Kicking off 2019 with a bang, Matt Mullenweg announced recently that the WordPress senior leadership team is expanding and two new members have been welcomed aboard. Josepha Haden is the new Executive Director and Joost de Valk has been brought on as the new Marketing and Communications Lead.
The need for these two positions was highlighted during the development cycle for WordPress 5.0, when it became apparent that there was a need for the numerous teams working on large scale projects to work together more succinctly. One of Haden’s responsibilities will be to oversee the WordPress contributor teams, while de Valk is heading up the marketing team.
These new roles are set to streamline the project process and spotlight team members who have the ability to shine in project leadership roles. With WordPress continuing to grow at lightning speed and a number of high scale projects in the pipeline, we’re sure both the contributor and marketing teams are welcoming these new changes.
As one of her first actions, Haden has launched a request for feedback from contributors, particularly highlighting challenges they may face. The full request can be found in a recent Team Updates post and makes for interesting reading, particularly the numerous comments from contributors that touch on elements like accessibility and leadership structure.
The dialogue is still ongoing and we would urge all contributors to head over the link above and share their thoughts, as all feedback will be informing future changes to leadership and project processes.
