WordPress executive director Josepha Haden Chomphosy has resigned from the website and blog building platform, with the departure coming amidst an ongoing legal controversy involving WordPress co-founder and Automattic head Matt Mullenweg.

“My time with WordPress has transformed me, both as a leader and an advocate. There’s still more to do in our shared quest to secure a self-sustaining future of the open source project that we all love, and my belief in our global community of contributors remains unchanged,” said Chomphosy in a blog post on October 4, hailing the nine years she spent with the community.

“I still believe that open source is an idea that can transform generations. I believe in the power of a good-hearted group of people. I believe in the importance of strong opinions, loosely held,” she added.

Chomphosy did not reference Mullenweg or the WordPress dispute.

The dispute relates to the third-party hosting service WP Engine, and its use of the WP trademark, which has now become a legal matter. Mullenweg also blocked WP Engine access to WordPress.org’s servers.

Mullenweg stated in his own blog post that an exit offer was made available to Automattic employees who disagreed with his course of action: resign before 20:00 UTC on Thursday, October 3, 2024, and receive $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher, at the cost of losing access to Automattic that evening and giving up the right to be re-hired.

“159 people took the offer, 8.4% of the company, the other 91.6% gave up $126M of potential severance to stay! 63.5% were male. 53% were in the US,” he said in his blog post.