Alberto Ibargüen

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

Alberto Ibargüen is president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Knight Foundation is a major supporter of journalism programs and of civic advancement in the 26 U.S. communities where the Knight brothers had newspapers. Knight Foundation also funds the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

Previously he was publisher of The Miami Herald and of El Nuevo Herald. During his tenure, The Miami Herald won three of its 19 Pulitzer Prizes and El Nuevo Herald won the Ortega y Gasset Prize for excellence in journalism. He has been a newspaper executive since 1984, first at The Hartford Courant, then at Newsday in New York, before moving to Miami. He studied at Wesleyan University, served the Peace Corps in the Venezuela and Amazon territory and Columbia After graduation from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, he practiced law in Hartford.

Mr. Ibargüen is chairman of the executive committee of the board of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., a museum dedicated to free speech and free press. He is on the board of PepsiCo and on the Trustees’ Council of the National Gallery of Art. He is a former chairman of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and was a long-standing member of the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists and other non-profit organizations and educational institutions.

Mr. Ibargüen received a Maria Moors Cabot citation from Columbia University for his work to protect journalists in Latin America through the Inter American Press Association.