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*Wikimedia Foundation announces Board of Trustees appointments and
leadership at Wikimania 2017 in Montreal*
*Wikimedia Foundation Board appoints Wikimedia community-selected Trustees,
and confirms Chair and Vice Chair leadership*
*(Montreal, Canada) 11 August 2017* — Today the Wikimedia Foundation Board
of Trustees confirmed the appointments of three community-selected trustees
including the reappointment of María Sefidari and Dariusz Jemielniak, both
current Board members, and James Heilman, former Trustee. The Board also
reappointed as Chair, Christophe Henner, and Vice Chair, María Sefidari, to
lead the Board. The announcement was made at Wikimania 2017 in Montreal,
the annual Wikimedia gathering celebrating Wikipedia, its sister projects,
and the Wikimedia volunteer community.
The Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees oversees the Wikimedia
Foundation and its work, and serves as the organization’s ultimate
corporate authority. The three appointed trustees, all of whom currently
serve or have served on the Foundation's Board, were selected by the
international community of volunteers who create and develop Wikipedia and
its sister projects.
The three open Board seats were filled through an on-wiki election process
in which individual Wikimedia volunteers submit their candidacy and the
broader Wikimedia volunteer community offers support to their preferred
candidates. Wikimedia community members participated in the election
process online in May 2017, during which more than 5,100 people voted from
more than 170 individual project wikis.
As community-selected Trustees, María Sefidari, Dariusz Jemielniak, and
James Heilman will each serve a three year term. As incoming Chair and Vice
Chair, Christophe Henner and María Sefidari will serve as officers for one
year terms. This will mark the second consecutive term as Chair and Vice
Chair for both Henner and Sefidari, respectively.
María Sefidari began contributing to the Wikimedia projects in 2006 and has
since served in several roles across the Wikimedia movement. She was a
founding member of Wikimedia España and Wikimujeres Grupo de Usuarias, and
she also helped create Spanish Wikipedia's LGBT Wikiproject. She has served
on several Foundation governance committees, including the Affiliations and
Individual Engagement Grants committees. María is a professor in the
Digital Communications, Culture and Citizenship Master's degree program of
Rey Juan Carlos University at the MediaLab-Prado in Madrid, Spain. She has
previously served on the Board from August 2013 to July 2015, and most
recently joined the Board once again in January 2016. She has been selected
for a second term which will conclude at Wikimania 2020.
Dariusz Jemielniak has held a variety of roles on Wikimedia projects,
including administrator, bureaucrat, checkuser, steward and ombudsman. He
served as the chair of the Wikimedia community’s Funds Dissemination
Committee for three terms and is the author of “Common knowledge?: An
Ethnography of Wikipedia.” Dariusz is a full professor of Management, the
head of the Center for Research on Organizations and Workplaces, and a
co-founder of the New Research on Digital Societies (NeRDS) group at
Kozminski University. Dariusz has been re-appointed for a second term as a
Trustee after first joining the Board in July 2015.
James Heilman, M.D., has helped to found both Wikimedia Canada and
WikiProject Med Foundation. As an emergency physician in Cranbrook, British
Columbia, and a faculty member of emergency medicine at the University of
British Columbia, James is an active member of the medical community on
Wikimedia projects. James has also been involved in establishing
collaborations with several organizations, including Translators Without
Borders and the World Health Organization, to improve Wikimedia’s coverage
of medical content. James previously served on the Board of Trustees from
July to December 2015.
Christophe Henner has been a leader within the Wikimedia community for more
than 12 years. Prior to joining the Foundation Board in 2016, he served as
Board Chair of Wikimedia France, and had been a member of the chapter’s
Board since 2007. During this time, he spent nearly three years in Vice
Chair and Chair positions. Christophe is currently the Chief Operating
Officer (COO) of the Blade Group, a cloud computing company headquartered
in France. At Blade, Christophe is scaling up operations to support the
company's transition from a start-up to a global company.
The Wikimedia Foundation and Board of Trustees are pleased to announce the
appointed Trustees, Chair, and Vice Chair, who collectively bring many
years of service and commitment to the Wikimedia community and mission.
Other seats on the Board include one seat for Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy
Wales, two seats selected by Wikimedia affiliate organizations, and four
seats appointed by the Board for specific expertise and other needs.
Terms for the community-selected Trustees start today, August 10th, 2017,
and will continue for three years. The newly appointed members join
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Chair Christophe Henner, and Board members
Kelly Battles, Nataliia Tymkiv, and Alice Wiegand.
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
- Christophe Henner, Board Chair
- María Sefidari, Vice Chair
- Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder
- Kelly Battles
- James Heilman
- Dariusz Jemielniak
- Nataliia Tymkiv
- Alice Wiegand
The Wikimedia Foundation Board was formed in 2003. Today, the Board
consists of up to ten Trustees
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Board_of_Trustees#Current_members>.
Its work is captured in part in resolutions
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolutions> and votes. It appoints
four officers: a Chair <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Chair>and Vice
Chair, and a Treasurer <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Treasurer> and
Secretary <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Secretary>. Other work is
delegated to its committees, including Board Governance, Audit, and Human
Resources committees.
About the Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that supports and
operates Wikipedia and its sister free knowledge projects. Wikipedia is the
world’s free knowledge resource, spanning more than 40 million articles
across nearly 300 languages. Every month, more than 200,000 people edit
Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects, collectively creating and improving
knowledge that is accessed by more than 1 billion unique devices every
month. This all makes Wikipedia one of the most popular web properties in
the world. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is
a 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants.
About Wikimania
Wikimania is an annual conference centered on the Wikimedia projects
(Wikipedia and its sister projects) and the Wikimedia community of
volunteers. It features presentations on Wikimedia projects, other wikis,
free and open source software, free knowledge and free content, and the
social and technical aspects which relate to these topics. Wikimania 2017
marks the 13th year of the conference.
