[Foundation-l] [Announcement] New Head of Business Development: Kul Wadhwa

[Sue Gardner]

Hi folks,

I’m delighted to announce that Kul Takanao Wadhwa is the Wikimedia Foundation’s new Head of Business Development. Kul (pronounced “cool”) starts with us today, January 3.

Kul joins us from Stanford University, where he was new business and partnerships manager. He has more than a decade of management and business development experience, including senior roles at a variety of high-tech start-ups such as CyberTrust Japan, B.U.G., and Pangea2, where he worked on deals throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. Kul has also done economic research at the nonprofit global policy think tank the RAND Corporation, and has worked in TV (NBC) and in the videogame and digital animation industry (Satelight, Japan).

Kul has an M.A. in international policy studies and a B.A. in political science, both from Stanford. He speaks Japanese, as well as some Portuguese and Spanish. He's been a volunteer with nonprofits aimed at helping at-risk youth and homeless people, and is a frequent user of the Wikimedia projects, particularly Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and 
Wikiversity.

Kul’s job will be to develop and execute the Foundation's business development strategy. He'll identify and develop deals with for-profit companies, particularly where those deals help us make the projects' materials available to more people, in more ways, around the world. Business development at a nonprofit is all about putting together deals that bring in money while simultaneously advancing the mission: I am confident Kul can do that for us.

Vishal Patel, who has been handling business development for the Foundation since May, will remain with us until the St. Petersburg office closes on January 31. Please join me in thanking Vishal for everything he has done in the past six months, and in welcoming Kul to Wikimedia. 

Thanks,
Sue


Sue Gardner 
Executive Director,
Wikimedia Foundation