[Wikimedia-l] Fwd: Bon voyage, Jay

[Tilman Bayer]

Forwarding, as this doesn't yet seem to have made it through from the
Announce list. (Possibly because of the HTML format. The message can
also be read at
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimediaannounce-l/2012-October/000500.html
.)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Geoff Brigham <gbrigham at wikimedia.org>
To: wikimediaannounce-l at lists.wikimedia.org
Cc:
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 11:28:13 -0700
Subject: Bon voyage, Jay
Next week, we’re saying goodbye to our long-term Head of
Communications, Jay Walsh. He will be starting shortly a new adventure
working at a San Francisco based start-up in corporate communications.
His last day at the Foundation will be Tuesday, October 23. The
Foundation will be kicking off a search process for a new head of
communications, and in the interim we’ll also be receiving
communications strategy from our advisers at Minassian Media, a
consultancy that helped us manage communications around Wikipedia’s
tenth anniversary.

Since Jay started at the Foundation in January 2008 he’s taken a lead
role in shaping both the voice and identity of the Wikimedia
Foundation, and has played a critical function in supporting our
projects. He’s been our spokesperson on hundreds of media inquiries,
helping to shape a positive and enlightened perspective on our
projects in some of the biggest media outlets in the world. Jay has
provided communications counsel on major initiatives to almost
everyone at the Foundation, and I’m sure to many of you throughout our
community.

Since starting at WMF Jay has grown the communications team, which now
includes roles supporting movement communications, global media
outreach, and merchandise. Under his leadership we created and grew a
blog which now sees up to 40 posts a month, a social media presence
with over a million followers, and content published in many localized
languages. Jay helped us bring the Foundation’s first four annual
reports to the world, and he gave us a voice and open identity for
great events like Wikipedia 10.

We’ve been fortunate to have strong communications leadership for a
period of rapid growth for our projects and our movement. Please join
me in wishing Jay well on his next steps.  We will miss him.


--
Tilman Bayer
Senior Operations Analyst (Movement Communications)
Wikimedia Foundation
IRC (Freenode): HaeB