Sue Gardner, the Wikimedia Foundation’s amazing Executive Director, recently announced plans to step down later this year, and has launched a search for her successor. She is one of the most insightful and collaborative voices in the movement, and a good friend. And she has led some of our most ambitious organizational and financial shifts: our focus on individual fundraising, the transition to a community-led funds dissemination process, and a growing attention to grantmaking. It is hard to imagine the Foundation without her…!!<\/p>\n
We have been discussing this internally among the Board for a month now; and the transition planned is gradual: the search is expected to take til the end of this year. But I am still getting used to the idea; it has been a long and wonderful road we have travelled during her tenure. We are also reaching the end of our first round of long-term planning, so this year and next will be a good time for a new ED to help shape the Foundation’s future and how we frame our work.<\/p>\n
A rundown of outside news coverage:<\/p>\n
\nBusiness Insider –\u00a0The Woman Who Made Wikipedia Huge Is Stepping Down<\/a><\/div>\nVenture Beat –\u00a0Wikipedia hotshot Sue Gardner announces decision to step down<\/a><\/div>\nWebProNews –\u00a0Sue Gardner To Depart Wikimedia Foundation, \u2018Uncomfortable\u2019 With Where Internet Is Heading<\/a><\/div>\nChronicle of Philanthropy –\u00a0Head of Wikimedia’s Foundation Stepping Down<\/a><\/div>\nSpeigel (Germany) –\u00a0Sue Gardner: Wikipedia-Managerin will sich zur\u00fcckziehen<\/a><\/div>\nStern (Germany) –\u00a0Wikipedia-Chefin Sue Gardner tritt zur\u00fcck<\/a><\/div>\nHeise (Germany) –\u00a0Wikimedia braucht neue F\u00fchrung<\/a><\/div>\nFrankfurter Allgemeine (Germany) –\u00a0Wikipedia-Chefin tritt zur\u00fcck<\/a><\/div>\nHandelsblatt (Germany) –\u00a0Wikimedia-Stiftung braucht neuen Chef<\/a><\/div>\nWirtschafte Woche (Germany) –\u00a0Wikimedia-Stiftung braucht neuen Chef<\/a><\/div>\nRP Online (Germany) –\u00a0Wikipedia braucht eine neue F\u00fchrung<\/a><\/div>\nWAZ (Germany) –\u00a0Wikipedia-Chefin k\u00fcndigt R\u00fccktritt an<\/a><\/div>\nITEspresso (Spain) –\u00a0La CEO de Wikimedia, Sue Gardner, abandona la organizaci\u00f3n<\/a><\/div>\nSilicon News (Spain) –\u00a0La directora ejecutiva de la Fundaci\u00f3n Wikimedia dice adi\u00f3s<\/a><\/div>\nDer Standard (Austria) –\u00a0Wikimedia Gesch\u00e4ftsf\u00fchrerin Sue Gardner zieht sich zur\u00fcck<\/a><\/div>\nFuture Zone (Austria) –\u00a0Wikimedia-Stiftung braucht neue F\u00fchrung<\/a><\/div>\nBasler Zeitung (Switzerland) –\u00a0Wiki und die starke Frau<\/a><\/div>\n