Automattic names Jeremy Klaperman interim CFO after board turmoil and executive exits

Automattic has named Jeremy Klaperman, the finance chief of its WordPress VIP enterprise business, as interim chief financial officer. According to TechCrunch, the company shared the news internally on Friday, filling a vacancy created by a wave of departures that followed a failed effort to remove CEO Matt Mullenweg.

An interim appointment with prior experience

Klaperman is not new to the top finance job. In a Slack message to employees, Mullenweg said Klaperman had already handled CFO duties once before, covering for then-CFO Mark Davies during a sabbatical.

The appointment is deliberately temporary. Mullenweg wrote that the board, whose incoming members have not yet been disclosed, will still need to assess internal and external candidates before a permanent choice is made.

How the vacancy opened

The finance seat has been empty since Davies exited during an unusual stretch of governance upheaval. As TechCrunch reports, board members attempted to remove Mullenweg last week. The move did not hold: the directors who voted him out ended up leaving the company, along with other executives, including Davies. During a 33-hour leave of absence by Mullenweg, Davies briefly served as interim CEO before Mullenweg returned to the role. TechCrunch previously reported that Davies and Chief Legal Officer Andy Missan, who has also departed, signed reciprocal severance agreements during that window.

A legal chief may soon follow

The CFO job is not the only leadership opening being addressed. Mullenweg told staff that a candidate for chief legal officer had just verbally accepted an offer to replace Missan. Because the acceptance is verbal rather than a signed agreement, that appointment is not yet final.

What Mullenweg told staff

Mullenweg projected confidence in his note, writing that he has full confidence in the company's cash and financial position, and that while work remains, everything is within the company's control and depends only on its ability to execute.

He also hinted that more news is coming, telling employees to "stay tuned" for board announcements. Among the other details in his updates: Stephen Wolfram, the creator of Wolfram|Alpha who serves as a special advisor to the company, will keep his position, and the next board meeting is scheduled for September 23.

Why it matters

Automattic is the company behind WordPress.com and a central commercial player in the WordPress ecosystem, so leadership stability there carries implications well beyond a single firm. In the span of roughly a week, the company has experienced an attempted CEO removal, the exit of the directors behind it, the departure of its CFO and chief legal officer, and a 33-hour window in which the CEO seat changed hands twice. With Klaperman's role explicitly interim, the board's new composition still unannounced, and the legal chief only verbally committed, the September 23 board meeting stands out as the next checkpoint for several consequential decisions. Mullenweg's emphasis on the company's cash position reads as an attempt to reassure employees and partners that the turmoil is contained. Whether that holds will depend on how quickly a permanent leadership team and a functioning board fall into place.