#10 Sue Gardner

Rank 70

Executive Director, WikiMedia Foundation

Wikipedia pre- and post-Sue Gardner is two completely different organizations. Gardner brought a major change in WikiMedia when she arrived. In 2007, WikiMedia had only 10 employees and was raising less than $ 3 million annually. In 2011, Wikimedia's number of donors had increased ten times over, raising $ 23 million. Gardner is focused on expanding Wikipedia's scope for readers and contributors, especially in the global South. In 2012, she partnered with Orange and Telenor, which is two European telecommunications companies, in a move which will provide Wikipedia free of data charges to millions of users across Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. She even led the full-day blackout in protest against SOPA, one of the only major websites to do so.  Gardner's roots are in journalism and also graduating from Ryerson University with a journalism degree and acting as head of Canada's national public broadcaster, CBC.CA.