According to this new post in the phpBB forums, James Atkinson, the founder of the phpBB project has formally stepped down as of the 30th of April (2007) via an email set to the development team.

The now newly independent phpBB still has the same active contributors and will continue to support the stable phpBB 2.0.x and develop the next-generation phpBB 3.0.x, with James having already allowed the transfer of the www.phpBB.com domain for a majority share of the financial assets that have been generated by the project via advertising to date, so as to minimize disruption to phpBB's users.

Development of the software and community around it will still continue - the only thing that will change is the name working as a figurehead of the group.