Maryana F. Iskander

About Maryana F. Iskander

Maryana Iskander is the Chief Executive Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Prior to Wikimedia, Maryana spent ten years as the CEO of Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a non-profit social enterprise focused on building African solutions to tackle the global crisis of youth unemployment. Under her leadership, Harambee received the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2019 for its model to support millions of South African youth with access to learning and earning opportunities. 

Maryana has dedicated her career to breaking down systemic barriers of access to opportunity and education. She has a proven track record for scaling complex organizations through collaborative solution-building and community empowerment. She spent more than half a decade as the Chief Operating Officer of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She was also the Advisor to the President of Rice University, an associate at global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, and a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. 

Maryana holds a BA magna cum laude from Rice University, an M.Sc. from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and a J.D. from Yale Law School, where she received a Distinguished Alumna Award. Maryana is also a Truman Scholar, a Henry Crown Fellow, a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Maryana also serves as a Trustee of the Yale University Corporation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Co-Impact, a global philanthropic collective.