This article by the WMF's outgoing CEO Maryana Iskander was originally published in Diff on January 19, 2026. CC-BY-SA 4.0. Thank you, Maryana, for everything you've accomplished over the last four years. – S

On May 6, 2025, I shared my decision to step down as part of a long-planned CEO transition at the Wikimedia Foundation. Tomorrow, I will join all of you in warmly welcoming Bernadette Meehan as she formally begins her tenure.

Wikipedia turned 25 last week! And it has been the privilege of my career to serve this remarkable human endeavor, something that is so unique, powerful and enduring – and unlike anything else in the history of all humankind. I have loved learning from volunteers all over the world and sharing what Wikipedia means to the world.

On my last day, I offer these final reflections to close the circle from where I started in late 2021.

In a listening tour I completed before I started at the Wikimedia Foundation, I had the opportunity to speak with nearly 300 people across 55 countries, and meet hundreds more through community events. I heard many strong views related to the Wikimedia projects, the Foundation, our ways of working together, and the need to respond better to the world around us.

I then played back what I heard in the form of these 5 puzzles – they were "puzzles" because I felt they needed collective ingenuity and shared problem-solving to reach ambitious aspirations and tackle complex challenges together. And I certainly couldn't solve any of them on my own. For me, these puzzles have continued to guide what I think is the most important work ahead in responding to the world around us, which is feeling more uncertain and volatile for many of us.

The first puzzle – asking "what does the world need from us now" – was the only topic where Wikimedians had a strongly shared view. There was broad agreement about the urgent need for the Wikimedia projects, now more than ever before. Four years ago, many of you talked to me about misinformation, disinformation, disintermediation and polarization – and that our principles of open knowledge and neutrality were essential and non-negotiable. That has only become more true now.

And yet, a worrying number shared that "we have a very insular view of the world" and that we can be "too inward looking… a false oasis that is not engaging enough with the outside world." Many of you told me that we need to ask more hard questions like: "Are we still relevant compared to so many other online platforms? Why would people come to us? How easy is our technology to use?" When I probed further, I heard: "On some very emotive issues, we have no baseline data."

On this, I feel that we've made significant strides, even though of course, on a changing internet there is always more to do. When I joined, generative AI wasn't yet shaping the online media ecosystem at its current pace, but Wikipedia's critical role as the internet's knowledge backbone was clear. At the Wikimedia Foundation, we revamped all of our planning to always start with a look outward – at the data, research, and trends that we must face into about how people are using the internet differently or what new regulations will impact our work or how to talk more bravely about the statistics showing that fewer humans than before are coming to our platform in face of increased disintermediation. To recognize that Wikipedia is becoming more vital but less visible as its content is used, reused, and relied on across the internet, everywhere in the world.

This puzzle must continue to guide our future. To ensure we don't become too insular or too afraid and fail to respond to a rapidly changing world that needs the Wikimedia projects now more than ever before.

The second puzzle was how to close knowledge gaps and to make all contributions count. A historic emphasis on an 'edit count' as the only metric of contribution misses all the things we need so many more people to do who share our vision and values. There is a recognition that there isn't only one way to strengthen the Wikimedia projects, there are many that are needed now: we need more people to edit articles, to upload photos, to organize and build community, to grow strong partnerships.

The past few years have seen us strengthen and celebrate these many forms of contributions – WikiCelebrate to Wikimedians of the year – from influencers explaining Wikipedia to the world to 'users with extended rights' keeping things up and running to contributors everywhere adding content in hundreds of languages. As one example, our growing support for Wikimania (the annual gathering of global volunteers) as well as regional, thematic, and community conferences has resulted in record numbers of contributors coming together to strategize, share and learn on issues from AI to technical improvements.

The third puzzle was how to fuel a human-led, tech-enabled mission. The Wikimedia projects are founded on the revolutionary idea that anyone, anywhere can contribute collaboratively and in real-time to the sum of all human knowledge. And 25 years later, hundreds of thousands of contributors have delivered on this promise of the Internet. This has powerful lessons for society's leaders, policymakers, and other platforms around the world.

I understood that the Wikimedia Foundation has a central role to play in shaping and enabling the technical infrastructure that is core to every aspect of this mission. While we can't solve this puzzle alone, I took accountability for the leadership, focus, and clarity that is needed to improve our technical support and delivery.

