World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) welcomes Seth Dobbs as new Chief Executive Officer

https://www.w3.org/ – 2 October 2023 – The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the leader for the technical development of the World Wide Web, has concluded our search for our next Chief Executive Officer. Seth Dobbs, appointed by the W3C Board of Directors, will commence in his new role working remotely from Colorado, USA on November 13, 2023.

Seth Dobbs, Chief Technology Officer at a web professional services firm that he joined in 2004 as the fourth employee, will bring a broad and robust experience working with a global team and partners from all over the world, expertise in leadership and management of a motivated team in a highly matrixed organization, as well as two decades of growing business through client relationship building, strategy for growth and development, budgeting, strategic vision planning and execution.

"I'm honored and thrilled to be joining W3C as CEO," said Seth Dobbs. "I started writing code as a pre-teen and have been part of the technology industry as a student, enthusiast, and professional ever since. In all my time I'm not sure there is any development that has had a more profound and durable impact on our world than the Web. I've spent the better part of my career working with teams around the world to leverage the Web for clients to support connecting people with family, governments, and doctors, and to power commerce, entertainment, and operations. Ultimately, most of my private sector experience has been about unleashing the power of the Web as well as W3C standards and guidelines around accessibility, payment APIs, internationalization, and more. With this experience, I've gained insight as to what businesses and other stakeholders might need in the future. I look forward to joining the W3C community to help steward us into the next chapter."

As W3C CEO, Seth Dobbs will report to the Board of Directors and take responsibility for the fiscal integrity, financial stability and revenue generation of the organization. He will also oversee shaping and running W3C in line with our mission: to lead the Web to its full potential. W3C began 2023 by forming a new public-interest incorporated not-for-profit organization. At this exciting and key time since our establishment in 1994, a fundamental role for our CEO to undertake will be leading the change management and integration efforts for W3C to create new offerings, seek broader financial support opportunities, and succeed as a public-interest not-for-profit with global partners.

"Seth brings outstanding leadership skills and a remarkable profile," said Ralph Swick, W3C Interim CEO, Chief Operating Officer, and Architecture and Technology Lead. "An advocate for W3C's principles, in his previous role Seth has promoted W3C standards internally and to clients and speaks with experience of the positive impact of those standards. I am very pleased to have someone with Seth's global cultural perspective and enthusiasm about the role of the Web and of W3C at the helm of our new organization and I very much look forward to his leadership and to working with him."

About the World Wide Web Consortium

The mission of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is to lead the Web to its full potential by creating technical standards and guidelines to ensure that the Web remains open, accessible, and interoperable for everyone around the globe. W3C well-known standards HTML and CSS are the foundational technologies upon which websites are built. W3C works on ensuring that all foundational Web technologies meet the needs of civil society, in areas such as accessibility, internationalization, security, and privacy. W3C also provides the standards that undergird the infrastructure for modern businesses leveraging the Web, in areas such as entertainment, communications, digital publishing, and financial services. That work is created in the open, provided for free and under the groundbreaking W3C Patent Policy.

W3C's vision for "One Web" brings together thousands of dedicated technologists representing more than 400 Member organizations and dozens of industry sectors. W3C is a public-interest non-profit organization incorporated in the United States of America, led by a Board of Directors and employing a global staff across the globe. For more information see https://www.w3.org/.

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