Matt Mullenweg has completed the consolidation of his control over Automattic. Weeks after the company's board voted to place him on paid leave — an action he reversed in 33 hours using his 84% voting share — the CEO has installed an entirely new board composed of personal connections. The new directors include sci-fi author Hugh Howey (a hiking companion), "Breakup Bootcamp" author Amy Chan (who recently promoted Mullenweg's AI product on social media), and IRL co-founders Henry Khachatryan and Krutal Desai. IRL shut down after investigations revealed nearly all of its user base was bots; its co-founders later sued SoftBank after SoftBank had sued them for securities fraud. The previous board — which included founding Automattic CEO Toni Schneider (now CEO of Bluesky), retired General Ann Dunwoody, and board member Sue Decker — is entirely gone. Schneider and Decker resigned; Mullenweg removed Dunwoody. CFO Mark Davies, who was set to become interim CEO, and chief legal officer Andy Missan were both fired. The board never publicly stated its reasons for trying to remove Mullenweg. Mullenweg has also declared himself CEO, President, Treasurer, and Secretary under Delaware law — concentrating every officer title in a single person. He simultaneously replaced Automattic's litigation counsel with Susman Godfrey, a move that raises pointed questions given the company's ongoing legal fight with WP Engine, in which WP Engine's lawyers have accused Mullenweg of destroying evidence. The new board has no visible independence from Mullenweg. None of the appointees bring obvious public-company governance experience. The connections are personal (hiking partner, social media booster) or professional in ways that suggest loyalty rather than oversight. The advisory layer — former Whoop CTO Jaime Waydo, June co-founder Matt Van Horn, KISSmetrics co-founder Hiten Shah — adds operational credibility but advisors have no governance authority. This matters because Automattic is not a garage startup. It controls WordPress.com (which powers a meaningful share of the web), Tumblr, WooCommerce, and key pieces of open-source infrastructure. The WP Engine litigation is high-stakes — trademark disputes and contribution claims that could reshape the WordPress ecosystem. An independent board exists precisely to check a controlling founder during moments like these. Mullenweg framed the original board action as a "coup attempt" and tweeted that founders who don't face such attempts "aren't hiring strong enough leaders." This framing converts a governance mechanism — board oversight of executive conduct — into a loyalty test. The 84% voting share means no future board can constrain him unless he permits it. The structural picture is stark: one person now holds all officer titles, controls 84% of votes, has purged every independent director, replaced legal counsel mid-litigation, and installed a board with no evident capacity or incentive to challenge him. Whether the original board acted wisely is unknowable from outside. What is knowable is that the governance function at Automattic is now decorative.
