Donald A. Baer, Don Boswell and Molly Corbett Broad Elected Board Chair, Professional Vice-Chair and General Vice-Chair
ARLINGTON, VA, October 31, 2016 - After completing the first FY 2017 meeting of the PBS Board of Directors, PBS President and Chief Executive Officer Paula Kerger announced the results of the recent Board elections. Atlanta Public Schools Retired Superintendent Erroll B. Davis Jr. and Madsen Sapp Mena Rodriguez & Co. Former Managing Partner & CEO Ramon Rodriguez were each elected to a second term as General Directors. Board officials were elected, as well. Burson-Marsteller Worldwide Chair & CEO Donald A. Baer and American Council on Education President Molly Corbett Broad were both re-elected as Board Chair and General Vice-Chair, respectively, and WNED/Buffalo President & CEO Don Boswell was selected as the new Professional Vice-Chair of the Board.
In addition, Detroit Public Television President & CEO Rich Homberg, Kentucky Educational Television Executive Director & CEO Shae Hopkins, MontanaPBS Director and General Manager Eric Hyyppa and KSPS/Spokane General Manager Gary Stokes were seated at their first Board meeting since being elected as Professional Directors in August. Mr. Hyyppa and Mr. Stokes are first-time directors. Mr. Homberg and Ms. Hopkins are beginning their second terms.
This is an important chapter in PBS' history - a moment in which our system has great momentum as well as a strong foundation on which to build, said Ms. Kerger. Thanks to the outstanding commitment of the talented executives on the PBS Board, our enterprise has the leadership it needs to navigate these exciting and complicated times. I am tremendously grateful to the members just joining our Board and those who already work so hard on behalf of our mission and the American public.
The 27-person PBS Board includes both Professional Directors, who are station leaders, and General Directors, who serve as lay members of the Board, as well as the PBS President. The PBS Board of Directors is responsible for governing and setting policy for PBS. General and Professional Directors of the PBS Board are elected to three-year terms and serve without pay.
PBS member stations elect the Professional Directors. The General Directors are elected by the entire Board, as are the PBS President and the Board officers.
Biographical Information
Donald A. Baer
Don Baer is Worldwide Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the global strategic communications firm Burson-Marsteller, a WPP company. Mr. Baer has been a member of Burson-Marsteller's senior leadership since 2008 and has led major client engagements in every sector and part of the world, especially for top technology, communications and media companies.
Mr. Baer's career has spanned leading roles as a media and communications executive for a wide range of important business, government and non-profit organizations. He has had extensive strategic, creative and operational experience in corporate and media roles as well as in the U.S. Government.
From 1998 to 2007, Mr. Baer helped lead global media company Discovery Communications. As Senior Executive Vice President for Strategy and Development and an executive committee member, Mr. Baer was a principal deputy to CEO, leading worldwide new ventures and acquisitions; marketing, corporate communications, research and public policy, and digital media strategy and operations. He drove significant growth in Discovery's online offerings, including acquisitions of digital businesses and the launch of its first mobile video services, and he oversaw the Discovery/New York Times Company joint venture in the Discovery Times Channel. As a producer, he supervised Discovery's public affairs content, including the 2004 Emmy Award-winning series Decisions That Shook the World and a documentary series with Thomas Friedman of The New York Times. Mr. Baer led Discovery's partnership with the American Film Institute to create the documentary festival Silverdocs.
From 1994-98, Mr. Baer was a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, as Assistant to the President and White House Director of Strategic Planning and Communications and, before, as Chief Speechwriter/Director of Speechwriting and Research. Mr. Baer played key roles in the Clinton Presidency, including the historic 1996 re-election, helping drive integrated communications strategy across domestic and foreign policy, and developing major Presidential speeches and policy initiatives.
From 1985-93, Mr. Baer was a journalist. For seven years, at U.S. News & World Report, he covered politics and the White House and, as an assistant managing editor, oversaw national and international coverage. He also worked at The American Lawyer, has written for publications including The New York Times and POLITICO and was a CBS News on-air analyst. Starting in 2000, he was a writer for the annual Kennedy Center Honors TV production, winning two Writers Guild of America awards.
In the 1980s, Mr. Baer was a media lawyer at New York's Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler. Mr. Baer is Chair of the Board of Directors of PBS, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Meredith Corporation. He also serves on the Boards of The Urban Institute, the News Literacy Project, Project Word, the PR Council, the Reuters Editorial Advisory Board and Fora.tv and on the Advisory Council of The First Year: POTUS 2017 Project at The University of Virginia's Miller Center for Public Affairs. Mr. Baer served as a member of the Board of Visitors at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was inducted into the North Carolina Halls of Fame in Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations.
Mr. Baer received a B.A. from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Phi Beta Kappa), a Master's in International
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Donald A. Baer, Don Boswell and Molly Corbett Broad Elected Board Chair, Professional Vice-Chair and General Vice-Chair
