Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-02-05/Board changes

Wikimedia Foundation Chair Florence Devouard announced on Saturday that Brad Patrick had left his position as the Foundation's Interim Executive Director, and will focus exclusively on his role as the foundation's general counsel. Patrick was hired as general counsel and interim executive director in June (see archived story). Devouard noted:

"Brad has done a great deal to help the Foundation move forward in such areas as governance, technology and contracting, audit, hiring, and many other things. With the conclusion of the fundraiser and the immediate financial future of the Foundation secure, now is the time to look ahead to the selection of a new Executive Director to manage the operations of the Foundation. This will enable Brad to focus on developing the role of General Counsel, and addressing a backlog of complex legal questions the Foundation faces moving forward."

Devouard also announced that "a few days ago", the Foundation had hired Laurie Nash, an executive recruiter from the firm Phillips Oppenheim, to help the Foundation in its search for a new Executive Director.

On Thursday, Trustee Oscar van Dillen announced the hiring of Delphine Ménard as a part-time Chapters Coordinator. Prior to her hiring, Ménard had served as the head of the Chapters committee, and was a member of the Wikimédia France Board from April 2005 until January 2007.

In yet another mailing list post, Devouard clarified the current organizational structure of the foundation. Danny Wool reports to Trustee Erik Möller on non-administrative issues, such as grants. On administrative issues, Wool reports to Chief Operations Officer Carolyn Doran, as does administrative assistant Barbara Brown. Doran, Communications Manager Sandra Ordonez, and general counsel Brad Patrick all report directly to Devouard. Ménard reports to Trustee Oscar van Dillen on chapter-related issues, and on technical issues, Chief Technical Officer Brion Vibber, developer Tim Starling, and networking coordinator Mark Bergsma all report to Trustee Jan-Bart de Vreede. A chart of the relationships can be found below:



Noting that a few trustees had no formal relationships defined, Devouard said "Due to [his] background, [Michael] will be very involved in financial and audit considerations. Jimbo is more focused on public relations and licenses discussions.  Kat is spending time on various legal-related, licenses discussions and is in charge of an assignment not yet made public :-)"

Another post by Devouard, clarifying a question about the role of Brion Vibber and other technical advisors, hinted that the Foundation is looking into hiring a new Chief Technical Officer. Vibber weighed in on the issue, noting that "In theory I'm the lead, but we're a small team and generally operate internally by consensus agreement. In reality I'm lead programmer far more than I'm 'CTO'."

Also this week: &mdash; Board changes &mdash; IRC &mdash; Astroturfing &mdash; WikiWorld &mdash; News and notes &mdash; Press coverage &mdash; Features and admins &mdash; Technology &mdash; Arbitration