[Foundation-l] Announcement: New Chief Program Office: Jennifer Riggs

Wed Apr 15 04:47:21 UTC 2009

Welcome, Jennifer!

Congratulations to the hiring committee as well for carrying out a
successful hiring process. While the Foundation is expanding, I think
this and other recent hirings show there's no loss of focus on the power
behind the projects, which is the massive base of volunteer
contributors, and that enabling them is key to continued success.

Thanks,
-Mike

On Tue, 2009-04-14 at 19:17 -0700, Sue Gardner wrote:

> Hello folks,
> 
> I am delighted to announce that this week, Jennifer Riggs begins work
> as the Wikimedia Foundation's first-ever Chief Program Officer.  She
> will report to me.  Frank Schulenburg, Jay Walsh and Cary Bass now
> report to Jennifer: as CPO, she is responsible for all non-technical
> program activities such as volunteer recruitment and public outreach.
> 
> As you probably know, we've been searching for a CPO since last fall.
> Because this is a new and important position for us, we deliberately
> decided to allow a large pool of candidates to accumulate over several
> months.  We wanted to build in time to think seriously about our needs
> while meeting with a wide range of people.
> 
> Since October, we received applications from more than 150 people with
> a diverse array of backgrounds including media, academia, the public
> school system, non-profits, the free software movement and the
> business world.   As we carried out the interviewing process, the
> hiring committee came to the understanding that Wikimedia is, at its
> heart, a volunteer-centred organization -- and that what we need most
> in a CPO is a rich background in facilitating, structuring and
> supporting the work of volunteers.  Enter, Jennifer!
> 
> Jennifer comes to Wikimedia from the American Red Cross Bay Area
> chapter, where, as Manager of Volunteer Resources, she managed the
> work of more than a thousand volunteers.  Prior to the Red Cross, she
> was Project Director at the non-profit California School-Age
> Consortium, where she ran a program of train-the-trainer workshops.
> Before that, she worked for six years in program administration at the
> Peace Corps, as a Country Desk Office on the Central America Desk, a
> Country Desk Assistant on the Pacific Islands Desk, and a Training and
> Technical Coordinator in Togo, West Africa.
> 
> Jennifer speaks French, Sango and some Spanish. She has a B.A. in
> History with minors in Education and Political Science from New York
> University.
> 
> We know that the success of the Wikimedia projects depends upon the
> 150,000 active volunteers who are our core contributors.  Jennifer's
> wealth of experience recruiting, motivating and retaining volunteers
> will be enormously useful to us as we aim to better support the
> volunteers we currently have, and also reach out to new people.
> 
> Please join me in warmly welcoming her to the Wikimedia Foundation.
> 
> I want to take a moment also to thank Erik Moeller, Michael Snow and
> Kat Walsh for participating on the hiring committee. This was an
> important decision, and their experiences and advice were really
> helpful throughout the process.
> 
> Thanks,
> Sue
> 