SEATTLE TIMES LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

Frank A. Blethen
Publisher and Chief Executive Officer
Frank is a fourth generation member of the Blethen family, which founded The Seattle Times in 1896. He has been publisher and chief executive officer since 1985, having joined the family business full-time in 1968. He held a variety of training positions at The Seattle Times until 1974 when he joined The Seattle Times-owned Walla Walla Union-Bulletin as publisher. He returned to The Seattle Times in 1980 and held executive positions in circulation, advertising, marketing and labor. Frank is a graduate of Arizona State University, and has done post-graduate work at Harvard. Frank is known for his civic involvement as well as his generosity in donating to many causes in the community, most notably in the areas of higher education, cultural diversity and health and human services. Frank is deeply committed to diversity, equal opportunity and inclusion. His other passions include his family, preserving family business and independent journalism.


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Carolyn S. Kelly
President and Chief Operating Officer
Carolyn joined The Seattle Times in 1977 as a financial analyst. She has held management positions in the circulation, advertising and marketing departments, and she was chief financial officer from 1989 to 1997. In 1997, she was appointed to the newly created position of general manager to help guide the day-to-day operation of The Seattle Times newspaper and The Seattle Times Company and its affiliates. She became president and chief operating officer in 2001. Carolyn is on the editorial board of The Seattle Times and is an active member of the community, especially in the areas of higher education and community development. She is a graduate of Gonzaga University and holds a Masters Degree of Business Administration from Seattle University.


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Alayne Fardella
Senior Vice President/Business Operations
Alayne leads the company’s performance management initiative, overseeing human resources, labor relations, organizational development and diversity. She also works closely with senior executives in supporting development of the fifth generation Blethen family members in preparation for their eventual stewardship of The Seattle Times. Prior to joining The Seattle Times in 1995, Alayne held management positions with top high tech and manufacturing companies. She holds an M.B.A. degree from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Santa Clara University.


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Ryan Blethen
Editorial page editor of The Seattle Times

Ryan Blethen is the editorial page editor and associate publisher of The Seattle Times.

As associate publisher, he oversees the company’s Washington Affiliate Newspapers, which include the newspapers and Web sites for the Yakima Herald-Republic, the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin and the Issaquah Press.

Blethen has worked as a reporter or editor at newspapers in Yakima and Spokane, Washington, and Portland, Maine. He is a member of the National Conference of Editorial Writers and is on the board of the International Press Institute’s North American Committee.

He is a fifth generation member of the Blethen family. His great-great-grandfather Alden founded The Times in 1896. Blethen is a graduate of Washington State University and attended journalism school at the University of Kansas.

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David Boardman
Executive Editor
Dave serves as executive editor of The Seattle Times. He has oversight and responsibility for the news department of Washington state’s largest newspaper, and for its Web site, seattletimes.com. As an editor for The Times, Dave has directed two Pulitzer Prize-winning team projects and edited six other stories that were Pulitzer finalists. Before joining The Times in 1983, Boardman was a reporter and editor at several papers in the Northwest, and worked on a construction project in Liberia, West Africa. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and has a graduate degree from the University of Washington.


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Mei-Mei Chan
Vice President/Advertising
Mei-Mei joined the company in 1997 as manager of strategic initiatives. Prior to coming to The Seattle Times, she was a journalist and editor for several major publications including the Chicago Sun-Times, USA Today and the Post Register in Idaho Falls, Id. In 1998, Mei-Mei was named director of circulation, followed by a promotion the next year to vice president of circulation. Mei-Mei’s area of focus broadened to include oversight of portions of the advertising department in 2003 as Vice President of Circulation and Customer Marketing. In 2005 she was promoted to vice president of advertising. She is the incoming president of the National Association of Minority Media Executives and a member of the National Advisory Board for the Poynter Institute. A veteran member of the Asian American Journalists Association, Mei-Mei was the founding president of the Washington, D.C., chapter and was national vice president of print. She is a frequent speaker at industry gatherings on management and diversity. She is a 1992 fellow of the Maynard Institute’s Management Training Center at Northwestern University and was an adjunct instructor in graduate studies at Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern in 1993. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign.


