Hi everyone, I’m excited today to introduce the Wikimedia Foundation's new Chief Technology Officer, Victoria Coleman. Victoria’s first day is November 7, and she will be based in the Foundation's office in San Francisco.
Victoria comes to us with more than 20 years of experience in consumer and enterprise technology. And as you’ll learn quickly when you start getting to know her, she is deeply passionate about the importance of education, and how the Wikimedia mission advances education and equity around the world. When we started looking for a CTO for the Foundation, projects, and communities, we knew we were looking for a unique person - someone with the experience to lead confidently, and the confidence to embrace open collaboration in leadership. We were looking for someone with a track record of success leading strategy and execution for technology platforms at scale, someone will be an effective mentor and leader for our Technology department, and a strong partner to Product teams. We needed someone who would thrive in our culture and be an inclusive collaborator with staff and community. We agreed that Victoria met these requirements and then some. Victoria has deep experience across consumer and enterprise technology fields and is a longtime advocate for innovation in education and the public sector. She has seen and done many things in her career, from mobility platforms to connected devices to cyber security to web services at scale. She brings operational excellence in strategic long-term planning, execution, delivery, and running large distributed teams. Most recently, Victoria served as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for the Connected Home Division of Technicolor, where she was responsible for innovation strategy, product management, technology roadmaps, and technical due diligence for acquisitions and partnerships. Previously, as Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Harman, she led the core technology platforms of the Infotainment Division including systems and software, media, tuner, navigation, connectivity, and advanced driver assist systems. Before this, she served as Vice President, Emerging Technologies at Nokia, Vice President, Software Engineering of Hewlett-Packard’s webOS global business unit, and Vice President of Samsung's Advanced Institute of Technology. Victoria also has deep familiarity with open source software development, having witnessed the rise of the Unix movement first as a student and later as an instructor. She has been actively involved in the development of the Linux-based LiMo (renamed Tizen). She passionately believes in the power of open source and is familiar with how a commitment to open source strengthens platforms and products at an integral level. Victoria received her B.Sc and M.Sc in Electronic Computer Systems and Computer Aided Logic Design respectively from the University of Salford, UK and her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Manchester, UK. She is the author of over 60 articles and books (!). She has worked with teams around the world, including in Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Finland, Germany, India, Israel, Korea, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. One thing that struck many of us throughout our conversations was Victoria's commitment to volunteering her knowledge and expertise outside of her daily professional activities, serving on advisory councils in higher education and the public sector. She is on the advisory Board of the Santa Clara University Department of Computer Engineering, and she is also a Senior Advisor to the Director of the University of California Berkeley’s Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society. She serves as a volunteer advisor on both Lockheed Martin’s Technology Advisory Group and on the United States Department of Defense’s Defense Science Board where she offers advice and recommendations on science, technology, manufacturing, and acquisition processes. As a native of Greece, Victoria is interested in becoming a contributor on Greek Wikipedia, and getting to know our colleagues and communities over the coming months. As many of you know, the CTO search has been an intensive process and our highest recruiting priority in recent months. Dozens of people from across the organization contributed to this effort, most notably the CTO hiring committee, which included directors and senior staff from the Technology department. Representatives from the C-level, Technology, and Product teams also participated in interviews, panels, and lunches. In total, we reviewed nearly 900 candidates, advancing 190 to recruiter screens, and reviewing 70 with the hiring committee. I want to personally thank every single person who was involved in this process. The focus and dedication of the Foundation’s recruiting team were remarkable, as were the diligence and commitment of the many staff and volunteers who supported this search. More information on Victoria’s full background can be found in our blog post announcing her arrival: https://blog.wikimedia.org/2016/11/02/ victoria-coleman-chief-technology-officer/ Victoria is on CC - please join me in welcoming her to the Foundation and our movement! Warmly, Katherine *** An on-wiki version of this message is available for translation: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Engineering/ Introducing_Victoria_Coleman_-_Chief_Technology_Officer *** -- Katherine Maher Wikimedia Foundation 149 New Montgomery Street San Francisco, CA 94105 +1 (415) 839-6885 ext. 6635 +1 (415) 712 4873 kma...@wikimedia.org
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