Automattic’s search for a finance chief ended where it began: inside the company. Jeremy Klaperman, who runs finance for WordPress VIP, the enterprise business unit, has taken the interim CFO job.
The appointment follows a week of upheaval. A bid to remove chief executive Matt Mullenweg failed; the directors behind it are gone, along with several executives, among them then-CFO Mark Davies, who had held the CEO seat on an interim basis before Mullenweg reclaimed it. Klaperman’s move was shared internally on Friday.
Writing in Slack, Mullenweg noted that his new finance chief had covered the job once before, while Davies was on sabbatical, and said the board still has to weigh internal and external candidates before making the arrangement permanent. Replacements for the departed directors have not been named. A candidate for chief legal officer has also verbally accepted that post, filling the vacancy left by Andy Missan, who departed alongside Davies.
Both men exited with terms attached: each signed a reciprocal severance agreement, TechCrunch has reported. The deal was struck during the 33 hours Mullenweg spent away from the top job, before he took it back.
On money, Mullenweg was direct. “I have 100% confidence in our cash and financial position,” he wrote, adding that what remains to be done sits within the company’s control and comes down to execution. Board directors are due to meet again on September 23.
WordPress runs a large share of the web, so the governance fight at its parent has an unusually wide blast radius. Two of the three top executive seats are being filled on an interim or verbal basis only.
