[Foundation-l] [Announcement] Philippe Beaudette becomes Head of Reader Relations

[Sue Gardner]

As I'm sending this, I'm wondering: have we actually started an
announce-only list? If so, and if someone reminds me, I will post this
there too :-)


Hi folks,

I'm delighted to tell you that Philippe Beaudette will be staying with
the Wikimedia Foundation following the completion of the strategy
project this summer.  This makes me really happy: Philippe has been
doing terrific work, and I'm delighted he's agreed to stay on with us.

In his new role, Philippe will become the Wikimedia Foundation's
first-ever Head of Reader Relations.  As such, he will act as an
advocate for readers inside the projects and within the staff.  His
first focus will be to work with Wikimedia volunteers to establish and
maintain systems enabling them to provide good service to readers who
have inquiries, complaints and comments.  A lot of this will involve
taking existing FAQ material, cleaning it up, and making it publicly
available to readers.  That'll involve some writing and synthesizing
work, and also coordinating with volunteers to have material
translated and localized.

Philippe's background makes him ideal for this role.

He has been a long-time member of the Wikimedia volunteer community,
both as an administrator on several sites, and as a volunteer for
OTRS, where he successfully resolved some particularly difficult
complaints regarding biographies of living people.  He's very familiar
with Wikimedia project policies and practices.

Outside Wikimedia, Philippe has significant customer service
experience, including running a large customer contact centre for
Convergys Corporation, a global firm specializing in relationship
management.  He also helped many organizations, including two of the
world's largest insurance providers, develop customer service
environments, while working for Siebel.  He also has a background in
American electoral politics, including working as Deputy Campaign
Manager, Operations Manager and Technology Director on a number of
state and federal campaigns, as well as for the non-profit Progressive
Alliance Foundation.

He has worked in the United States, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

All of this, in my view, makes Philippe ideal to handle reader
relations for us: he's got lots of experience managing complex
stakeholder relationships with tact and sensitivity, and creating
systems that scale.

Both Philippe and I expect his role will evolve once the Chief Global
Program Officer (CGPO) arrives.  I thank Philippe for his flexibility
and trust in taking this on and relocating to San Francisco, despite
that lack of certainty :-)

Philippe will report to me until the CGPO arrives, whereupon he'll
report to that person. He's in the midst of beginning his move to San
Francisco now (with a side trip to Berlin for the chapters meeting).

You might wonder why this job wasn't posted and boarded. Generally, I
do aim to post and board all jobs; I think it helps the Wikimedia
Foundation to surface the best-possible candidates, to be fair in our
hiring, and to be seen to be fair.  In this instance though, I decided
it was better not to. Philippe has done a great job over the past nine
months, we are undoubtedly going to need the kinds of skills and
experiences he brings to us, and I didn't want him to start
job-hunting as his work on the strategy project came to a close.
Given that, and given that the job may evolve when the CGPO arrives,
posting and boarding -in this particular context- seemed
inappropriate.

Philippe has been a great addition to our team in the time he's been
with us, and I look forward to his continued contributions. Please
join me in welcoming and congratulating him.

Thanks,
Sue


-- 
Sue Gardner
Executive Director
Wikimedia Foundation

415 839 6885 office
415 816 9967 cell

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