Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg has rebuilt the company's board just weeks after its previous directors tried, and failed, to oust him. The board, announced to staff on Friday, includes best-selling science fiction author Hugh Howey and two co-founders of the now-defunct social app IRL, TechCrunch has learned.
The new board is the latest twist in an internal governance fight at Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, Tumblr and WooCommerce. Earlier this month, the previous board voted to place Mullenweg on leave in an attempt to remove him from the board, only for the CEO to retake control just 33 hours later and remove or accept the resignations of the directors involved.
Sources told TechCrunch the new board includes Howey, author of the "Silo" book series; "Breakup Bootcamp" author Amy Chan; IRL co-founder Henry Khatachryan; and Krutal Desai, who co-founded IRL with Khatachryan. IRL shut down after investigations revealed that nearly all of its user base was made up of bots.
A slew of new advisers have also joined, including Curio Studio co-founder Jaime Waydo, June co-founder Matt Van Horn and KISSmetrics co-founder Hiten Shah.
In the announcement to staff, Mullenweg reportedly wrote that, "for purposes of Delaware law, I am the CEO, President, Treasurer, and Secretary," adding that the attempted firing had also brought in "many amazing supporters." He said: "We had the most interesting board meeting in a decade (since the Woo acquisition)."
Automattic said it hoped to have a comment for TechCrunch soon. The board never publicly shared its reasons for trying to oust Mullenweg.