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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

Announcing the Bassel Khartabil Memorial Fund

by Ryan Merkley About CC

Our friend and colleague Bassel Khartabil was Creative Commons’ Syrian project lead, an open source developer, a teacher, a Wikipedia contributor, and a renowned free culture advocate. He was also a devoted son and husband, and a great friend to many in the global open knowledge community. We were heartbroken and outraged to learn earlier…