Dear all, I have some difficult news to share.
A few months ago and completely out of the blue, an opportunity came up for me to exercise the full spectrum of my skills as the CEO of an early stage mission oriented startup. It has been a mighty struggle between my commitment to my team, the Foundation and the movement and this opportunity to bring all my skills to bear and build something from the ground up to do good in the world. I will not lie to you - it has not been easy. But ultimately I decided that I have to give it a go and I accepted the offer. I plan on starting there on Feb 4th so my last day at the Foundation will be Feb 1st. These past two years have been amongst the most enjoyable in my professional career. I’ve enjoyed getting to know the movement and what fuels it and I’ve been incredibly privileged to work with a Tech team like no other. We have together strengthened the technical infrastructure of the movement and while much work remains to be done we have a much stronger team in place to take the mission to the next level. And I have personally made friendships that will last a lifetime. The organization I will be moving to is Atlas AI, a public benefit corporation supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. I will be leading an exceptional team of AI and earth system science experts striving for improvements in human well being through data driven insights. Our focus areas are drawn from the UN’s sustainable development goals of no poverty and zero hunger with emphasis on Sub Saharan Africa. I leave behind a Technology department that I am certain is well on the way to achieving our vision to create the infrastructure for the free knowledge movement. I am also pleased that during my tenure, we have built leaders who are equipped to take on this challenge. Erika Bjune will be serving as interim CTO. Erika joined us a little over two years ago and she has distinguished herself as one of the finest people leaders I have ever worked with. Both she and Katherine will have my ongoing support — I will stay on in a consulting role to Erika on organizational matters and for the mid term planning work we have ahead of us in the remainder of the fiscal year. I know that I am leaving the Tech team in good hands until a permanent CTO is hired. I want to close this difficult message with my heartfelt thanks to all of you for letting me be part of this incredible movement. Being a Wikimedian is a great privilege. I wanted you to know that I’m not walking away from something; I am walking towards something that is very important to me and the world. I will miss you all. Deeply. Truly. And a lot! Victoria _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
