Zack Exley and Barry Newstead join the Wikimedia Foundation executive management team
San Francisco, CA June 3, 2010 -- The Wikimedia Foundation today announced two important
new hires. Barry Newstead will join as Chief Global Development Officer (CGDO), and Zack
Exley will join as Chief Community Officer (CCO). Both are new positions, hired to fill
out Wikimedia's senior team as it prepares to launch its new strategy, which calls for
growing readership and new editors, particularly in the Global South.
As CGDO, Barry Newstead will be responsible for increasing readership and supporting
editor self-organization in the Global South, for overseeing communications with the
general public and the media, and activities aimed at supporting and developing chapters.
Newstead joins the Foundation from The Bridgespan Group, where he spent the past year
helping the Wikimedia Foundation develop its five-year strategic plan. Previously, he
worked with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for eight years and in 2004 he joined the
Bridgespan Group, the nonprofit consulting organization created in partnership with Bain
& Company. While at BCG, Newstead worked extensively in southeast Asia, greater China,
South Korea and western Europe. At Bridgespan, he led work in education innovation and
social technology, which mainly consisted of working with CEOs on strategy development,
organizational development and leadership issues.
Newstead was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and raised in Toronto, Canada. He has an
undergraduate degree from the University of Western Ontario, and a master's degree in
public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Barry
has been married to P. K. Lee for 12 years.
"It is an honor to be joining the Wikimedia Foundation," offered Newstead.
"The Wikimedia movement has achieved unbelievable feats to date and I am excited to
work with the community to help realize Wikimedia's vision: to reach every single
human being."
"I am thrilled that Barry's agreed to join us," said Sue Gardner, executive
director of the Wikimedia Foundation. "His extensive international experience and his
background in organizational development will be hugely valuable as Wikimedia shifts its
attention towards the Global South, and towards accelerating development of our
international network of chapters."
As Chief Community Officer, Zack Exley will be responsible for developing the Wikimedia
Foundation's relationships with key constituencies including readers, editors and
donors.
"Zack will be a terrific addition to the Wikimedia Foundation," said Gardner.
"He's spent his whole career helping people self-organize to achieve their goals,
and he has a track record of helping mission-driven organizations run effective online
fundraising campaigns. It's a very rare mix of skills, and I'm delighted we found
him."
Exley brings to Wikimedia a wealth of experience in serving communities of online
volunteers. He joins Wikimedia from the Chicago-based firm Thoughtworks where, as
principal consultant, he oversaw strategy and technology projects for organizations like
Obama For America, Rock the Vote, and Global Zero. Prior to that he served in senior
campaign leadership roles with the UK Labor Party, John Kerry 2004, and
MoveOn.org. With
the Washington DC-based communications firm OMP, he has worked as a strategist and advisor
helping many of the largest mission-driven organizations in the U.S. advance their
fundraising and volunteer mobilization goals. He has also worked as a labor organizer and
software developer.
Exley grew up in Connecticut and has also lived in Kenya, China and the United Kingdom. He
has a BA in Economics from the University of Massachusetts.
"Wikimedia is the most incredible thing on the Internet: hundreds of thousands of
individuals working collaboratively to produce a resource on which a significant portion
of humanity relies -- overseen by an emergent, organic, voluntary community and funded by
readers and editors," said Exley. "It's amazing and I'm ecstatic about
this opportunity to be involved."
About the Wikimedia Foundation
http://wikimediafoundation.org
http://blog.wikimedia.org
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects
operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 374 million unique visitors per
month, making them the 5th most popular web property worldwide (April 2010). Available in
more than 270 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 15 million articles contributed by a
global volunteer community of more than 100,000 people. Based in San Francisco,
California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded
primarily through donations and grants.
Press inquiries
Jay Walsh
WikimediaFoundation.org
blog.wikimedia.org
+1 (415) 839 6885 x 609
jwalshwikimedia.org
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