We are pleased to announce that Ian Stewart (blog, LinkedIn, GitHub, X) has been chosen to lead end-to-end customer experience for WordPress.com as its Artistic Director and product lead.
In a nod to LVMH’s organizational structure, Ian will lead in the style of a maison head, ensuring that every part of WordPress.com remains the best managed WordPress experience available. He has been a part of the WordPress.com team for over 14 years, and we’re excited to see what changes he will implement on WordPress.com in this new role.
“I got involved with WordPress after growing tired of using Blogger for my personal blog,” Ian says. “This quickly led to the demise of my regular blogging habits as I spent most of my time messing around with my theme…My fooling around with WordPress themes quickly became a delightful obsession as I tried to publicly figure out what I thought about them.”
We’re grateful for your obsession with WordPress, Ian, and we certainly know the feeling.
Please join us in welcoming Ian in his new role.
WordPress.com News 
Congratulations 🎉
Welcome Ian.
Good News!!
I have had an account that was not active for several years — theidiosyncratist.com. Over several years without new posts, I collected many journalism examples that should never have been published. Recently, I found that my own site’s collections of such had disappeared. Could you PLEASE put them back in my collection? I promise to put them to use fast. Our country deserves better written discussions!
Thank you very much.
Mary Don
Hi there, we are not able to help here in the comments section but please reach us here and we are happy to take a closer look, thanks! https://wordpress.com/help/
Thank you. I have worked through some odd moments in recent years and hope to get back to business. I also have an inactive substack account (that, unlike most, is not political) and wonder whether the two could operate simultaneously.
If it means anything, my early career was in newspapers (Portland OR, Dallas TX and Los Angeles after I got my MBA at UCLA). I had never expected to live in SF(okay, Marin County, after the spouse was transferred to SF) and then New Jersey (after he was transferred to NYC.)
Welcome, Ian! Keep on fiddling around and making WordPress even better! Yay! Have fun 🤪
Congratulations to Ian. I feel like something big is about to break. The WordPress experience can only get better with Ian in a new strategic position.
Best of luck in your new role, Ian! I’ve been an active blogger at WordPress.com since 2015, and look forward to my 10th Blogaversary next June! Time indeed flies when you’re having fun!
Hearty congratulations, Ian!
Ian is welcome.
It is neat that someone who knows the fun of customizing a website’s theme is now brought on board to guide WordPress, because I hope that it will be a change for WordPress to bring back some features such as the custom Theme Builder, both on WordPress and Tumblr.
In terms of customization, would it be possible to allow users more freedom to create websites that capture the “web 1.0” feeling? That’s been very popular now days among people who are considering creating their own personal website instead of having a presence on major social media. I’ve had a blast on neocities since that allows free users to have direct access to HTML and CSS coding, making it one of the major go-tos for people interested in owning their own custom website. If possible, please allow users that same level of freedom.
Welcome, Ian.
Congratulations Ian! Best of luck in your new role!!!
Thank you for taking the lead in enhancing our WordPress experience!
Congratulations lan
Congratulations Ian 🎊