NPR has announced it has appointed Ryan Merkley as its new Chief Operating Officer.
Merkley most recently served as the CEO of Conscience, a non-profit in the biotech industry that researched drug developments utilizing AI and collaborative science. He also previously served as the Chief of Staff at the Wikimedia FOundation, CEO at Creative Commons, COO at Mozilla, and worked in the political sphere in Vancouver and Toronto.
“I believe deeply in collaboration – especially things we can only do together – and I’ve spent my career in organizations that do just that. Public media is a collective effort, beginning with communities and local stations across the country and connecting across the network,” Merkley remarked.
“Public media and its unique mission of service is essential to give people the information and context they need to make choices about their lives and their families and to understand each other at home and around the world,” he added. “We need that connection and understanding more than ever, and I’m so inspired by this team and our mission to ensure we protect and grow it.”
As COO, Ryan Merkley will oversee all of the network growth, technology operations and distribution, and production and audience technology teams at NPR.
“Throughout his career, Ryan has demonstrated a commitment to the public trust, leading organizations that prioritize universal access to the common good. He has a proven track record in helping companies with ambitious missions achieve high-performance outcomes, and his success working with complex distributed network organizations and fluency in product and emerging technologies make him an ideal COO for NPR at this moment in time,” NPR CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement announcing Merkley’s appointment.
“I look forward to working with Ryan to build the NPR Network into a truly national public media network with local audience services at its core and to develop and sustain the technologies that make this work possible,” she concluded.
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