diff --git a/contrib/authors-to-cvsimport.pl b/contrib/authors-to-cvsimport.pl
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..3fa925151d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/authors-to-cvsimport.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2013 Cisco Systems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
+# $COPYRIGHT$
+#
+# Feed the AUTHORS file to this script either on stdin or as an argument to the
+# script.  It will emit a cvsimport-formatted file which is suitable for
+# feeding to 'git-svn' or other tools.
+
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+
+my $EMAIL_DOMAIN = 'open-mpi-git-mirror.example.com';
+my $line;
+
+# discard preamble
+do {
+    $line = <>;
+} until ($line =~ m/^Username\s+Name\s+Affiliation/);
+
+unless (($line = <>) =~ m/^(-+ )(-+ )(-+)$/) {
+    die "expected properly formatted table header, stopped";
+}
+my $login_len = length($1);
+my $name_len  = length($2);
+my $affil_len = length($3);
+
+while ($line = <>) {
+    chomp($line);
+    last if ($line =~ m/^\s*$/);
+
+    # 4th arg consumes the substring from $line as we go.
+    my $login = substr($line, 0, $login_len, "");
+    my $name  = substr($line, 0, $name_len, "");
+    my $affil = substr($line, 0, $affil_len, "");
+
+    # strip trailing whitespace
+    $login =~ s/\s*$//;
+    $name =~ s/\s*$//;
+    $affil =~ s/\s*$//;
+
+    printf("%s = %s <%s\@$EMAIL_DOMAIN>\n", $login, $name, $login);
+}
+
+printf("%s = %s <%s\@$EMAIL_DOMAIN>\n", '(no author)', 'Unknown', 'unknown');
+