Press releases/August 2011 Wikimedia Foundation Announces 2011-2012 Board of Trustees and Elected Officers

HAIFA, ISRAEL -- August 2, 2011 The Wikimedia Foundation today announced the official [Board of Trustees] and elected officers for 2011-2012. As a result of an official community election in June, the full Board is as follows:

Ting Chen Jimmy Wales Jan-Bart de Vreede Stuart West Phoebe Ayers Samuel Klein Bishakha Datta Matt Halprin Arne Klempert Kat Walsh

In addition, the Board has elected its officers for the coming year: Ting Chen will remain Chair of the Board, Jan-Bart de Vreede has been elected Vice-Chair, Stuart West has been reelected Treasurer, and Phoebe Ayers has been elected Secretary.

“I’m really proud to announce our full Board for the year, and our new slate of officers,” said Ting Chen, Chairman of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. “It’ll be an exciting and challenging year and I’m looking forward to working closely with such strong, talented leaders as we further the Wikimedia movement together.”

The decisions were made following a series of Board meetings coinciding with the seventh annual Wikimania conference, held in Haifa, Israel. The Board meets every year during Wikimania, the annual international conference, run by the Wikimedia community, and organized by a different local team each year. This year, 650 Wikipedia editors, Wikimedia advocates, researchers and educators from 56 countries will attend the conference. Wikimania is celebrating its seventh year in Haifa, Israel, previously held in Egypt, Argentina, Germany, Poland and Taiwan. In 2012, Wikimania will take place in the United States in Washington, DC.

About the Wikimedia Foundation http://wikimediafoundation.org http://blog.wikimedia.org

The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization which operates Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 390 million unique visitors per month, making them the 5th most popular web property world-wide (May, 2011). Available in more than 270 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 18 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than 100,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants.

Media Contacts:

Moka Pantages Global Communications Manager Wikimedia Foundation Tel. +1 415 839 6885 Moka@wikimedia.org