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Ryan Merkley

Ryan is currently the Chief of Staff at Wikimedia Foundation. He was CEO at Creative Commons from 2014 to 2019. He helped define a new strategy and to establish long-term sustainability for CC resulting in a vibrant, usable commons powered by collaboration and gratitude.

Prior to joining CC, Ryan was Chief Operating Officer of Mozilla, served as Director of Corporate Communications for the City of Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Games, and was a Senior Advisor to Mayor David Miller in Toronto, where he led the Mayor’s budget policy and initiated Toronto’s Open Data project. Ryan is an experienced campaigner and advocate for social causes, and has advised political campaigns on the local and national levels. Ryan is an avid cyclist and an amateur barista. He lives in Toronto with his daughter and his wife Kelsey.

Posts by Ryan Merkley

CC Working with Flickr to Protect the Commons

by Ryan Merkley About CC

Today, Creative Commons is working closely with Flickr and its parent company SmugMug to find ways to protect and preserve the Commons, and ultimately help it grow and thrive. We want to ensure that when users share their works that they are available online in perpetuity

Flipping the Switch on a Revitalized CC Network

by Ryan Merkley About CC

I’m excited to share an update on the implementation of the CC Global Network Strategy, and to move forward on an important next step that will, for the first time, put the Network in the hands of the Network: the first meeting of Chapter representatives to the Global Network Council.