Hello all!
I am delighted to share with you that we have added a Chief Operating
Officer to the Wikimedia Foundation leadership (c-level) team. Today, I'm
excited to introduce you to Janeen Uzzell. Janeen started on January 23rd,
in time for the Foundation's All Hands retreat late last month, and has
since been working out of our office in San Francisco.
Janeen was most recently the head of Women in Technology for GE, where she
worked with GE’s global CEOs to revise practices across their workforce of
300,000 employees, increasing the number of women in technology roles.
Previously, she was GE’s Global Director of External Affairs and Technology
Programs, and before that, she spent 5 years as Director of Healthcare
Programs for GE Africa, based in Accra, Ghana. She also served as the
Director of Global Healthcare Programs, Director of Healthcare Disparity
Programs, and Director of Service Operations for GE.
Janeen has nearly two decades of experience implementing the design and use
of technology to drive impact on global outcomes. She is a people
developer, transformational leader, storyteller, engineer and
self-proclaimed “global citizen” — with a passion for incubation and
impact. She says she is on a mission to use her influence and voice to lead
casual work that changes lives, communities and the world. She has a MBA
from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.
The Chief Operating Officer is not a new role for the Foundation, although
we haven't had one recently. As the Foundation has grown in recent years,
I've been talking to both the Board and the c-team about the value of
reinstating the COO role. We all agreed this was an important addition to
the Foundation to help us become more effective.
At the end of 2018, we met Janeen while recruiting for a different
position. After completing the interview process, many people felt as
though she had the skills for the Chief Operating Officer role. While we
generally do not hire before a job is posted, we also do not like to miss
out on opportunities. So, in consultation with and support from the Board
and c-team team, we agreed to create this new role and ask Janeen to join
the Foundation.
As the Foundation continues to grow and work to meet the needs of the
Wikimedia communities, Janeen's expertise will be instrumental in helping
the organization continue to meet the needs of our growing and evolving
movement. Please join me in welcoming Janeen to the Foundation and to the
incredible Wikimedia community!
Katherine
PS. A public announcement has also been posted on our blog:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/2019/02/12/wikimedia-foundation-appoints-ja…
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Katherine Maher (she/her)
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>