I was always under the impression that Tim Vroom was the original person, who "held the keys",

In fact, vroom — mythologies notwithstanding — never had any sole ownership of the site; he was simply its most prominent promoter and admin — and its main developer, once the umbilical cord with EveryDevel was cut.
More to the point, the owner of PerlMonks was Blockstackers Intergalactic (BSI) / Everything Development Corp (EDC), of which vroom was an employee, while nate was a principal, along with CmdrTaco, et al.