Wikimedia Foundation press contact
Juliet Barbara
press(a)wikimedia.org
Board profilesMaría Sefidari
María Sefidari Huici is a professor in the Digital Communications, Culture
and Citizenship Master's degree program <http://cccd.es/wp/> of Rey Juan
Carlos University
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Juan_Carlos_University> at the
MediaLab-Prado <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/es:MediaLab-Prado>.
Born in Madrid, Spain, where she still lives today, María graduated with a
Psychology degree from Universidad Complutense de Madrid
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complutense_University_of_Madrid>, and later
a Master's degree in Management and Tourism at the Business faculty of the
same university. She was a 2014 Techweek Women’s Leadership Fellow
<http://techweek.com/chicago-womens-leadership-program/>, which showcases,
celebrates, and supports emerging female leaders in business and technology.
María started contributing to the Wikimedia projects in 2006, and has since
served in many different roles across the Wikimedia movement. Maria was a
founding member of Wikimedia España
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Espa%C3%B1a> and Wikimujeres
Grupo de Usuarias <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimujeres>, and also
created Spanish Wikipedia's LGBT Wikiproject
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/es:Wikiproyecto:LGBT>. She has served on
several Wikimedia governance committees, including the Affiliations
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliations_Committee> and Individual
Engagement Grants <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG> committees.
In her time on the Affiliations Committee, María served as the first
Treasurer of the committee, effectively overseeing and monitoring
disbursement of the committee's budget. From 2013 to 2015, she was also a
member of the Wikimedia Foundation Board.
María re-joined the Wikimedia Foundation Board in 2016 to fill an
community-nominated seat vacancy, and was later re-confirmed for a second
term in August 2017. Her current term will continue until Wikimania 2020.
In her spare time, María travels around the world, runs wiki-workshops to
engage new editors, and supports Real Madrid Club de Fútbol.
Dariusz Jemelniak
Dr. Dariusz Jemielniak is a full professor of management, the head of
the Center
for Research on Organizations and Workplaces
<http://www.crow.kozminski.edu.pl/>, and a founder of New Research on
Digital Societies <http://nerds.kozminski.edu.pl/>(NeRDS) group at Kozminski
University <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozminski_University>.
Originally from Warsaw <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw>, Poland
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland>, Dariusz studies open collaboration
communities, the phenomenon of organized sharing (including piracy), and
political memes. He has conducted research projects on related issues at
Cornell University, Harvard University, Berkeley, and MIT. In 2014, he
published Common knowledge? An Ethnography of Wikipedia at Stanford
University Press. He has been the recipient of many academic merit awards,
including a 2004 Fulbright Foundation scholarship and the 2009 Polish
Ministry of Science outstanding young scholar award.
Dariusz has held a variety of different roles on Wikipedia, including
administrator, bureaucrat, checkuser, steward, and ombudsman. He served as
the chair of Wikimedia’s Funds Dissemination Committee for three terms.
Dariusz has served as chairperson of the "Inkubator" network for rising
literary talent in Poland, chairperson of the Collegium Invisibile academic
society, and as a member of the the advisory boards of the Copernicus
Science Center and the English Teaching program of the Nida Foundation. He
is also the founder of Ling.pl <http://ling.pl/>, the largest Polish online
dictionary.
James Heilman
Dr. James Heilman is an emergency physician in Cranbrook, British Columbia,
and on the faculty of emergency medicine at the University of British
Columbia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_British_Columbia>.
James was born and raised in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. He completed his
medical degree in 2003 in Saskatchewan, followed by his residency in
British Columbia. James began editing Wikipedia in 2008, after he came
across an article needing improvement in the middle of the night. Realizing
that he could fix the Internet, he quickly became hooked, and later went on
to help found both Wikimedia Canada and Wiki Project Med Foundation
<https://wikiprojectmed.wordpress.com/>.
He has been involved in establishing collaborations to improve Wikipedia’s
medical content, with organizations such as Translators Without Borders
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translators_Without_Borders>, the Cochrane
Collaboration <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochrane_Collaboration>,
the National
Institutes of Health
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institutes_of_Health>, the World
Health Organization
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization>, and the
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine. He is a
frequent speaker at medical schools and conferences to encourage his
colleagues to engage with Wikipedia.
James has a background in both distance running and adventure racing,
having completed Morocco’s Marathon Des Sables
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_des_Sables> and the Adventure
Racing World Championships.
Christophe Henner
Christophe Henner is the former Board Chair of Wikimedia France and current
Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Blade Group
<http://www.blade-group.com/>, a cloud computing company headquartered in
France. At Blade, Christophe is scaling up operations to support the
company's transition from a start-up to a global company.
Originally from Lavaur, Christophe studied economics and law at the University
of Toulouse <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Toulouse>. He has
deep and varied experience across the marketing sector, holding a variety
of leadership positions including Head of Marketing at the online media
group, L'Odyssée Interactive, Chief Marketing Officer at an international
digital media group, Webedia <http://www.webedia.com/>, and later deputy
Chief Executive Officer of Webedia's gaming division.
Christophe has been an active member of the Wikimedia community for more
than 12 years. In 2007, he joined the Board of Wikimedia France
<http://www.wikimedia.fr/> and has remained an active Board member in
various positions for the past ten years. Nearly three of those years on
the Board were spent in leadership roles, including Chair and Vice Chair of
the Board.
During his time on the Board, Christophe helped lead Wikimedia France
through a significant period of growth. This included leading the
development of the chapter’s brand and supporting the development of a
clear organizational strategy and vision for the chapter.
--
*Samantha Lien*
Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
149 New Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
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