promise.^[6] Other members of the PMC attempted to ask Oliver to reconsider.^[7]