Lila, Anasuya, and everyone else-

Lila, thank you so much for the opportunity, and thank you Anasuya, Geoff, and Erik for your long-term work with the GLEE, CA, and CL teams — you’ve laid a strong foundation to build on. I would also like to congratulate Siko on her expanded role — I am looking forward to working together with her and the rest of the team on some of our most complex challenges.

I am excited to have the opportunity to work with our current leaders and teams. We are lucky to have some incredible people on the team, and I look forward to collaborating, learning, and creating even better engagement and results together.

As Lila mentioned, I’ve been a contributor to a variety of open communities, large and small, for over a decade and a half. Since the first time I hacked on Lego software with someone on another continent, I’ve been a strong believer that healthy communities and personal relationships are the core of the special thing that we do. I expect to carry that forward into the leadership of this team, with a focus on making the Foundation a strong, supportive partner of growing, diverse, global Wikimedian communities.

The creation of this new team within the Foundation shows a renewed dedication by WMF to deepen our relationship to the people who create and drive the projects. This focus will be critically important as we seek to support and grow our mission. There are a huge number of opportunities to get us ever-closer to our goal of a world of free knowledge.

Luis