Dear fellow Wikimedians,

In January, Abraham Taherivand informed you that he had decided not to renew his contract with Wikimedia Deutschland. Today, I am excited to announce that our search for a new Executive Director has been successful: Christian Humborg will take over office at Wikimedia Deutschland from 1 June.

One of the most important tasks of the Wikimedia Deutschland Executive Board is the appointment of the Executive Director. My colleagues and I are very pleased to have found such a fantastic candidate for the vacant position. Christian impressed us with his bold ideas and visions, his leadership experience at the head of influential civil society organisations and his passion for the liberation of knowledge. He clearly prevailed among the 59 applicants. The search was managed by our Supervisory Board and Abraham with the support of an external executive search firm.

Christian knows the Wikimedia Movement and our commitment to free knowledge well – because he has helped shape both since 2016 as deputy executive director and head of finance at Wikimedia Deutschland. Before that, he was the executive director of the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International Germany, helped establish the non-profit investigative journalism centre Correctiv and was awarded the Grimme Online Award as a member of the journalism collective carta.info. He is the right fit for the future of Wikimedia Deutschland.

At this point, on behalf of our entire Board, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Abraham, who has achieved so much as Executive Director over the last four years. He has set important strategic impulses that will be decisive for the future success of Wikimedia in the world. Abraham joined Wikimedia Deutschland in 2012 and has since strengthened the organisation in every respect and positioned it very well for this handover. Thank you for your great commitment!

It is to Abraham’s credit that he discussed his decision with the Board at an early stage and thus made a well thought-out search process possible. Together, we are now working on a good transition.

We are looking forward to continuing the success of the last four years together with Christian, to tackling new projects, to implementing the 2030 strategy – and to liberating a few more pieces of knowledge together every day.
Kind regards,