Tony Sebro has joined online petition platform Change.org as its new General Counsel in the wake of its transition to a nonprofit-owned governance structure.
At Change.org, Sebro will lead all legal, trust and safety, platform policy and public policy functions. He will also provide strategic advice and counsel to help the company achieve its long-term vision of transforming from a single product organization to a civic infrastructure platform.
Sebro brings a deep background as a legal leader at nonprofits, including his most recent role as the Deputy and Interim General Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that oversees Wikipedia. Before that, he served as the General Counsel for the Software Freedom Conservancy, a nonprofit that houses free and open-source software projects like Git, Selenium and Samba.
In Change.org’s announcement, CEO Nick Allardice said, “Tony’s wealth of experience in legal and policy operations will help us to set the standard for how mission-driven platforms should operate.”
Sebro added, “I look forward to serving as a strategic thought partner and ensuring that we effectively manage risk and our obligations in ways that reflect both our values and the urgency that our mission requires.”
In September 2021, Change.org transitioned to be owned by the Change.org Foundation to help establish the platform’s independence and stewardship as a digital public utility as it continues to scale globally.
Currently, Change.org’s petition and campaign tools are available in more than 196 countries. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 250,000 campaigns have been launched on the platform related to the pandemic, which have subsequently been joined by more than 125 million users.
