Hello all!

I am delighted to share with you that we have added a Chief Operating Officer to the Wikimedia Foundation leadership (c-level) team. Today, I'm excited to introduce you to Janeen Uzzell. Janeen started on January 23rd, in time for the  Foundation's All Hands retreat late last month, and has since been working out of our office in San Francisco.

Janeen was most recently the head of Women in Technology for GE, where she worked with GE’s global CEOs to revise practices across their workforce of 300,000 employees, increasing the number of women in technology roles. Previously, she was GE’s Global Director of External Affairs and Technology Programs, and before that, she spent 5 years as Director of Healthcare Programs for GE Africa, based in Accra, Ghana. She also served as the Director of Global Healthcare Programs, Director of Healthcare Disparity Programs, and Director of Service Operations for GE. 

Janeen has nearly two decades of experience implementing the design and use of technology to drive impact on global outcomes. She is a people developer, transformational leader, storyteller, engineer and self-proclaimed “global citizen” — with a passion for incubation and impact. She says she is on a mission to use her influence and voice to lead casual work that changes lives, communities and the world. She has a MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

The Chief Operating Officer is not a new role for the Foundation, although we haven't had one recently. As the Foundation has grown in recent years, I've been talking to both the Board and the c-team about the value of reinstating the COO role. We all agreed this was an important addition to the Foundation to help us become more effective. 

At the end of 2018, we met Janeen while recruiting for a different position. After completing the interview process, many people felt as though she had the skills for the Chief Operating Officer role. While we generally do not hire before a job is posted, we also do not like to miss out on opportunities. So, in consultation with and support from the Board and c-team team, we agreed to create this new role and ask Janeen to join the Foundation.

As the Foundation continues to grow and work to meet the needs of the Wikimedia communities, Janeen's expertise will be instrumental in helping the organization continue to meet the needs of our growing and evolving movement. Please join me in welcoming Janeen to the Foundation and to the incredible Wikimedia community!

Katherine

PS. A public announcement has also been posted on our blog:  https://wikimediafoundation.org/2019/02/12/wikimedia-foundation-appoints-janeen-uzzell-as-chief-operating-officer/