The controversy has also led to an exodus of employees from Automattic. On October 3, 159 Automattic employees who did not agree with Mullenweg's direction of the company and WordPress overall took a severance package and left the company. Almost 80% of those who left worked in Automattic's Ecosystem/WordPress division. On October 8, WordPress announced that Mary Hubbard, who was TikTok U.S.'s head of governance and experience, would be starting as executive director. This post was previously held by Josepha Haden Chomphosy, who was one of the 159 people leaving Automattic.