Thank you for joining us and for your message, Lila. Many of us have great hope for you and your work with us.
Pine
> Date: Thu, 1 May 2014 17:39:42 -0700
> From: Lila Tretikov <lila(a)wikimedia.org>
> To: wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Thank you!
> Message-ID:
> <CAByo0cEUg2gWWHyznATnF+GTzqQFoumOCemOM5HQ-1t2NGReig(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> Hi everyone,
>
>
> I want to thank you all for the best wishes you've expressed since the
> announcement. I am very excited to be joining you as the new Executive
> Director of the Wikimedia Foundation.
>
>
> Let me tell you why I'm joining.
>
>
> Like everyone, I've been a Wikipedia reader for years. I use it to get
> background on events in the news, to look up quick facts and satisfy my
> curiosity, and to better understand the world around me, every day. My
> nine year old son, like many children around him, has grown up with
> Wikipedia as his native resource for knowledge. It is incredible.
>
>
> But I also realize that as an educated person living in a rich part of the
> world, I have access to a wide range of information resources. That's not
> true for everyone. For people who are less economically fortunate, or who
> live in parts of the world where access to information is heavily
> constrained, Wikipedia is even more critical. It is an utterly unique
> resource that opens possibilities for more equitable and open world.
>
>
> That's why I want to work for the Wikimedia Foundation: to help grow the
> availability of free, unbiased information for everyone around the world,
> in their own language, unimpeded by censorship or other forms of
> interference. It's a colossal mission and I am glad and humbled to be
> playing a leadership role in helping to achieve it.
>
>
> I’m excited to bring my passion for building products that people love and
> growing innovative, high-performing organizations to the Foundation. In
> getting oriented I’ve done lots and lots of reading, and had some wonderful
> conversations with Board members, Sue, and the C-level team. I met a lot of
> staff today at the Metrics Meeting, and I'm hoping to meet them all before
> the end of this month. I've been warned that joining the Wikimedia movement
> is a bit like drinking from a firehose, and so I'd consider myself, right
> now, to be excited, curious, optimistic, and just a tiny little bit daunted.
>
>
> Thank you again for personally welcoming me to your incredible world. I
> have been lucky to have had great opportunities to join with amazing people
> on big quests. This is the largest quest and I am thrilled to be on it with
> all of you. I want to extend my gratitude to Sue for the incredible work
> she has done and all the time she has committed to help bring me on-board.
> To all of you for your warm welcome. And my deepest thanks to the Wikimedia
> Foundation Board of Trustees for giving me this extraordinary opportunity.
>
>
> Truly yours,
>
> Lila
>
>