On this front, we have actively reoriented the entire Wikimedia Foundation to prioritize these responsibilities. Probably the best decision I made as CEO was convincing Selena Deckelmann to join us – she has built an impressive track record in 3 short years demonstrating that change is possible at the Foundation. We have added new data centres, prioritized the essential maintenance of Mediawiki and accelerated ways of supporting users with extended rights. We are also sharing more transparent information about the impact of AI tools on our traffic and our technical infrastructure, and leading strategies to address these challenges. Last week, we publicly announced more partnerships with technology companies that rely heavily on Wikimedia content as we strengthen a system of responsible reuse that contributes to our shared digital commons.

The fourth puzzle was about our truly global movement. With 300+ language Wikipedias, our multilingualism exceeds any other online platform in the world and is one of our superpowers. And yet, the puzzle is that our conversations and decisions continue to be dominated by the English language. While we are not the only group to face this challenge, I think it comes with opportunity costs to our social and encyclopedic purpose.

In the past several years, the Wikimedia Foundation has expanded its language translation and interpretation support from 6 to 30+ languages. We reoriented programmatic work in the Foundation's annual plan to focus more intently on regional, thematic and local language communities so that people closest to the issues can identify opportunities and solve problems together. As one example, the Global Resource Distribution Committee pilot launched in 2024 aims to intentionally put resources in the hands of communities working in non‑English and underrepresented languages, increasing their participation in movement-wide decision making. I was also delighted to welcome Bobby Shabangu as the first volunteer from Africa to be elected to the Board of Trustees.

We are in a moment when I know that we can all learn more from colleagues around the world about how they respond to threats from special interest groups, influencers, and governments intent on undermining the credibility of information that they may disagree with. I have strong conviction that our response to these threats, in the United States where the Foundation is based and around the world, are guided by our values and will not change in the face of pressure.

We will always welcome everyone who shares our vision and values – this will not change. We will always protect and defend volunteers and the Wikimedia projects from pressure, harassment and interference – this will not change.

We must also always remain open to ideas that can help us improve if we want to be more impactful than we are today – whether that is safeguarding neutrality or responding to feedback that we need to explain our sourcing more clearly to the public. I believe Wikipedia's humility to always change and improve also can never change.

For me personally, the most vexing puzzle in my time as CEO was the last one, about how we work together across highly decentralized communities to get big things done in the world. I asked everyone when I started: how do we draw on similar pillars and principles even though our organisations cannot be run like our Wikimedia projects?

We made a lot of progress toward this goal, especially inside of the Wikimedia Foundation. There continues to be space for conversations not only about incremental improvements but also about large-scale transformation in how we are set up to achieve our vision in the years ahead. I am grateful to so many people who have acknowledged these improvements and shared proposals to help us to do better and be better.

While I am the author of this post, the achievements it describes belong to many others: the Foundation's Board of Trustees, who always gave me their unwavering support; our tight-knit, world-class executive team who continue to provide leadership and accountability across so many critical areas of challenge and success; as well as hundreds of staff and thousands of volunteers who remain completely committed to collective success.

As you know, we kicked off Wikipedia@25, a once-in-a generation opportunity to tell the stories of this inspiring global community! To remind the world that our values and principles have withstood the test of time and can do so for another generation to come. While Wikipedia may be known as "the factual netting that holds the whole digital world together" – I think the reason we are here is a more profound calling. To ask what it will take to create – not only to imagine – a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge?

I am proud of the progress we have made increasing trust in Wikipedia – in a world that is becoming even more polarized and fragmented; the successes we have had in representing and explaining the Wikipedia model to regulators, judges, lawmakers, donors and members of the public everywhere; and I am proud of the growing technical, linguistic and financial support the Foundation has provided to volunteer communities all over the world.

I am most proud of the progress we have made in changing ourselves, as communities and as a global movement. In being open to new ideas, to more experiments, and to asking harder questions. To naming the elephants in the room and to deciding to tackle them together. I know that when we can change ourselves, we can change absolutely anything. My wish is that we stay bold in changing ourselves so that we can adapt at a time when we are most needed.

It's been my honor to have held the responsibility of CEO for these past four years, contributing to this inspiring mission and being in a global community that is building a better world.

Thank you again. I'll be watching to see where all of you take us next!