Declarations of Interest

Wikimedia UK trustees have a duty to make their conflicts of interests known, and to abstain from decisions where those conflicts may influence the decisions they make on behalf of the charity. This page documents the declarations of interest that the current trustees have made. WMUK staff may also use this page to declare conflicts of interest that they have that may influence the advice they provide to the Board. Records of past trustee and staff COIs are on the archive page.

Some interests may exceptionally need to be declared in a confidential manner. These are recorded on the office wiki, and the Chief Exec will have been made aware of them and will flag resulting issues as needed.

Staff declarations of interests, should any occur, will be dealt with directly by the Chief Executive, and will be recorded here as appropriate. The Chief Exec's interests will be recorded here by default.

Situations that arise where interests have been declared and managed are recorded in the minutes of board meetings.

General guidance for managing declarations of interests for charity trustees can be found here.

Trustees

John Byrne

• WMUK: In June 2011 I was asked by the Board to work with Steve Virgin, then a Trustee, as a volunteer to choose new solicitors to handle our application to the Charity Commission to become a Registered Charity. In late August, when the amount of work involved in drafting submissions etc had become clear it was agreed that WMUK pay me £2,500 as a flat fee for this work, which was recognized as well below an arms-length figure for the work. This was invoiced and paid soon after. The main work was preparing the submission sent to the CC on September 23rd, and the work concluded in early November after some tidying-up after the application was agreed by the CC on November 5th 2011. I was appointed acting Treasurer on a voluntary basis in April 2012, and then stood for and was elected to the Board at the AGM on May 12 2012.

• WMUK: The 2nd Wikipedia Core Contest closed on March 31st 2012, before I was a Trustee, or indeed Acting-Treasurer. The prizes (a total of £250 Amazon vouchers) were sponsored by WMUK, but WMUK took no part in the judging, which was by a panel of 3: Casliber (Australia), Brianboulton (UK) and Sue Gardner (WMF/US). The winners were announced on May 29th, by which time I was a WMUK trustee. I won £30, which was paid not long after. I entered the 3rd contest, closed Auguest 31st 2012, but was ineligible for the money prizes, as they are again being sponsored by WMUK.

Chris Keating

• I am employed as a fundraiser by King's College London, and as part of that employment also work on projects raising funds for Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital Charity, King's College Hospital Charity, and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. None of these organisations is a Wikimedia UK partner and no conflicts of interest have arisen; should (say) a proposal be received in future regarding any of these organisations, I will recuse myself from discussion.
• I was in the past employed by Parkinson's UK. Wikimedia UK held a workshop with Parkinson's UK in Autumn 2012, almost a year after my employment with them; I was not involved in that workshop. While there is no financial connection between myself and Parkinson's UK, there might be circumstances in future where it would be appropriate for me to recuse myself from certain decisions to avoid the appearance of a conflict of loyalties.
• I have been a member of the Liberal Democrats since 1997, and was a staff member there between 2002-2010. To avoid the appearance of a conflict of loyalties I would recuse myself from any discussions in Wikimedia UK regarding the Liberal Democrats, though this situation has not so far arisen. (If you look at my editing history, you will see that some of my first edits were on Lib Dem related topics, though none since 2006.)
• Some of the trainers in Midas Training Solutions also provide "Train the Trainer" workshops as part of the Liberal Democrats' volunteer training programme, and I went on such a training course in 2004. I also worked with some of those people (in a voluntary capacity on both sides) in developing and delivering training sessions. I was not involved in the decision to select Midas as the supplier of Wikimedia UK's "Train the Trainer" programme, which resulted from a fair and open tender process. While there is no financial interest, I am aware that there might be considered to be a conflict of loyalties in this situation, and I intend to recuse myself from similar matters in future.

