Automattic has a new board of directors just weeks after an internal leadership fight briefly removed CEO Matt Mullenweg from his role.
The company, best known as the parent of WordPress.com, Tumblr and WooCommerce, has replaced the directors involved in the failed attempt to put Mullenweg on paid leave with a new group that includes a science-fiction author, an author and relationship coach, and two co-founders of the former social app IRL.
The changes mark another major turn in an unusually turbulent month for one of the most influential companies in the WordPress ecosystem.
A Board Vote Briefly Removed Mullenweg
The dispute began on September 9, when Automattic’s board voted to place Mullenweg on paid leave.
Automattic confirmed at the time that Mullenweg was on leave and that CFO Mark Davies would serve as interim CEO. Mullenweg disputed the process in an internal Slack message, saying he had received the resolution only about 50 minutes before the meeting and had asked for time to have it reviewed by independent legal counsel.
The board never publicly explained why it wanted Mullenweg removed.
The situation changed rapidly.
Mullenweg returned to control of Automattic roughly 33 hours later. Automattic subsequently confirmed that he was chairman and CEO with the full support of the board. The company later told TechCrunch that the period away from his role lasted exactly 33 hours and 20 minutes.
The directors involved in the original action subsequently left the board.
Who Is on Automattic’s New Board?
According to TechCrunch, the new board includes four people with very different backgrounds.
Hugh Howey is an American science-fiction author best known for the Silo series.
Amy Chan is the author of Breakup Bootcamp. TechCrunch noted that Chan had recently reposted one of Mullenweg’s posts about Automattic’s AI-powered website builder, Spacefast.
Henry Khatachryan is a co-founder of IRL. Mullenweg described him as a “founder and builder.” He has also collaborated with the late technology writer Om Malik and built the website of journalist Nick Bilton.
Krutal Desai, the other new director, also co-founded IRL with Khatachryan.
Automattic is also bringing in several advisers, including Curio Studio co-founder Jaime Waydo, June co-founder Matt Van Horn and KISSmetrics co-founder Hiten Shah.
The backgrounds of the new directors are notably different from the traditional corporate-board profile. That makes the appointments particularly interesting as Automattic moves forward from its recent governance dispute.
Mullenweg Has Significant Voting Control
One reason the leadership dispute moved so quickly is Automattic’s ownership structure.
Mullenweg said at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2024 that he controlled 84% of the company’s voting power. That voting control gave him the ability to reverse the board’s attempted intervention and subsequently rebuild the board.
That distinction is important.
A company’s board can have formal authority over management, but concentrated voting control can give a founder substantial influence over who sits on that board.
In Automattic’s case, the September events demonstrated how significant that influence can become during a leadership dispute.
Mullenweg also told employees, according to TechCrunch’s reporting, that “for purposes of Delaware law” he was the company’s CEO, president, treasurer and secretary.
Several Senior Leaders Also Left
The board changes were accompanied by additional executive departures.
Toni Schneider, a founding CEO of Automattic who now leads Bluesky, resigned from the board.
Mullenweg removed retired U.S. Army Gen. Ann Dunwoody from the board, while Sue Decker also resigned. CFO Mark Davies, who had been designated interim CEO during Mullenweg’s brief leave, and Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan also left the company, according to TechCrunch.
The company also changed its legal representation after Mullenweg returned. Automattic retained Susman Godfrey LLP as new litigation counsel while continuing to deal with its legal dispute involving WP Engine.
The IRL Connection Adds Another Layer
Two of Automattic’s new directors, Khatachryan and Desai, previously co-founded IRL, a social networking startup.
IRL eventually shut down after an investigation found that the overwhelming majority of its reported user base consisted of bots. The company’s founders later became involved in litigation with investors over the circumstances surrounding the company’s collapse.
That history is relevant background, but it does not establish why Mullenweg selected either founder for Automattic’s board.
The same distinction applies to the other appointments. Their backgrounds and previous relationships with Mullenweg are documented; what role each person will play in Automattic’s governance remains to be seen.
What Happens to Automattic Now?
The immediate governance crisis appears to have been resolved, but several questions remain unanswered.
The biggest is why the previous board attempted to put Mullenweg on leave in the first place.
Neither Automattic nor the former directors have publicly provided a detailed explanation for the decision. That leaves the public record incomplete regarding what prompted the September 9 vote.
There is also the company’s continuing legal dispute with WP Engine. Automattic and WP Engine have been involved in litigation surrounding trademarks and the commercial relationship between WP Engine and the open-source WordPress project. TechCrunch reported that Automattic’s legal counsel was replaced following Mullenweg’s return.
For now, Automattic says its mission and priorities remain unchanged.
The practical question is whether the new board can provide stable governance while Mullenweg retains substantial voting control and remains CEO.
That makes the latest board announcement more than a personnel change. It resets the governance structure of a company whose products sit deeply inside the modern web—and puts the focus back on what Automattic does next.
