Florence Jacqueline Sylvie Devouard, (; born 10 September 1968) is a French

agricultural engineer Agricultural engineering, also known as agricultural and biosystems engineering, is the field of study and application of engineering science and designs principles for agriculture purposes, combining the various disciplines of mechanical enginee ...

who served as the chair of the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best kno ...

board of trustees between October 2006 and July 2008.

Education

Devouard holds an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

ing degree in

agronomy Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and ...

from ENSAIA and a

DEA The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domestic en ...

in genetics and biotechnologies from INPL.

Career

On 9 March 2008, Devouard was elected member of the municipal council of

Malintrat Malintrat () is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme département in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France.Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known on Wikipedia by the pseudonym Jimbo, is an American-British Internet entrepreneur, webmaster, and former financial trader. He is a co-founder of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedi ...

. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Foundation since July 2008. Co-founder of Wikimedia France in October 2004, she was vice-chair of its board as of 2011 until December 2012.

Recognition

On 16 May 2008, she was made a

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

in the French National Order of Merit, proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as "chair of an international foundation".

References

Specific

External links

Anthere Consulting website

Personal blog

Wikimedia Foundation and sustainability
* * 2005 Board candidacy presentation * Video-Interview on 10 February 2007 at the Lift07 conference in Geneva * Interview with Florence Devouard.
'Madame Wikipedia' runs web giant from village HQ
2007 AFP article
A Life in the Day: Florence Devouard
2007 ''Times'' article {{DEFAULTSORT:Devouard, Florence 1968 births Living people Chairpersons of organizations Chairwomen Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite French Wikimedians French women engineers People from Versailles Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board members Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees members Wikimédia France 21st-century women engineers 20th-century women engineers 21st-century French engineers 20th-century French engineers Agricultural engineers 20th-century French women 21st-century French women