New Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elected officers

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As happens each year at Wikimania, the annual gathering of Wikimedia contributors from around the world, the Wikimedia Board of Trustees appoints its officers for the coming year. This year’s appointments were announced at Wikimania 2012 in Washington, DC, where more than 1000 participants from 87 countries have joined to celebrate the Wikimedia movement.
Image (1) Wikimania_2012_square_logo.png for post 16443For 2012-13, Kat Walsh was appointed Chair of the Board, Jan-Bart de Vreede was re-appointed Vice-chair, Stuart West was re-appointed as Board Treasurer and Bishaka Dhatta becomes Board Secretary. The Board expressed its great thanks to former Board Chair Ting Chen, as well as outgoing trustees Arne Klempert and Phoebe Ayers. Their leadership has strengthened and nurtured the growth of the worldwide Wikimedia movement.
“I am honored to have been chosen to chair the Board in the coming year,” said Walsh. “I want to thank Ting Chen for his service in his period as Chair, and I look forward to working closely with him as I take on this new role. It’s an important time in the history of the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia movement: I look forward to leading the Board in the year ahead.”
“It’s been a pleasure to serve the Wikimedia movement as Chair of the Board of Trustees,” said Chen. “Since I took on the role of Chair we’ve worked with our global community and the Foundation to introduce an ambitious five-year plan to increase the diversity and overall population of our community, while also establishing long-term financial plans to ensure sustainability for our movement and our projects. Our Board has matured and strengthened, and I’m proud of the tireless work of my colleagues.”
There are 10 seats on the Board and according to the Foundation’s bylaws, three members are elected by the Wikimedia community, two are selected by the Wikimedia chapters, the Founder seat is held by Jimmy Wales, and four members are appointed by the Board itself to provide additional, specific expertise.
The Foundation is happy to welcome its two newest members of the Board, Patricio Lorente and Alice Wiegand, who were elected to the Board by the Wikimedia chapters in May 2012. The chapters seat selection process was created in April 2008, in order to demonstrate the Board’s commitment to the chapters as an important player in the fulfillment of the Wikimedia mission.
Patricio Lorente is the former President of Wikimedia Argentina. He has worked as Project Manager of the Association for Social Development in Argentina and he currently serves as General ProSecretary of the National University of La Plata. Alice Wiegand is personal aide to the Mayor of Meerbusch, Germany. She has recently begun her Master’s studies in Public Policy and Governance.
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees for 2012-2013:

  • Kat Walsh, Board Chair (current term until July 2013)
  • Jan-Bart de Vreede, Vice Chair (current term until December 2013)
  • Stuart West, Treasurer (current term until December 2013)
  • Bishakha Datta, Secretary (current term until December 2012)
  • Jimmy Wales, Founder
  • Ting Chen (current term until 2013)
  • Samuel Klein (current term until July 2013)
  • Matt Halprin (current term until December 2012)
  • Alice Wiegand (current term until July 2014)
  • Patricio Lorente (current term until July 2014)

Matthew Roth, Global Communications Manager

Archive notice: This is an archived post from blog.wikimedia.org, which operated under different editorial and content guidelines than Diff.

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