I discussed this request with Fran out of band, and asked about some common issues causing problems in core maintenance, like ensuring new API is deliberate or @Restricted, or the need to keep binary (and to a lesser extent source) compatibility. With his background in preparing CloudBees product releases and ensuring tests run successfully (many of his past contributions) he's very familiar with the latter. The former should just be automated, but while we don't have that, I'll make sure he understands the requirements to not accidentally introduce new APIs.
I am in support of this request.