Wikimedia CEO Katherine Maher resigns

Wikimedia Foundation CEO Katherine Maher has announced her departure. Maher says she is leaving to focus on her research grant and to take a break. Maher leaves on April 15.

Katherine Maher has announced her departure from the Wikimedia Foundation. She announced this in a blog post on Wikimedia.org. The director of the foundation says she needs a break and will focus on her research grant. Maher has been involved with the Wikimedia Foundation since 2014. There she was first head of communications, then interim director in 2016 and later director. She took over from Wikimedia founder Jimmy Wales.

In the blog post, Maher writes that it is not an easy choice for her, but it is the right choice. The main reasons she says is that she needs a break and wants to focus on her research fellowship. She became a fellow of the Truman National Security Project in 2013, and is also involved as a board member of the American University in Beirut and the Digital Public Library of America. She also does work for the World Economic Forum and the Council on Foreign Relations.

She is mostly positive about her time at the Wikimedia Foundation and talks about the successes of the now twenty-year-old foundation, but also writes that she does not always agree with other directors. In the coming period, a transition team will look for a new director. From 8 February, part of its daily work will be taken over by the transition team. On April 15, Maher will completely resign from her job.