Maryana Iskander

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Maryana introducing herself
Recorded October 2021
Maryana Iskander
ماريانا إسكندر
Maryana Iskander (cropped).jpg
Iskander in 2017
Born (1975-09-01) September 1, 1975 (age 50)
Cairo, Egypt
CitizenshipUnited States
Education Rice University (BA)
Trinity College, Oxford (MSc)
Yale University (JD)
Occupations
Awards Rhodes Scholarship (1996)
Skoll Award (2019)
Chief Executive Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 5, 2022
Website Wikimedia Page

Maryana Iskander [a] (born September 1, 1975) [2] is an American social entrepreneur and lawyer. In 2022, she became the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Wikimedia Foundation, succeeding Katherine Maher. Iskander plans to leave the role by January 2026. Prior to her position, Iskander was the CEO of the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator and a former chief operating officer of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York.

Contents

Early life and education

Maryana Iskander was born in Cairo, Egypt, where she lived before emigrating to the United States with her family at the age of four. Her family settled in Round Rock, Texas. [3] Iskander matriculated at Rice University on a Harry S. Truman Scholarship, graduating with a B.A., magna cum laude , in sociology in 1997. [3] [4]

In 1999, Iskander obtained her M.Sc. from Trinity College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, [3] where she founded the Rhodes Association of Women. Afterward, she enrolled at Yale Law School, graduating with a J.D. in 2003. [3]

Career

Maryana Iskander during Wikimania 2023 Maryana Iskander, CEO of Wikimedia Foundation-070A3772 (crop).jpg
Maryana Iskander during Wikimania 2023

After graduating from Oxford University, Iskander began her career as an associate at McKinsey and Co. Following her graduation from Yale Law School, Iskander clerked for Diane P. Wood on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, Illinois. She then served as the adviser to the president of Rice University, David Leebron. After two years, Iskander left her job at Rice to take the role of chief operating officer for Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York. [3] She has also worked as a strategy consultant for W. L. Gore & Associates, and a law clerk at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York, and Vinson & Elkins in Houston. [5]

After her time at Planned Parenthood, in 2012, Iskander became the chief operating officer of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator in South Africa before becoming its chief executive officer (CEO) a year later (2013). Harambee is focused on connecting employers to first-time workers to reduce youth unemployment and increase retention.

Speaking at the 2019 Conscious Companies Awards in Johannesburg, Iskander explained that she wanted "business to understand that the hiring of young people in their first jobs is not a charitable exercise but talent [...] We treat young people like customers and not like beneficiaries." [6]

On September 14, 2021, Iskander was named as CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, assuming her post on January 5, 2022. [7] She has stated in interviews that her priorities after taking her role were to diversify Wikipedia's volunteer writers and editors and to promote the Wikimedia Foundation's mission of advocating for access to information. [8] In May 2025, she announced to staff that she will step down from the role as part of an organized succession plan, seeking a new CEO by January 2026. [9] Iskander was compensated $512,179 in 2023 and $472,629 in 2024 for her role as CEO. [10]

In 2023, Iskander was elected to the Yale Board of Trustees. [11]

On October 17, 2025 during WikiConference North America at Civic Hall at Union Square in Manhattan, Iskander's speech to around 100 persons in the audience was interrupted when a man stormed to the stage, brandished a loaded firearm, and threatened suicide. The gunman was restrained and disarmed by two trust and safety volunteers at the conference. According to Bill Adair, Iskander was grateful to the two trust and safety volunteers, and told the crowd, "Richard and Andrew have been very busy... I thank them for saving my life." [12]

Recognition

Iskander has been the recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and the Yale Law School Distinguished Alumnae Award. [13] In 2002, she was awarded the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, [14] which is given to immigrants or the children of immigrants "who are poised to make significant contributions to US society, culture or their academic field". [3] She was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship [15] and Harry S. Truman Scholarship. [15] She was also a member of the 2006 class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute, and of their Aspen Global Leadership Network. [16]

See also

Notes

References

  1. ↑ Maryana Iskander, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator. Devex. June 18, 2019. Archived from the original on July 22, 2022. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  2. ↑ Who's who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. Vol. 62. Randall Publishing Company. 1996. p. 714.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Maryana F. Iskander, 2001". Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. P'unk Ave. Archived from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Scholar Listing". The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. Archived from the original on May 17, 2023. Retrieved May 5, 2023.
  5. ↑ "About Our Team". Harambee. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
  6. ↑ "Conscious Companies awards applauds 2019 finalists". IOL. Independent Media and affiliated companies. April 24, 2019. Archived from the original on November 6, 2021. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  7. ↑ Lima, Cristiano (September 14, 2021). "Wikimedia taps leader of South African nonprofit as its next CEO". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on September 14, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  8. ↑ "Wikipedia parent's new CEO wants to make it more global". The Seattle Times. September 27, 2021. Archived from the original on March 31, 2022. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
  9. ↑ Fried, Ina (May 6, 2025). "Exclusive: Wikipedia CEO is leaving". Axios . Archived from the original on May 11, 2025. Retrieved May 10, 2025.
  10. ↑ "Wikimedia Foundation Org (EIN: 20-0049703)". Nonprofit Explorer. ProPublica. June 30, 2024. Archived from the original on April 20, 2021. Retrieved August 18, 2025.
  11. ↑ Peed, Andrea Thompson (June 13, 2023). "Yale announces new alumni fellow trustee and two new successor trustees". YaleNews. Archived from the original on October 4, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2023.
  12. ↑ Newman, Andy (October 17, 2025). "Wikipedia volunteers avert tragedy by taking down gunman at conference". New York Times . Archived from the original on October 20, 2025. Retrieved October 20, 2025– via Star-Advertiser.
  13. ↑ Edwards, Caryn (February 9, 2018). "Yale honours CEO of South African youth employment accelerator". The South African. Blue Sky Publications Ltd. Archived from the original on August 30, 2020. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Maryana Iskander". University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service Speaker Series. Clinton School. Archived from the original on February 26, 2020. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
  15. 1 2 "Maryana Iskander '03 J.D. | Yale Corporation Alumni Fellow Election". alumni-fellow-election.yale.edu. Retrieved October 21, 2025. Already several years removed from her bachelor's degree (magna cum laude in sociology from Rice University, where she was a Harry S. Truman Scholar), she had been a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford and a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company.
  16. ↑ "Maryana Iskander". AGLN. The Aspen Institute. Archived from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
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