Wikimedia Foundation/Chief Executive Officer/Updates

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Chief Executive Officer

The Chief Executive Officer is the senior staff officer of the Wikimedia Foundation, overseeing the operations of the Foundation and its professional staff. The Chief Executive Officer reports to the Board of Trustees and is supported by the Office of the CEO.

The CEO is responsible for running the Wikimedia Foundation, engaging with communities to inform decision making, and representing the Wikimedia Foundation to the broader public.

• Chief Executive Officer
• Updates
• Job description
• History

Bernadette Meehan, CEO Wikimedia Foundation

Welcoming the new incoming Chief Executive Officer, Bernadette Meehan

• Welcoming the new Wikimedia Foundation CEO, Bernadette Meehan (December 9, 2025)
• Around the puzzle globe – meeting with Wikimedia communities (December 9, 2025)
• Diff Blog – Welcoming the Wikimedia Foundation’s new CEO, Bernadette Meehan (December 9, 2025)
• Press release – Wikimedia Foundation appoints Bernadette Meehan as Chief Executive Officer (December 9, 2025)

• 
  Talking with community members
• 
  Bernadette at Wikimedia Futures Lab
• Wikipediapodden interview with Bernadette
• 
  Bernadette with community members
• Bernadette at the WP:25 virtual celebration

Updates from past Chief Executive Officers and Executive Directors

Past updates, maintained for historical purposes.

Updates from CEO Maryana Iskander

Maryana Iskander at Wikimania Singapore 2023

Maryana at a fireside chat with other Foundation Executives at Wikimania Singapore 2023

• Solving puzzles together: Thank you message (January 19, 2026)
• August 2025 meeting outcomes (September 3, 2025)
• A personal update (May 6, 2025)
• Reflections on 2025 from the Wikimedia Foundation Executive Team (January 29, 2025)
• Late August 2024 update: Some next steps on a movement charter (August 22, 2024)
• August 2024 update: Where to from here? (August 1, 2024)
• April 2024 update: Wikimedia Foundation Draft Annual Plan & Request for Input (April 11, 2024)
• February 2024 Update: Highlights from Talking:2024 (February 29, 2024)
• October 2023 Update and Invitation to Talking: 2024 (October 13, 2023)
• Joint update from Maryana and Nat (July 13, 2023)
• Fiscal Year 2023–2024 Annual Plan Update (April 18, 2023)
• Year one update (January 31, 2023)
• Nine month update (September 6, 2022)
• June Meeting Outcomes from Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees (July 26, 2022)
• Three Month Update and Wikimedia Foundation Draft Plan (April 14, 2022)
• Maryana’s Listening Tour (January 14, 2022)

Appointment as Chief Executive Officer

• Announcement from Board
• Press release
• Blog post

Katherine Maher

Updates

• 2017 Wikimedia Movement Strategy updates - main page
• Response to recent developments of United States travel ban - July 2018
• Wikimedia Foundation update regarding block in Turkey - August 2017

Replies to Letters to Katherine (L2K)

• Response to WikiIndaba conference 2017 - August 2017 (PDF)
• Response to Carta de Buenos Aires - August 2017

Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meetings

• Main page
• May 2017
• February 2017
• December 2016
• November 2016
• October 2016
• June 2016
• April 2016
• March 2016

Announcements

• Introducing Victoria Coleman - Chief Technology Officer (2 November 2016)

Office hours

• May 2016

Appointment as Executive Director

June 2016

• Announcement from Board
• Blog post
• Press release

Recording of video-based May 2016 office hours

Appointment as interim Executive Director

March 2016

• Announcement from Board
• Blog post
• Press release

Lila Tretikov

• Clarity on the future of Wikimedia search (16 February 2016)
• Some background on the Knowledge Engine grant (29 January 2016)
• Wikimedia Foundation welcomes Terry Gilbey as interim COO; bids farewell to Gayle Karen Young (20 March 2015)
• Wikipedia turns 14, receives prestigious Erasmus Prize 2015 (15 January 2015)
• Damon Sicore joins Wikimedia Foundation as Vice President of Engineering (29 September 2014)
• Will you join in celebrating the 10th anniversary of Wikimedia Commons? (5 September 2014)
• European court decision punches holes in free knowledge (6 August 2014)
• Early Thoughts about Wikimedia Foundation (5 June 2014)
• Venture beyond (2 June 2014)
• Hacker osmosis: Ideas abound at the European Hackathon in Zurich (15 May 2014)

Sue Gardner

• Katherine Maher joins the Wikimedia Foundation as Chief Communications Officer (15 April 2014)
• Announcing the search for the Wikimedia Foundation’s Chief Communications Officer (31 October 2013)
• Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner’s response to paid advocacy editing and sockpuppetry (21 October 2013)
• Changes to the Wikimedia Foundation Fundraising Team (29 July 2013)
• What’s missing from the media discussions of Wikipedia categories and sexism (1 May 2013)
• Wikimedia projects reach more than 500 million people per month (19 April 2013)
• Please read: an announcement from Wikimedia Foundation ED Sue Gardner (27 March 2013)
• Wikipedia, the people’s encyclopedia (14 January 2013)
• The message from the Wikipedia Blackout: Please leave the Internet alone (20 January 2012)
• Wikipedia’s community calls for anti-SOPA blackout January 18 (16 January 2012)
• Happy 10th anniversary, Wikipedia! (14 January 2011)
• Danese Cooper, our new CTO (28 January 2010)
• Kicking off the 2009 Wikimedia Fundraiser (11 November 2009)

Brad Patrick

• FAQ

The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge.