Sue Gardner (born May 11, 1967)
In 2012, Gardner was ranked as the 70th-most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine.[ The World's 100 Most Powerful Women, Sue Gardner . Forbes. Accessed August 23, 2012.] In 2013, she joined the board of Global Voices.
In November 2023, Gardner was appointed chair of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
Early life
Gardner was born in
Barbados.
[ She grew up in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, the daughter of an Anglican priest and a school principal.]
Career
Journalism
Gardner began her career on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) radio in 1990 on the program As It Happens, and worked for more than a decade as a producer, reporter and documentary maker for CBC Radio current affairs and for Newsworld International, focusing on pop culture and social issues.[From the Lavin Agency's profile .]
In March 2006, she succeeded Claude Galipeau as senior director of the CBC website and Internet platform, CBC.ca, building its staff from 35 to 160.
Wikimedia
In May 2007, Gardner resigned from CBC, and soon began consulting for the Wikimedia Foundation as a special advisor on operations and governance.[ Wikimedia Foundation press release, June 27, 2007.] In December 2007, she was hired as the foundation's executive director.[ "Sue Gardner Hired as Executive Director" , Wikimedia Foundation press release. December 3, 2007] Over the next two years, she oversaw growth of the staff, adding a fundraising team, and a move of the headquarters from St. Petersburg, Florida, to San Francisco, California.
In October 2009, Gardner was named by The Huffington Post as one of ten "media game changers of the year" for the impact on new media of her work for Wikimedia.[From the series of slides for the 10 Game Changers: Who Is The Ultimate Game Changer In Media? – Sue Gardner . HuffPost. March 18, 2010]
One of the issues that Gardner addressed while she was a Wikimedia Foundation executive director was gender bias on Wikipedia. She listed nine reasons why women don't edit Wikipedia, culled from comments by female Wikipedia editors:
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A lack of user-friendliness in the User interface
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Not having enough free time
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A lack of self-confidence
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Aversion to conflict and an unwillingness to participate in lengthy edit wars
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Belief that their contributions are too likely to be reverted or deleted
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Some find its overall atmosphere Misogyny
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Wikipedia culture is sexual in ways they find off-putting
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Being addressed as male is off-putting to women whose primary language has grammatical gender
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Fewer opportunities than other sites for social relationships and a welcoming tone
On March 27, 2013, Gardner announced she would be leaving the Wikimedia Foundation. She stated that the Wikimedia Foundation was doing well but the Internet was not, and she planned to help in that area going forward.
It was announced on May 1, 2014, that Lila Tretikov would be replacing Gardner, and would take over as executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation on June 1, 2014.[ Please welcome Lila Tretikov, the Wikimedia Foundation's new ED Jan-Bart de Vreede, Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, May 1, 2014.]
Tor and First Look
Gardner joined The Tor Project, Inc to develop a strategic plan, with support from First Look Media.[ Sue Gardner and the Tor strategy project – The Tor Project, May 6, 2015][ Why I'm working with Tor and First Look – Sue Gardner's Blog, May 20, 2015] The Tor Project is a Massachusetts-based research-education nonprofit organization founded by computer scientists Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson and five others. The Tor Project is primarily responsible for maintaining software for the Tor anonymity network.
The Markup
In September 2018, Gardner co-founded The Markup with Julia Angwin and Jeff Larson as a continuation of their work at ProPublica. With $20 million of initial funding from Craig Newmark, the site would work to cover news about "Big Tech" and its impact on the public.
In April 2019, Gardner fired Angwin over creative and managerial differences.
See also
External links
