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With the year coming to a close, this is usually the time when many blogs will either do a “looking back” or “looking forward” post about some topic related to their niche. I personally enjoy reading these kinds of posts so I thought I’d write one as well.
If you’re a follower of our blog, then you already know that our main niche starts with a Word and ends in a Press. And while there are plenty of noteworthy WordPress stories that made headlines this past year, it’s easy to make the argument that this was very much a personality-driven year.
The most obvious example of this is so obvious that I don’t even have to say it. But in addition to him, there are nine other WordPress personalities who deserve to be highlighted for their contributions to the WordPress project and the community behind it. Let’s start with him, and then we’ll look at the rest.
The 2024 list of movers and shakers in WordPress 🏆
1. Matt Mullenweg (CEO of Automattic)
Love him or hate him, it’s undeniable that Monsieur Matt made the biggest splash in all of WordPress this year. Aside from being the release lead on all three major WordPress iterations (6.5, 6.6, and 6.7), his biggest impact moment came in September, when he got up on stage at WordCamp U.S. and threw public shots at Silver Lake (a private equity firm that happens to own WP Engine).
The very next day, he followed it up with a blog post where he leaned into Silver Lake and WP Engine even more, and from there, things just continued to escalate.
Between his ongoing legal battle with WP Engine and his random, seemingly spontaneous (I mean they have to be spontaneous, right?) retaliation moves, he has managed to keep his name in headlines both in and out of the WordPress sphere. It’s fair to say that #wpdrama was the dominant story of the year and for that reason, Matt sits at the top of this list.
Seen around the web in 2024 🌐
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2. Pooja Derashri (Co-Founder of WPVibes)
In 2024, Pooja Derashri made headlines for her significant contributions and active involvement in the WordPress community, particularly through her work at WPVibes and her roles within six different WordPress teams.
She also served as the event organizer of WP Campus Connect, a month-long event for university students to learn more about WordPress and explore possible career paths.
It was the first ever WordCamp event held in Ajmer, a city in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
With all that she’s accomplished this year, Pooja isn’t slowing down. She’s already dipping her toes into 2025, by signing up as a sponsor for next year’s WordCamp Asia.
Seen around the web in 2024 🌐
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As is the case for everyone on this list, Michelle wears many hats. But unlike many of the others, whose various hats fall somewhere under one mega entity, Michelle’s hats are dispersed all over the place.
But this is also part of why she is so influential in the community – because she is everywhere.
Aside from doing her day-to-day community engagement work at StellarWP, she also managed to squeeze in many podcast episodes throughout the year, including on her own WP Coffee Talk. She was also a featured speaker at both WordCamp U.S. and WordCamp Canada. On top of that, she regularly contributed to Post Status in various ways, from curating the newsletter to hosting podcast episodes.
Seen around the web in 2024 🌐
Follow Michelle 👣
4. Syed Balkhi (CEO of Awesome Motive)
If you’re even remotely interested in WordPress then this man needs no introduction.
As the head of one of the largest WordPress plugin networks (possibly the largest), he has continued to expand the reaches of his Awesome Motive empire.
He began the year by taking an investment stake in Groove – a help desk software – and continued riding that investment energy all year long. Along the way he acquired several more plugins and even a really cool under-the-radar SEO tool called LowFruits that I personally used for a while.
Earlier this month, he announced an extraordinary milestone: Awesome Motive products are now used on over 30 million websites. Wow!
Seen around the web in 2024 🌐
Follow Syed 👣
5. Joost de Valk (Founder of Yoast)
Another highly recognized name in the WordPress space, Joost continued to be an influential voice in the community.
He stayed busy doing guest interviews, writing blog posts, and publishing his thoughts on various social channels.
Outside the digital realm, he was also the opening keynote speaker at WCEU 2024 (alongside Juliette Reinders Folmer). Their talk emphasized the importance of funding and supporting open-source initiatives, which resonated with many attendees and sparked discussions about the future of open-source development.
