Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-12-17/Möller move

This week, Erik Möller abruptly resigned from the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, and in a later announcement, Möller was named the Deputy Director of the Foundation, starting January 10.

On Monday, Foundation Chair Florence Devouard announced that Möller had resigned:

"As chair of the board of trustees of Wikimedia Foundation, I would like to announce that Erik Moeller has decided to resign from the board two days ago. Erik decided to reorient his activities in other directions, and I hope we'll continue to be able to work together constructively from here on. ... Erik's seat is open again. The board agreed to propose the seat to a community member, and agreed on a person. The person has been approached and has not given any answer yet. There is no real urgency anyway. The seat will be an appointed one, up for new elections in a few months."

Early Tuesday, Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner announced Möller's new position:

"I am delighted to announce Erik Moeller as Deputy Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. Erik will take up his new responsibilities in our San Francisco headquarters beginning January 10, and will report directly to me. As part of this transition, and as you know already from Florence's announcement yesterday, Erik has resigned from his role as Board member. ... Our chief technical officer, Brion Vibber, will report to Erik. In addition, I will be delegating specific projects to him, and he will act on my behalf when I am traveling or otherwise unavailable. He will also play an important role in orienting the new San Francisco staff, and helping them to understand the processes, history and values of the Wikimedia projects.  Since I joined the Foundation in June, I have been impressed with Erik's commitment, hard work and evangelism on behalf of Wikimedia.  I know he will now be able to make an even greater contribution to what we do, and I'm very pleased he's agreed to join the staff in the new office."

Möller was first elected to the Board in September 2006, as a replacement for retiring board member Angela Beesley. He was subsequently re-elected in June 2007 to a 2-year term. With Möller's resignation from the Board, his replacement, a community member who has been offered the seat but has not accepted it yet, will serve until June 2008, at which point elections will be held for his/her term, as well as the term of Devouard.

Meanwhile, Möller, in accepting the new position of Deputy Director, moves into more of a managerial role. As a Board member, Möller's role was mainly non-personnel oriented, as a voting member and Secretary of the Board. However, Möller served as Danny Wool's supervisor for about two months, overseeing Wool on non-administrative tasks such as grants and special projects. Wool resigned in late March 2007, for reasons unrelated to his relationship with Möller.