As I'm sending this, I'm wondering: have we actually started an announce-only list? If so, and if someone reminds me, I will post this there too :-) Hi folks, I'm delighted to tell you that Philippe Beaudette will be staying with the Wikimedia Foundation following the completion of the strategy project this summer. This makes me really happy: Philippe has been doing terrific work, and I'm delighted he's agreed to stay on with us. In his new role, Philippe will become the Wikimedia Foundation's first-ever Head of Reader Relations. As such, he will act as an advocate for readers inside the projects and within the staff. His first focus will be to work with Wikimedia volunteers to establish and maintain systems enabling them to provide good service to readers who have inquiries, complaints and comments. A lot of this will involve taking existing FAQ material, cleaning it up, and making it publicly available to readers. That'll involve some writing and synthesizing work, and also coordinating with volunteers to have material translated and localized. Philippe's background makes him ideal for this role. He has been a long-time member of the Wikimedia volunteer community, both as an administrator on several sites, and as a volunteer for OTRS, where he successfully resolved some particularly difficult complaints regarding biographies of living people. He's very familiar with Wikimedia project policies and practices. Outside Wikimedia, Philippe has significant customer service experience, including running a large customer contact centre for Convergys Corporation, a global firm specializing in relationship management. He also helped many organizations, including two of the world's largest insurance providers, develop customer service environments, while working for Siebel. He also has a background in American electoral politics, including working as Deputy Campaign Manager, Operations Manager and Technology Director on a number of state and federal campaigns, as well as for the non-profit Progressive Alliance Foundation. He has worked in the United States, Italy, and the United Kingdom. All of this, in my view, makes Philippe ideal to handle reader relations for us: he's got lots of experience managing complex stakeholder relationships with tact and sensitivity, and creating systems that scale. Both Philippe and I expect his role will evolve once the Chief Global Program Officer (CGPO) arrives. I thank Philippe for his flexibility and trust in taking this on and relocating to San Francisco, despite that lack of certainty :-) Philippe will report to me until the CGPO arrives, whereupon he'll report to that person. He's in the midst of beginning his move to San Francisco now (with a side trip to Berlin for the chapters meeting). You might wonder why this job wasn't posted and boarded. Generally, I do aim to post and board all jobs; I think it helps the Wikimedia Foundation to surface the best-possible candidates, to be fair in our hiring, and to be seen to be fair. In this instance though, I decided it was better not to. Philippe has done a great job over the past nine months, we are undoubtedly going to need the kinds of skills and experiences he brings to us, and I didn't want him to start job-hunting as his work on the strategy project came to a close. Given that, and given that the job may evolve when the CGPO arrives, posting and boarding -in this particular context- seemed inappropriate. Philippe has been a great addition to our team in the time he's been with us, and I look forward to his continued contributions. Please join me in welcoming and congratulating him. Thanks, Sue -- Sue Gardner Executive Director Wikimedia Foundation 415 839 6885 office 415 816 9967 cell Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

As I'm sending this, I'm wondering: have we actually started an announce-only list?

I'm delighted to tell you that Philippe Beaudette will be staying with the Wikimedia Foundation following the completion of the strategy project this summer.

His first focus will be to work with Wikimedia volunteers to establish and maintain systems enabling them to provide good service to readers who have inquiries, complaints and comments. A lot of this will involve taking existing FAQ material, cleaning it up, and making it publicly available to readers. That'll involve some writing and synthesizing work, and also coordinating with volunteers to have material translated and localized.