16 Facts About Katherine Maher

Katherine Roberts Maher is a former chief executive officer and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Katherine Maher subsequently joined the Atlantic Council and currently serves on the US Department of State's Foreign Affairs Policy Board.

Katherine Maher grew up in Wilton, Connecticut, and attended Wilton High School.

Katherine Maher subsequently studied at the Institut francais d'etudes arabes de Damas in Syria and spent time in Lebanon and Tunisia.

In 2005, Katherine Maher received a bachelor's degree from New York University in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies.

Katherine Maher originally intended to be an academic and work for human rights and international development organizations.

In 2007, Katherine Maher returned to New York City where from 2007 to 2010 she worked at UNICEF as an innovation and communication officer.

From 2010 to 2011, Katherine Maher worked at the National Democratic Institute as an ICT Program Officer.

From 2011 to 2013, Katherine Maher worked at the World Bank as an ICT innovation specialist and consulted on technology for international development and democratization, working on ICT for accountability and governance with a focus on the role of mobile phones and other technologies in facilitating civil society and institutional reform, particularly in the Middle East and Africa.

Katherine Maher co-authored a chapter on "Making Government Mobile" of a World Bank publication titled Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile.

From 2013 to 2014, Katherine Maher was advocacy director at the Washington, DC-based Access Now.

Katherine Maher was chief communications officer of the Wikimedia Foundation from April 2014 to March 2016.

Katherine Maher was interviewed by The Washington Post on United States copyright law.

Katherine Maher became interim executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation in March 2016 following the resignation of executive director Lila Tretikov and was appointed executive director on June 23,2016.

Katherine Maher stepped down from her positions as CEO and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation on April 15,2021.

In 2022, Katherine Maher joined the US State Department's Foreign Affairs Policy Board, an expert panel established in 2011 by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to advise US officials.