Wikimedia Foundation/Chief Executive Officer

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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 business side of the Wikimedia Foundation, engaging with communities to inform decision making, and representing the Wikimedia Foundation to the broader public.

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Maryana Iskander became the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Wikimedia Foundation in January 2022.

Maryana joined the Wikimedia Foundation after a decade as the CEO of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a non-profit social enterprise focused on building African solutions to tackle the global crisis of youth unemployment. She has also served as Chief Operating Officer of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a volunteer-led social movement.

Maryana was born in Cairo, Egypt, before emigrating with her parents to the United States. Since then, she has lived and studied in the United States and Europe before settling in South Africa.

Her career has been shaped by work that melds people, impact, and technology to break down barriers and increase access to opportunity.

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Office of the CEO

Nadee Gunasena

Chief of Staff & Director of Executive Communications

Margo Lee

Deputy Chief of Staff

The Work of the Office of the CEO

The Office of the CEO supports the CEO in their role, working with every department at the Foundation and with the Board of Trustees. We meet regularly with community members at community conferences and 1:1 conversations. If you have any questions about our work or would like to get in touch, please reach out through our individual talk pages on Meta or through email.

Our ongoing work includes:

Multi-year planning

The Foundation’s annual planning is informed by multi-year and multi-generational strategies. The Office of the CEO works with leaders across the organization, the movement and the public to engage in three areas of planning that we believe are needed to advance our mission in perpetuity.

Annual Plan

Each year, the Foundation publishes an Annual Plan that summarizes our work across four key goals. The Office of the CEO manages and leads the planning process, which includes community conversations to hear ideas and feedback.

Board Affairs

The Office of the CEO offers assistance to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees and provides executive-level support to Trustees.

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.