ARLINGTON, VA, January 9, 2014 – Paula Kerger, President and CEO of PBS, today announced that Juan Sepúlveda has been appointed PBS Senior Vice President, Station Services following a national search. Mr. Sepúlveda brings to this leadership position over 25 years of experience working with philanthropic organizations, nonprofits, businesses, governments and communities to build efficiencies, find solutions, foster collaboration and nurture innovation.
Having earned degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Stanford Law – as well as being the 3rd Latino ever awarded a Rhodes Scholarship – Mr. Sepúlveda has dedicated his career to helping community-focused organizations engage more effectively in their work. In many communities, public television and radio stations are the only remaining broadcasters that are locally owned and operated, and bring together broad national reach and deep local roots to harness the power of media in ways that change the lives of America’s citizens.
As Senior Vice President for Station Services, Mr. Sepúlveda will report to Michael Jones, PBS Chief Operating Officer, and become a member of PBS’ senior management team. His chief responsibility will be to represent the perspective of PBS’ independent member stations in the ongoing management and strategic direction of PBS to ensure that PBS programs, products and services support each station’s connection to its community and audience. He will also work closely with stations, the PBS Board of Directors, station affinity groups and other national public media organizations to focus on issues of sustainability.
“In today’s increasingly commercialized and consolidated media landscape, public media stations stand alone as locally managed and locally responsive public service media enterprises offering services that are tailored to the communities that rely on them,” said Ms. Kerger. “Given that PBS’ mission-driven work depends on the strength of each individual station, I am delighted to have someone of Mr. Sepúlveda’s outstanding experience, commitment and skills take on this key role. His years of guiding successful partnerships between local and national organizations – combined with his entrepreneurial sense and talent for strategic analysis, critical thinking and finding innovative solutions to complex problems – will greatly benefit PBS, individual stations and our system overall.”
“I have been an enormous fan of PBS all my life – the educational, inspiring and informative content is unlike anything else you can find in today’s media landscape,” said Mr. Sepúlveda. “The work I did at KLRN in San Antonio – where I hosted a local Charlie Rose-like show called 'Conversations' – was some of the most exciting work I’ve ever done in my life. It was extremely rewarding because in the end it is the independent member stations across the country that makes public media local, responsive and deeply committed to serving all Americans. I look forward to working with my colleagues at PBS and member stations across the nation to find even more ways to meet our essential public service mission.”
Mr. Sepúlveda joins PBS from the Democratic National Committee where he was Senior Advisor for Hispanic Affairs. Prior to that, he served as Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics where he designed and led the first-ever Hispanic Policy Conference along with a series of Hispanic Community Action Summits across the country that brought together representatives of offices and federal agencies with Latino community leaders to build relationships and partnerships to tackle key community issues. His national strategy consulting organization, The Common Enterprise, which grew out of a national Rockefeller Foundation initiative, took him to over 35 states where he worked with communities in urban and rural settings as varied as the Appalachian region in the Southeast and numerous towns in the Deep South to American Indian tribes and Urban Indian communities in the Northwest and Midwest to rapidly growing cities on both coasts and the Southwest and many more places in between. From 2004 to 2009 Mr. Sepúlveda was the host of “Conversations” on PBS member station KLRN, where he also designed and led KLRN’s community advisory board.
A graduate of Harvard College with a B.A. in Government, Mr. Sepúlveda also holds a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy & Economics from Oxford University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
About PBS
PBS, with its over 350 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and online content. Each month, PBS reaches nearly 120 million people through television and over 29 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; to hear diverse viewpoints; and to take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’ broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. PBS’ premier children’s TV programming and its website, pbskids.org, are parents’ and teachers’ most trusted partners in inspiring and nurturing curiosity and love of learning in children. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the Internet, or by following PBS on Twitter, Facebook or through our apps for mobile devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Pressroom on Twitter.
CONTACT:
Jan McNamara, 703-739-5028, jmcnamara@pbs.org
Juan Sepúlveda Named New PBS Senior Vice President, Station Services
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