@Tim H. - There are a few people tasked to work on WordPress full time, but no one actually works for WordPress. (For example, I work for Audrey.) WordPress itself is built by hundreds of core contributors, many of whom do not make their living off WordPress, and the vast majority of whom do not work on WordPress core full time. What I'm getting at is, even under the widest definition — including people I interact with in the community, ranging from contributors, to forum volunteers, to users I might meet at a WordCamp — I have not heard of a Ted Clayton, I'm afraid.

@SearchWPPlugins - Now, I talk a good game, but WordPress isn't that large of an organization. Only a few people actively work on WP.org architecture. I've been following this thread, admittedly cringing at some statements, but making note of some ideas. We've toyed around with our search quite a bit over the past year — including tweaks to the underlying engine, how different fields are weighted, what fields are considered, and when to push better plugins up and old/abandoned plugins down (or off the list entirely). We have a huge list of possible improvements (small and large), and we've took swings at these ideas in core, too.

I think sites like searchwpplugins.com is pretty cool. That kind of innovation is nice, to see what people want, or what filters could benefit users the most. I think an advanced search on WP.org would be a good addition at some point, but right now, we can probably spend more time improving individual plugin listings, plugin quality, and how we generate and display search results, and end up with more bang for the buck. At least right now.