Birgitte,
I don't think you see my point, which isn't about InstantCommons at all, but about guaranteeing the level of efficiency needed to deal with the huge number of potential partnerships that Wikimedia could and should establish. And an executive is not going to be the answer to do that. InstantCommons is only an example of a deep structural failure which continues to this day.
I cannot agree with you on this point. Contracts must be with the Foundation if they want the WMF's name attached to it.
They don't care about whose name is attached to the contract. They care that WMF wants this to go ahead. Many organizations will be the same way: "Oh, Wikimedia wants 5000 EUR for this project? Sure, we'll help! Oh, you want us to deal with these guys over there to keep the overhead low? Sure, can do!" We can and should define a size of contract where things cannot be handled this way anymore, of course.
Erik