Tretikov resigns, WMF in transition: A tumultuous time at the Wikimedia Foundation
Following several days of closed-door meetings of the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees, executive director Lila Tretikov announced on February 25 that she would be stepping down, effective March 31. Despite rumors of tense negotiations with the Board, Tretikov's email announcement, titled "Thank you for our time together", was gracious and positive, stressing Foundation and community accomplishments. She wrote, in part:
| “ | Wikimedia occupies a special place in the world. It is a cultural and technological revolution. Change is necessary to keep it thriving. In bringing me in as the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation the Board tasked me with making changes ("Lila Tretikov's statement on why we've changed") to serve the next generation and ensure our impact in the future. Driving these changes has been challenging, and I have always appreciated the open and honest discourse we have had along the way. ... |
” |
Tretikov's resignation comes after months of public controversy, including the removal of Board member James Heilman (Doc James), the resignation of newly appointed Board member Arnnon Geshuri following a community outcry, and revelations about the mysterious Knowledge Engine project. It follows an even longer period of internal turmoil that has prompted a series of employee departures—events that have mostly remained out of the public eye until recently.
Among WMF staffers, the news of Tretikov's departure was greeted with a sense of relief rather than glee, at least publicly. The February metrics and activities meeting, held only 15 minutes after Tretikov's announcement, was almost jubilant—not about her departure, but as though the staff felt they could celebrate their work and accomplishments, especially those concerning Wikipedia's 15th anniversary, without the pall of recent months cast over them. Those events were not entirely absent, however. A photograph of Siko Bouterse, a widely respected WMF staffer whose departure was one of the flashpoints for other employees, received a standing ovation.
Still, even after the ED's announcement, employee exits from the WMF continue. On March 4, the WMF announced that Boryana Dineva, VP of human resources who went on leave on February 9, will depart.
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Jimmy Wales announced he would be visiting San Francisco from February 27 to March 2 to personally meet with WMF staffers. Wales also quietly filled Tretikov's place on the schedule for an already planned March 13 event with Board member Guy Kawasaki at SXSW Interactive.
Speculation remains about who will work with WMF employees as interim executive director now that Wales has left San Francisco. Due to the exodus of employees, few high-level staffers remain to assume that role, with the most likely possibilities being chief communications officer Katherine Maher and general counsel Geoff Brigham. Finding an external candidate in the longer term may be difficult given the negative press coverage following the resignations of Geshuri and Tretikov, on top of the need to find someone with unusual combination of skills to lead an extremely complex organization. In a move that Andrew Lih (Fuzheado) describes as "rather astonishing", in a surprise announcement, Trustee Alice Wiegand posted to the Wikimedia mailing list that:
| “ | the Board is aiming for a quick decision about the interim ED. ... The Board is not best suited to make a decision about the interim which can quickly be established and accepted in this situation. // Therefore the board empowers the entire C-level-team to come up with a solution for the interim question. We leave it up to them ... . The C-level-team needs some time to deliberate and decide. They will present their result to the board which has to vote on it. We plan to finalize until the end of next week. | ” |
Opinions on the wisdom of this approach have been divided; critics have condemned it as an abdication of responsibility by the Board, while others have welcomed it as an effort by the Board to be more responsive to staff concerns and input.
Also unresolved is the composition of the Board itself. On February 27, Heilman announced his willingness to resume his seat on the Board and his intention to run again in the next community election. Wales, who described Heilman's account of Board conflicts as "utter fucking bullshit" in January, responded by writing that should Heilman win another election "then I will support his joining the board". Wales reiterated his disagreement with Heilman about how they perceived the circumstances of the dismissal, but the facts leading up to it remain unknown.
Discuss this story
Please make a notation that the external link to Andrew Lih's statement requires logging into Facebook in order to read it. Risker (talk) 01:11, 8 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. Thank you for putting this piece together. I realize that there's probably a limited set of photos available on Commons, but File:Katherine Maher - Lila Tretikov - Wikimedia ED - May 2014 13.jpg seems very... unflattering. The red faces are pretty demon-y. Maybe this is just my monitor? Could we look at alternate images or is it too late for that? Or maybe we could just adjust the color levels in this photo? --MZMcBride (talk) 02:00, 8 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the story. "Wales also quietly replaced Tretikov at a planned March 13 event with Board member Guy Kawasaki at SXSW Interactive." is very confusing. It should be "will replace", rather than "replaced", right? And the phrasing makes it sound like maybe Wales himself, or Kawasaki, or both of them together is the replacement. Maybe something like "Wales, at a planned March 13 event with Board member Guy Kawasaki at SXSW Interactive, will announce Tretikov's replacement." Staecker (talk) 13:39, 8 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
It seems that the board has played some role in all of this, including development (?agitation for) the knowledge engine, removal of JH for ?disagreement, and promotion without proper scrutiny of Arnnon. Will the signpost be covering the makeup and role the board has played in this? It seems to me a lot of this has been pinned on Lila's head with the board's role quite understated. --Tom (LT) (talk) 01:06, 9 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
In other news, Board of Trustees member Guy Kawasaki recently tweeted a link to an article entitled "8 warning signs that your staff are about to quit". He has not commented whether this article could have helped with staff issues at the WMF, or if he has an interest in the Wikimedia Foundations & communities beyond being a catchy bullet point on his resume. -- llywrch (talk) 06:39, 9 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Might we have articles of fact rather than iterated editorial commentary? "one of the many WMF employees to have left during Tretikov's tenure." in the primary photo caption is an indication thereof, along with too much of this editorial artlessly masquerading as "News and Notes." ("a series of employee departures", "departure was one of the flashpoints for other employees", " employee exits from the WMF continue", "Due to the exodus of employees, ", etc. show the preternatural obsession with HR at the WMF). Collect (talk) 14:40, 10 March 2016 (UTC)[reply]