[foundation-board] New Draft Leadership Announce (Public Version)

[Rufus Pollock]

As per thread last week a new version of the Leadership announce (public
version) has been prepared which can be *found below*.

We are also preparing an associated (non-published, non-shared) FAQ for
internal use (which I'm assuming the board will probably not need to
review).

Given the timeline (announce Thursday to team) we would like to *sign this
off by CoP today*. If you have *comments, questions etc please send them
through asap*.

Thanks in advance for everyone's time and note that once we are through
this period activity should revert to a more normal leve.

Regards,

Rufus

Note there will (likely) be 3 slightly different versions of the announce:

   -

   public release and blog [this is the primary draft]
   -

      This will be posted by Rufus (in his capacity as founder)
      -

   team [revision of the primary]
   -

   funders and key stakeholders [ditto]

Public Announce

Today I would like to share some important organisational news:  after 3
years with Open Knowledge, Laura James, our CEO, has decided to move on to
new challenges. Laura has made an immense contribution and we have been
privileged to have her on board - I’d like to extend my personal thanks to
her for all she has done. As a result of this change we will be seeking to
recruit a new senior executive to lead Open Knowledge as it continues to
evolve and grow.


For a decade, Open Knowledge has been a leader in its field, working at the
forefront of efforts to open up information around the world and and see it
used to empower citizens and organisations to drive change. Both the
community and original non-profit have grown - and continue to grow -
significantly, and the space in which we work continues to develop rapidly
with many exciting new opportunities and activities.


As many of you know, Laura James joined us to support the organisation as
we scaled up, and stepped up to the CEO role in 2013. Laura has played a
central role in our evolution as we’ve grown from a team of half-a-dozen to
more than forty. Thanks to her commitment and skill we’ve navigated many of
the tough challenges that accompany “growing-up” as an organisation. She
has always intended to return to her roots in engineering at an appropriate
juncture, and we have been fortunate to have had Laura with us for so long
 - she will be sorely missed.


There will be no change in my role (as President and founder) and I will be
here both to help lead the organisation in the interim and to work closely
with the new appointment going forward.  Laura will remain in post,
continuing to manage the organisation and assisting with the recruitment
and also, as needed, to help with bringing the new senior executive on
board.


We have a fantastic future ahead of us and I’m really excited for us to be
embarking on this next step, preparing Open Knowledge to make its next
decade as successful as its first.


Finally, I would like to re-iterate my thanks to Laura - she has made an
essential contribution at a crucial stage in our development - and on
behalf of the whole team I want to say a huge thank-you!
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