Jeremy Klaperman has departed as Automattic's interim chief financial officer less than a month after taking on the role. The company confirmed the exit through director of communications Megan Fox, saying Automattic will always be grateful for his leadership and wishes him well in his next endeavor. Klaperman had been elevated to the interim CFO post last month, following a governance crisis at the parent company of WordPress.com.
Before becoming interim finance chief, Klaperman served as CFO of Automattic's VIP Enterprise business unit. He was elevated after former CFO Mark Davies briefly held the job in September, when board members voted to place CEO Matt Mullenweg on leave. Within 33 hours of that decision, Mullenweg had retaken the CEO role and the board was wiped clean.
Automattic's chief legal officer, Andy Missan, also left the company alongside Davies. Both executives had signed reciprocal severance deals during Mullenweg's short leave, according to prior reporting. The company announced its new board of directors in late September, a group that includes best-selling science-fiction author Hugh Howey, IRL co-founders Henry Khachatryan and Krutal Desai, and author Amy Chan.
A source at Automattic said Klaperman was upset that the board was considering external candidates for the CFO role. Although he was announced internally as interim CFO, the board never legally approved his title, the source said. The source also described a disagreement with Mullenweg over a work project tied to employee performance reviews, which led to Mullenweg demoting Klaperman back to his former position at VIP. Klaperman resigned shortly after.
Automattic's spokesperson did not comment on the reason for Klaperman's departure. The company is still conducting an external search for a qualified CFO candidate, according to the source.
After publication, the company issued a statement via X that implied Klaperman was offended by the board's search for outside CFO candidates. The statement said Automattic considers it best practice to evaluate external candidates for critical roles alongside internal people stepping up, and that the company is always talking to and recruiting the best talent. It added that people are sometimes offended or surprised by this and resign, and that this has sometimes led to mentoring or advising situations. The company said it would not comment on any specific person, and that it is always trying to optimize and redefine itself to serve customers better and promote the ideals it aspires to around open source, freedom, liberty, autonomy and hackers.
When Automattic originally announced Klaperman's new role internally on Slack, Mullenweg reiterated that he had 100 percent confidence in the company's cash and financial position.
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