Take-A-Lesson with Garfield Byrd, CFO - Wikimedia Foundation

Garfield Byrd sitsdown with Annalisa Adams-Qualtiere, President of Altruistic Leadership and Monika Brooks to discuss his leadership journey on Take-A-Lesson. 

Get to know Garfield

Garfield is the Chief of Finance and Administration at Wikimedia Foundation, responsible for finance, accounting and administration functions, focused on operational excellence at the found. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, a top-ten internet property.

Garfield has 22 years accounting and finance experience in both the not for profit and for profit sectors. 

Prior to Wikimedia, Byrd was the CFO at New Teacher Center (NTC), in Santa Cruz, California. There, he was part of the team that spun the NTC out of the University of California at Santa Cruz, and established it as an independent 501(c) 3 with rapidly growing revenues and operations in 50 states and three countries.  He was responsible for all accounting and grant-related activities, as well as, all administration including information technology, human resources, and product and facilities operations.

Garfield was also Business Manager and Treasurer for the Jesuit School of Theology and Vice President of Finance and Investments and Chief Finance Officer for the Community Foundation Silicon Valley.  He also was the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Pacific School of Religion, where among other things he project managed the building of a new IT centre, student computer centre and multi-building LAN, as well as the building of a WAN connecting nine schools.

Garfield has a B.S., Business Administration and an MBA, both from John F. Kennedy University.

Please join us in welcoming Garfield Byrd to Take-A-Lesson!