There's a new posting over on phpPatterns.com this morning discussing further the whole "does PHP need a figurehead?" topic in Time for a PHP Community Process?

With PHP 5 looming on the horizon, packing OOP features that look like Java's greatest hits, is it time to take another leaf out of Java's book and begin a PHP Community Process? [...] Personally I think the PHP project does better by not being a cult of personality but rather the collective input of some highly talented developers but I do agree there is certainly the need for a person or group focused on bringing some standards to PHP.

There are some other things mentioned in this piece, including something badly needed in the PHP world - more standarization. For example: If an interface is specified as the standard API for databases, each library could implement that interface meaning we can swap PEAR::DB for ADOdb without needing to modify code. Always a good thing - and right now, it's just not possible. There are just too many different people doing things different ways in their code to get this done.