Ryan Merkley was the Chief of Staff to the office of the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation,[1] and former CEO of the American non-profit organization Creative Commons.[2][3] He is an advocate for open licenses, net neutrality and open data initiatives in the public sector. Merkley is the Chair of the Open Worm Foundation board of directors[4] and was trustee at the Quetico Foundation.[5] He writes and speaks on issues such as the sharing economy, academic publishing and legal infrastructure for sharing content.[6]
In 2016, he was listed in the Globe and Mail's "Sixteen Torontonians to Watch in 2016".[7]