user367: Is there anything comparable to a "board of directors" for Bitcoin or is the software on complete cruise-control? 

user61: In some sense don't the miners control the software? If there are some changes made to the bitcoin code and the majority of miners (by hashrate?) don't upgrade for what ever reason then    the changes won't be implemented.

user405: You control it.
It is open source, so if you want to modify the copy you're running, go right ahead.

user66621: The list of project mainters who have commit access is listed here: Team of bitoin core
Currently they are

Wladimir J. van der Laan
Jonas Schnelli
Marco Falke


user105: There are a number of "core" developers. And the ones who have access to commit directly to the Github project obviously have more "power" than other people. Since the software is open source you can of course make your own copy of it and modify it to your likings but you won't be able to change any of the "rules" of the network unless you get the rest of the Bitcoin world to follow you and use your client.
According to bitcoin.org the core developers are Satoshi Nakamoto, Gavin Andresen, Pieter Wuille, Nils Schneider and Jeff Garzik. According to a recent message on the Bitcoin Development mailing list Wladimir (J. van der Laan?) is now also part of the core development team. Obviously Satoshi is not anymore, so I don't know how accurate the list on bitcoin.org actually is.
The ones who have push access to the Github project are according to this message:

Gavin Andresen
Nils Schneider (a.k.a. tcatm)
Pieter Wuille (a.k.a. sipa)
Jeff Garzik
Alex Waters

Gavin, who is the lead developer is active here so I'm sure he can give us a clearer answer himself. Also see Is there a list of core Bitcoin committers?

367: <p>Is there anything comparable to a "board of directors" for Bitcoin or is the software on complete cruise-control? </p>
 61: <p>In some sense don't the miners control the software? If there are some changes made to the bitcoin code and the majority of miners (by hashrate?) don't upgrade for what ever reason then    the changes won't be implemented.</p>
 405: <p>You control it.</p>

<p>It is open source, so if you want to modify the copy you're running, go right ahead.</p>
 66621: <p>The list of project mainters who have commit access is listed here: <a href="https://bitcoincore.org/en/team/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Team of bitoin core</a></p>

<p>Currently they are</p>

<ol>
<li>Wladimir J. van der Laan</li>
<li>Jonas Schnelli</li>
<li>Marco Falke</li>
</ol>
 105: <p>There are a number of "core" developers. And the ones who have access to commit directly to the Github project obviously have more "power" than other people. Since the software is open source you can of course make your own copy of it and modify it to your likings but you won't be able to change any of the "rules" of the network unless you get the rest of the Bitcoin world to follow you and use your client.</p>

<p>According to <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org" rel="nofollow noreferrer">bitcoin.org</a> the core developers are Satoshi Nakamoto, Gavin Andresen, Pieter Wuille, Nils Schneider and Jeff Garzik. According to a <a href="http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=28223657" rel="nofollow noreferrer">recent message</a> on the Bitcoin Development mailing list Wladimir (J. van der Laan?) is now also part of the core development team. Obviously Satoshi is not anymore, so I don't know how accurate the list on bitcoin.org actually is.</p>

<p>The ones who have push access to the Github project are according to <a href="http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=28150387" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this message</a>:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://github.com/gavinandresen" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Gavin Andresen</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/tcatm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Nils Schneider</a> (a.k.a. tcatm)</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/sipa" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pieter Wuille</a> (a.k.a. sipa)</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/jgarzik" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Jeff Garzik</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/alexwaters" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Alex Waters</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Gavin, who is the lead developer is active here so I'm sure he can give us a clearer answer himself. Also see <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/176/is-there-a-list-of-core-bitcoin-committers">Is there a list of core Bitcoin committers?</a></p>
