Press releases/Wikimedia Foundation Announces Interim Executive Director

St. Petersburg, Florida, June 12, 2006

The Wikimedia Foundation (http://wikimediafoundation.org) announced today that it has hired Brad Patrick as general counsel and interim executive director, where he will oversee its staff and operations. In this capacity he will lead the search for a permanent executive director to be in charge of administering the Wikimedia Foundation's activities, after which he will settle into his permanent role as general counsel.

"Brad has a keen grasp of the opportunities and challenges involved in our tremendous growth, and a great appreciation for the work done by our community of volunteers," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. "Brad's advice and support has been a tremendous asset to us so far, and we look forward to his help in setting the professional side of the organization on a firm footing."

Mr. Patrick's background in legal issues and community service fits in well with the Wikimedia Foundation's mission to provide free access to knowledge throughout the world. He comes to the foundation from Fowler White Boggs Banker, a top Florida law firm where he handled intellectual property and technology litigation. Patrick holds a J.D. from Boston College Law School and previously practiced law with firms in Redmond and Seattle, Washington. His nonprofit experience includes serving on numerous boards of directors for civic, educational, and community leadership organizations. Patrick also has led a successful campaign for a bond issue to finance construction of a public library in Redmond, Washington.

About Wikimedia
The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging the growth and development of freely distributed content in many languages, such as the well-known Wikipedia encyclopedia, now in over 100 languages. Wikimedia projects include some of the largest collaboratively edited reference works in the world created using wiki software. Along with Wikipedia, one of the top 20 most visited Web sites on the Internet, these projects include Wiktionary (a dictionary), Wikibooks (textbooks), Wikiquote (quotations), Wikisource (source documents), Wikinews (news stories), and the Wikimedia Commons (a media repository).

Contact
For questions and interviews, please email [mailto:press@wikimedia.org press@wikimedia.org], or (in English only) contact directly:

Jimmy Wales, Chair, Board of Trustees, Wikimedia Foundation Phone: +1-310-474-3223 Email: [mailto:jwales@wikia.com jwales@wikia.com]

Other regional contacts