Hello everybody,
It's with great pleasure that I announce Giuliana Mancini as the new Executive Director of Wikimedia Italia.
It took us over 6 months to select her within a pool of 450 candidates: it has been an incredibly hard work, and tough decisions were made. I'd like to acknowledge that one of the most active members of the selective committee was Alessio Guidetti aka Cotton, who recendly passed: it saddens us to know that he won't have the chance to see her working with us.
But this is a moment of joy, because the Wikimedia family just got a new member. Giuliana will help us become a more mature and structured association: her deep experience and competence will be used to for make Wikimedia Italia scale and increase its impact in the world of free and open knowledge.
Before being appointed Executive Director at Wikimedia Italia, in the last 12 years, she has covered several roles of increasing commitment in the field of arts and culture. She spent 9 years in a grant making foundation where she supervised the activities of a cello academy and the concerts of an ensemble of classical musicians, assisting the board in setting strategies and coordinating the comprehensive management. She participated in the board of a company in the field of Fine Arts with a mandate for promotion of a multimedia exhibition, creating strategic relationship with Italian and foreigner museums. She drafted several feasibility studies and business plans for theatres and other cultural institutions as well as for start up companies. She can speak English fluently and has a good understanding of Spanish and French, and she graduated in Economics and in Law (her second degree was completed while working).
She was officially introduced to the Wikimedia Italia assembly this Saturday, and this is her second week of work.
Please welcome her in our incredible Wikimedia movement.
Best regards,
Andrea Zanni