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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

Creative Commons announces three new staff members

by Ryan Merkley About CC

I’m excited to announce three new members of the Creative Commons team: Jennryn Wetzler, Assistant Director of Open Education; Sophine Clachar, Data Engineer; and Jay Walsh, Chief of Staff. Jennryn joins us following her work at the U.S. Department of State, where she piloted open educational resources (OER) use for public diplomacy. There, she helped…

How can we make the world a better place?

by Ryan Merkley About CC

What are the values that resonate the most for you in the Commons? Transparency? Innovation? Sharing? Gratitude? In today’s polarized political environment, how can we come together to champion values that we share, and make the world a better place? I’ve repeated three truths to guide CC’s message, and I’d like to share them with…