Katherine Maher is one of the most popular and richest Chief Executive Officer who was born on April 18, 1983 in Wilton, Connecticut, United States. In 2007 Maher returned in 2007 to New York City where from 2007 until 2010, she worked for UNICEF as an communications and innovation officer. She worked to encourage the use of technology to enhance people’s lives . She frequently traveled to address issues concerning mother health and HIV/AIDS and participation of youth in the field of technology. One of her initial projects at UNICEF included testing MediaWiki extensions that were related to the accessibility of Ethiopia. Another project was awarded USAid Development 2.0 Challenge grant funds to study the use of mobile phones in order to check on the nutritional status of the children of Malawi.
From 2013 to 2014, Maher was advocacy director at the Washington, D.C.-based Access Now. As part of this work, she focused on the impact on people of laws about cyber security, morality, and defamation of the state that increase state censorship and reduce dissent. Access was a signatory of the Declaration of Internet Freedom.
Maher was chief communications officer of the Wikimedia Foundation from April 2014 to March 2016. She was interviewed by The Washington Post on United States copyright law.
As of 2005, Maher graduated with a degree in bachelor’s at New York University in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies.
After working as an intern at the Council on Foreign Relations and Eurasia Group in 2005, Maher started working for HSBC with HSBC in London, Germany, and Canada as part of their global manager development program.
From 2010 to 2011, Maher worked at the National Democratic Institute as an ICT Program Officer, working in the field of information and communications technology (ICT). From 2011 to 2013, Maher worked at the World Bank as an ICT innovation specialist and consulted on technology for international development and democratization, working on ICT for accountability and governance with a focus on the role of mobile phones and other technologies in facilitating civil society and institutional reform, particularly in the Middle East and Africa. She co-authored a chapter on “Making Government Mobile” of a World Bank publication titled Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile. In 2012 Maher’s Twitter feed on issues related to the Middle East was noted for its coverage of the Arab Spring.
