In the last ED selection, I had thought that experience in the private sector would be good for the WMF ED to have. I was a bit disappointed with Sue (I know that some people liked her on a personal level, but on a professional level as ED she was also partly responsible for a variety of initiatives that went wrong or underperformed), so I thought that someone with more performance management experience would be good. Lila seemed good at first but we know how that ended.
I am still underwhelmed with WMF's financial opacity and its double standards with regards to how it treats the affiliates versus its own practices, although there seems to be some improvement in the last 6 months. I still think that performance management experience would be good for the WMF ED, along with a record of transparency and leading by example. That doesn't necessarily need to come from the private sector; I am familiar with some government agencies that are generally good about transparency and performance management. Given our experience with Lila as well as my own experience in the last few years, I feel that people skills are also valuable (transparency to the point of bluntness can create unnecessary hostility, and compromise and incremental change are OK sometimes). Finding an ED who is good at all of the above would be ideal. No one is perfect and we are all still learning, but let's aim high.
Pine