Alberto Ibargüen

Alberto Ibargüen was the president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation from 2005-2024. 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 journalism.

He studied at Wesleyan University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Between college and law school, he served in the Peace Corps in Venezuela’s Amazon Territory and was the Peace Corps programming and training officer in Colombia, based in Bogotá. After law school, he practiced law in Hartford, Connecticut, until he joined The Hartford Courant, then Newsday in New York, before moving to Miami.

He is a former chair of the World Wide Web Foundation, founded by web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee to promote a free and universal web. Over time, he has served on the boards of arts, education, and journalism organizations, including the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Wesleyan University, and Smith College. He is trustee emeritus of the Newseum in Washington, where he served as board chair. He also chaired the board of PBS and served on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and ProPublica. Ibargüen previously served on the boards of American Airlines, PepsiCo, AOL, and Norwegian Cruise Lines and on the Citizen Advisory Committee of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. For his work to protect journalists in Latin America, Ibargüen received a Maria Moors Cabot citation from Columbia University. Wesleyan University, The George Washington University, University of Miami, Mercer University, the University of Nebraska, Arizona State University and Stephens College have awarded him honorary degrees.