Dear fellow Wikimedians,

Wikimedia Deutschland’s Board has just casted their vote for the Affiliate Selected Board Seats, and I would like to share our reasoning behind our decision. We will vote for three candidates and rank them in the following order:

#1 Christophe Henner #2 Nataliia Tymkiv #3 Jan Ainali

We identified different criteria that helped us making this choice:

* Experience in Wikimedia Movement organizations and with other non-profit organizations * Connection to the communities * Ability to strengthen and to shape the Board, especially in the light of the current gridlocked situation and challenges * Excellent communication and negotiation skills * Clear agenda for the upcoming term * Diversity with regards to gender and geography

Christophe has lead Wikimédia France through diverse change processes. He steered the organization through fundraising and governance crises and is deeply rooted in the global Wikimedia movement. He has a clear vision about the challenges and changes for Wikimedia as in international Organisation and movement in the upcoming term, and has proven to have outstanding communication and negotiation skills. His leadership experience from being the deputy CEO at an entertainment online publisher completes his profile. All this makes him the number one candidate for us, especially in view of the current leadership situation at the head of the movement.

Nataliia also has a lot of leadership experience within and outside the Wikimedia movement. She has lead Wikimedia Ukraine through a change process and brings a high level of passion as well as clarity about roles and responsibilities with her. We believe that with her leadership style and sense for cooperation, she can contribute innovation and a healthy part of disruption to the Board. On top of that, she brings essential skills from being a finance director of a large ukrainian NGO that works in the human rights sector.

Jan has gathered his extensive experience in the Movement in a volunteer capacity on Wikimedia Sverige’s Board as well as their Executive Director. We know Jan for being a consensus-oriented, prudent leader in the movement and a strong advocate for free knowledge. He has gained leadership-skills in boards of organisations larger than the Wikimedia Foundation, undoubtedly has strong communication-competences and with his background in Innovation and Design Engineering and his passion for the Wikimedia projects, he seems to fit most of our abovementioned criteria for the candidates as well.

We are confident that these three candidates can turn our current crisis into an opportunity for strengthening the movement and provide the essential leadership to shape a strong and efficient Wikimedia that we can all be proud being part of.

Best regards, Tim Moritz Hector

Chair of the Board Wikimedia Deutschland

Wikimedia Deutschland | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | D-10963 Berlin Tel.: +49 (0)30 - 219 158 260http://www.wikimedia.de