Wikipedia Gets a New Boss: 'This Is Big in Every Way'

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Lila Tretikov, pictured, has been named as the next executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Image: Wikimedia Foundation/Lane Hartwell

By Jason Abbruzzese2014-05-02 18:22:22 UTC

Wikimedia, the organization that runs Wikipedia, has named Lila Tretikov as its new executive director.

The former chief product officer for software company SugarCRM will take over for current director Sue Gardner on June 1, the organization announced in a press release.

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Wikipedia remains one of the most popular websites in the world. Wikimedia's family of sites routinely ranks in the top 10 of comScore's Media Matrix of U.S. web properties.

“When I got the news, I thought, 'This is big in every way: A big website — the fifth most popular in the world. A big community — 80,000 active Wikimedians from around the globe. And a big mission — nothing less than making the sum of all human knowledge freely available to all,’” Tretikov said in the release. “When I thought about why I wanted to take on a challenge this big, the answer was clear: Becoming a Wikimedian is an opportunity to be part of something bigger than ourselves.”

Born in the Soviet Union, she moved to the U.S. in 1994 to study computer science and art. Tretikov has previous open-source experience from her time at Sun Microsystems.

"As growing numbers of people around the world rely on Wikipedia and our sister projects for free information, our movement will be strengthened by the leadership of Lila Tretikov," said Jan-Bart de Vreede, Wikimedia foundation board chair. "She is an exceptional leader with a passion for knowledge, a deep technical and product background, and highly collaborative approach. We are all very excited to have brought her on-board.”

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Topics: Business, Media