Lila Tretikov


Lila Tretikov Tretyakova, Ольга is a Russian–American engineer and manager, who was executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation from 2014 to 2016.
Born in Moscow, Tretikov emigrated to the United States as a teenager and in 1999 began working as a software engineer in California, where she co-authored several software patents and also founded a technology marketing company. A specialist in enterprise software, she was chief information officer and vice president of engineering at SugarCRM Inc., before succeeding Sue Gardner at the Wikimedia Foundation in 2014, selected from 200 applicants. She left Wikimedia in 2016.

Early life and education

Tretikov is of Russian heritage. Her father is a mathematician, and her mother was a filmmaker. After moving to New York City at age 15, she learned English while waitressing and attended the University of California, Berkeley, but left before completing her degree. Her majors were computer science and art, and she researched machine learning.

Career

In 1999, Tretikov started her professional career at Sun Microsystems as an engineer at the Sun-Netscape Alliance, where she worked on the Java server. She then founded GrokDigital, a technology marketing company, and was later appointed chief information officer and vice president of engineering at SugarCRM Inc. In 2012, she was a Stevie Awards bronze winner in the category for "Female Executive of the YearBusiness Services11 to 2,500 EmployeesComputer Hardware & Software". She has co-authored several patents in intelligent data mapping and dynamic language applications.
Tretikov was appointed executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation in May 2014 in succession to Sue Gardner and took up the post on June 1, 2014. She had edited Wikipedia only once before her appointment. Tretikov resigned from the Wikimedia Foundation as a result of the WMF's controversial Knowledge Engine project and disagreements with the staff, with her last day being March 31, 2016. She was succeeded by Katherine Maher in March 2016.
On March 16, 2016, it was announced that Tretikov had been invited by the World Economic Forum to join its "Young Global Leaders" community. Tretikov is also on the boards of OpenEd and Rackspace.