Sue Gardner
Sue Gardner (born May 11, 1967)[2] is a Canadian journalist, not-for-profit executive and business executive. She was the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation from December 2007 until May 2014,[3] and before that was the director of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's website and online news outlets.
In 2012, she was ranked as the 70th-most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine.[4] In 2013, she joined the board of Global Voices.[5] In May 2015, the Tor Project announced that Gardner would be assisting the project with the development of their long-term organizational strategy.[6] In 2018, she was announced as executive director of The Markup.[7] Gardner left this position in May 2019.
Gardner was born in Barbados.[1] She grew up in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, the daughter of an Anglican priest and a school principal.[8] She received a degree in journalism from Ryerson University.[8]
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.[9]
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.[10][11][12]
In May 2007, Gardner resigned from CBC, and shortly thereafter began consulting for the Wikimedia Foundation as a special advisor on operations and governance.[13] In December 2007, she was hired as the foundation's executive director.[14] Over the next two years, she oversaw growth of the staff including the addition of 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.[15]