Michael Peel

• Mike is an employee of the University of Manchester. Some of our activities take place at this University, and he will abstain on all decisions relating to the University of Manchester.
• Mike is a member of the Wikimedia Foundation's Funds Dissemmination Committee. A draft document describing how this COI is managed is at meta:User:Mike Peel/FDC Declaration of Interest.
• Non-COI disclaimer: Mike is a admin on the English Wikipedia, and is an editor on a number of other Wikimedia projects. He uses Single User Login to unify his accounts on all WMF-hosted wikis. His edits on this wiki are a mix of edits made on behalf of the charity (in his role as Secretary), and those made on his own behalf; unless clearly stated otherwise, edits are made on his own behalf. All edits that are associated with his account and are made to any wiki aside from this one are unambiguously made on his behalf, and do not represent the charity.
• Non-COI disclaimer: Mike is subscribed to a number of closed-subscription mailing lists as a result of being a WMUK trustee. These include internal-l (the internal Wikimedia mailing list), the chapters mailing list (restricted to employees and staff of Wikimedia chapters) and wmfcc-l (the "Communications Committee"). He also uses his WMUK email address to subscribe to a number of public mailing lists. Emails send to these lists represent his individual viewpoint unless it is made clear in those emails that they represent the charity.

Doug Taylor

Although now retired, there are some areas where I may still retain a financial interest, or may appear to have an interest that could potentially conflict:

• I used to have a part of UHY Hacker Young, our auditors, as a client for my company over four years ago.
• I may still carry out some work for Metropolis 2 Ltd.
• I am Chair of the Board of Trustees of the charity, Job Change, and Chair of the social enterprise, Job Change 2007.
• I am Vice-Chair of the Regulations Committee of OCR.

My directorships, past and present, may be viewed at http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/903881846

I have agreed to serve on the initial board of Wikimedia Medicine, a thematic organisation to promote the development of medical content on Wikimedia projects. Although the objects of the organisation align with our own, I will nevertheless recuse from all discussions or decisions related to WMMED to ensure that any conflict of loyalties is avoided.

Ashley Van Haeften

I was paid a nominal rate for 3 weeks of software development with University College London (UCL) in 2010 (before I was involved with the Wikimedia UK board) and retain an unpaid voluntary interest in these projects. I have always avoided, and will recuse myself from, any discussion or proposals for projects, events or relationships between Wikimedia UK and UCL to ensure there can be no question of a conflict of loyalties.

I am the Wikimedia UK representative on the Wikimedia Chapters Association Council and was elected the Chair on 11 July 2012. Wikimedia UK is kept informed relating to my role as the Chapter representative at each Board meeting and by email to the trustees for any relevant issues as they arise. There are no current conflicts of interest or loyalty. I shall recuse myself from trustee decisions relating to any grants to support the WCA. Note, I (currently) use my Wikimedia UK email to correspond as the WCA Chair as no separate system has yet been established.

I am the co-founder and named on the "proposed initial board" of the outreach project and potential thematic organization Wikimedia LGBT, first established in April 2012. There are no current conflicts of interest or loyalty. I shall recuse myself from trustee discussions relating to any future grants to support the Wikimedia LGBT organization.

As a consultant I have worked with a large number of organizations in the past, and will declare these to avoid any potential claim of a conflict of loyalty, either publicly or in confidence to the Board as appropriate, actively to be managed should Wikimedia UK ever enter into a relationship with any of them. --Fæ (talk) 12:52, 17 October 2012 (UTC)

Staff

Staff declarations of interests, should any occur, will be dealt with directly by the Chief Executive and recorded here as appropriate. The Chief Exec's interests will be recorded here by default.

Jon Davies, Chief Executive

• Jon has no interests that need declaring.

Was bought lunch, no alcohol, once in 2012 by our Lawyers Stone King.

Richard Symonds, Office Manager

• Richard holds Checkuser and Oversight rights on the English Wikipedia, and has a knowledge of private cases due to his time on the 'Arbitration Committee'. He only uses these rights in his volunteer capacity, and never participates in any actions against or in support of known Wikimedia UK members.