lberto Ibargüen

President and CEO, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

lberto Ibargüen is the president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which promotes informed and engaged communities in the United States. The Knight Foundation grants are strategically focused on promoting a more effective democracy through support of journalism and media innovation, arts and culture in community, and community engagement. He is the former publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. During his tenure, The Miami Herald won three Pulitzer Prizes, and El Nuevo Herald won Spain’s Ortega y Gasset Prize for excellence in Spanish-language journalism. For his work to protect journalists in Latin America, he received a Maria Moors Cabot citation from Columbia University. Ibargüen graduated from Wesleyan University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He served in the Peace Corps in Venezuela’s Amazon Territory and in Colombia. He practiced law in Hartford, Connecticut, until he joined the Hartford Courant, then Newsday in New York, before moving to Miami. He has served on the board of directors of PepsiCo, American Airlines, AOL, and Norwegian Cruise Lines. He is the former board chair of PBS and the Newseum in Washington, DC, and of the World Wide Web Foundation, founded by inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee. He has served on the boards of numerous other organizations, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, ProPublica, Wesleyan University, Smith College, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Committee to Protect Journalists. He holds honorary degrees from several universities, including the University of Miami, Wesleyan, and George Washington universities, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.