Seen around the web in 2024 🌐
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6. Ionut Neagu (Co-Founder of Themeisle)
This entry on the list is more personal than all the others since I actually know this human in real life – though I’ve been following his work way before we met.
It’s also more challenging for me to summarize the impact he’s made and the work he’s done throughout the year because I’m that much more familiar with it than I am with anyone else’s.
With that said, some of the highlights that stand out to me are: the revamping of WPShout and the launch of the WordPress job board on that site; sponsoring WCEU 2024; acquiring the Redirection for Contact Form 7 plugin; and acquiring the WP Full Pay plugin.
Seen around the web in 2024 🌐
Follow Ionut 👣
7. Josepha Haden Chomphosy (Former WordPress Executive Director)
Josepha was the Executive Director for the WordPress Project at Automattic from 2019 until early October of 2024. She, along with more than 150 other employees left the company in response to Matt Mullenweg’s offer to resign if they did not agree with his position on the WP Engine matter.
While that was the main reason she made headlines across tech news sites this year, she spent the previous nine months doing her usual work.
And that usual work saw her overseeing the coordination of 21 teams, comprising thousands of volunteers. Naturally, the impact of her departure sent ripple waves across all of WordPress. When the news broke, she received many heartfelt messages on X – a testament to the positive influence she had on the community.
Seen around the web in 2024 🌐
Follow Josepha 👣
Similar to Michelle Frechette, Matt is also a man who seems to be everywhere. That commonality might also be how he wound up connecting with Michelle earlier in 2024 for an interview on her WP Coffee Talk podcast.
Of course, it could also be that he’s a prominent podcaster himself.
He was busy all year long putting out episodes (and blog posts) on the WP Minute, covering everything from the latest WordPress news to more tutorial style content and everything in between. He closed out the year by announcing his acquisition of MasterWP, which looks like it’s going to keep him busy well into 2025.
Seen around the web in 2024 🌐
Follow Matt 👣
9. Katie Keith (Founder and CEO of Barn2 Plugins)
Aside from spending 2024 doing her usual work as CEO of a successful WordPress plugin company, Katie was also very active in the community.
In addition to regularly voicing her opinion on WordPress issues via her X account, she also co-hosts two separate podcasts – WP Product Talk and Do The Woo.
All of her tireless work was recognized by WooSesh – they named her “Advocate of the Year” at their “Seshie” awards.
Seen around the web in 2024 🌐
Follow Katie 👣
10. Maestro Stevens (Founder of Iconic Templates)
2024 was a momentous year for the mighty Maestro on a number of levels. Aside from relaunching his Iconic Templates business, he also started a podcast called Meet the Plug IT and continued publishing tutorials on his YouTube channel.
Outside of his own ventures, he also hit up a few well-known podcasts as a guest to talk about inclusivity and accessibility in web design. You can check them out below.
In addition, he made an appearance as a featured speaker at WordCamp Asia. You can watch his presentation here. I look forward to seeing what he will bring to the table next year.
Seen around the web in 2024 🌐
Follow Maestro 👣
Final thoughts 💭
When putting together this list, my main consideration was impact on the overall community throughout the year. At the same time, I didn’t want the list to be solely made up of WordPress celebrities.
Folks like Matt and Syed, who sit atop tremendously large organizations, are naturally going to wield considerable influence pretty much every single year. So it’s a given that any viable list of WordPress influencers is going to have them on it.
However, I think that as a reader, when you’re looking at a list like this, you also want to discover some other interesting individuals who are doing great work. So while I wasn’t going to leave out the major players, I also tried to give the list some balance. I hope I achieved that.
What about you? Who do you think made the biggest impact on WordPress this year? Is there anyone else that should’ve made my list? Let me know in the comments below and let’s talk about it.
Yay! 🎉 You made it to the end of the article!
Updated on:
December 27, 2024