Mary Hubbard is not new to WordPress as she had previously held the role of Chief Product Officer for WordPress.com. So brings “deep knowledge of WordPress and expertise across business, product, marketplaces, program management, and governance,” as stated in the announcement.
She replaces Josepha Haden Chomphosy, who recently resigned following the spat between Automattic and WP Engine, and joins from TikTok, where she held the position of Head of TikTok Americas, Governance and Experience.
Realigning and prioritizing Marketing
There are 8 Marketing roles open at Automattic at the time of writing, some of which are likely to be replacements of those who accepted Matt Mullenweg’s recent offer to leave. A number of contributors to the Make WordPress.org Marketing initiative have left too.
No doubt that one of Hubbard’s more pressing tasks will be to re-align and re-focus the project’s Marketing efforts, including re-evaluating the recent Media Corps experiment. The opportunity is to bring fresh ideas to the table, including addressing resourcing and funding challenges, and giving Marketing a higher priority.
Mary’s background will help too as Product typically crosses multiple functions within an organization and works closely with Marketing.
Remember, you can help Marketing WordPress too
The clash between Automattic and WP Engine is affecting the community and contribution, including long time contributors being banned from WordPress. org. But given the strength of the community, spirit of Open Source, and fact that WordPress is much bigger than any trademark dispute, there’s not reason not to contribute time and ideas, and help Mary hit the ground running.
