Recent threads query whether it is or should be a conflict of interest for
a board member to support the appointment of someone who used to work at
the same company, and whether multiple board members have shares or stock
options with a particular company. So I have read the Conflict of interest
policy <https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Conflict_of_interest_policy>,
which from my lay person's reading does not appear to have been breached.
I have taken the opportunity to propose a couple of changes
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_transparency_gap#Conflicts_of_interest_-_investments>
to that policy. Note I have not first tried to find out how long it is
since a certain new trustee left the same company that an existing trustee
works for, nor have I asked any board member how many Google shares that
they own. But I am making the assumption that no individual member of the
WMF board currently owns 10% or more of Google, so I would be very
surprised if any of them have managed to break the current conflict of
interest policy as I understand it.
To be clear I am not proposing any sort of retrospective change that would
mean a past decision was void because a trustee voted despite having an
interest according to these new rules. Any change to the rules could only
apply to decisions made after the rules were updated.
WereSpielChequers