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Alan Fisco
Vice President/Circulation and Marketing
Alan joined the company in 1992, having been hired as the Single Copy Sales Manager. In 1995 he was promoted to Home Delivery Manager, followed by Director of Consumer Marketing in 1997. He was promoted to Vice President of Circulation in 2005, and in 2006 added marketing to his responsibilities. Alan started in the newspaper industry in 1983 as Single Copy Sales Manager at The Everett Herald. After three years in Everett, including a promotion to Circulation Sales Manager, he moved to Oregon, becoming Circulation Manager at the Corvallis Gazette-Times. After one year, he moved to The Register-Guard in Eugene, Oregon where he was Circulation Director for four years. He is past-president and chairman of the board of the Northwest International Circulation Executive Association and the Northwest International Circulation Executives. Currently Alan is a member of the International Newspaper Marketing Association and the Direct Marketing Association. He is a past board member of the Eugene Jaycees and is involved in numerous charitable and civic activities within the community. Alan has a B.A. in economics from The University of Washington.


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Jill Mackie
Vice President/Public Affairs
In her role as Vice President, Public Affairs, Jill oversees the company’s strategic communications planning and monitors local, state and federal issues affecting The Seattle Times Company and the Seattle newspaper agency, including land use, general business climate, tax and regulatory matters, as well as issues affecting public access to public information. She is also involved in efforts to reduce consolidation of media ownership and to repeal the estate tax, both issues that impact independent ownership of media. Prior to joining The Seattle Times, Mackie served as Vice President for Government Affairs and Human Resources for the Pacific Lumber and Shipping Company in Seattle, where she focused on international trade and the environment. She has more than 15 years experience working in governmental and public affairs and holds a BA in Sociology from Seattle Pacific University.


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Frank M. Paiva
Vice President/Operations
Frank joined The Seattle Times in 1984, after 11 years with the San Jose Mercury-News. His responsibilities include production, facilities management, newsprint, security and our subsidiary Rotary Offset Press. In 1992, construction was completed on The Seattle Times $200 million state-of-the-art production facility called North Creek, a project headed by Frank. He is a graduate of Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo California and holds a Masters Degree of Business Administration from San Jose State University. Frank is involved in many community and newspaper industry activities, including the Newspaper Association of America's Technical Committee and the International Newspaper Group.


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Michael Shepard
President, Blethen Washington Affiliate Newspapers
In his role as President, Blethen Washington Affiliate Newspapers, Michael Shepard has oversight for the Seattle Times Company’s affiliate newspapers in Washington State: the Yakima Herald-Republic, Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, The Issaquah Press, the Sammamish Review and Newcastle News. Additionally, he serves as publisher of the Herald-Republic.

Shepard is a second-generation newspaper professional. He attended Washington State University, earning a degree in communications with an emphasis on journalism. He began his career working as courthouse reporter for the Idahonian/Daily News, the Moscow, Idaho newspaper serving Moscow and Pullman, WA.

He subsequently worked for 12 years with the Kitsap County-based Sound Publishing, Inc. Shepard joined the Seattle Times Company in 2000 as publisher of the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin and became publisher of the Yakima Herald-Republic in 2003.

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Patricia Lee Smith
Vice President/New Media
Patricia Lee Smith is the Vice President / New Media for the Seattle Times Company. She has over 15 years international experience in interactive product strategy and marketing. Patricia has been at the Seattle Times Company since 1998, starting as Executive Producer in the then start-up New Media Division. She has led a number of the company’s network initiatives, including the strategy and marketing for NWsource, a leading local website about entertainment and shopping, as well as the brand and evolution of the award-winning online marketplace sites: NWjobs, NWautos and NWhomes.

Prior to joining the Seattle Times Company, Patricia led the launch of multi-platform services on the internet, e-mail, interactive television and the minitel, in both the newspaper and directory publishing industries.

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Eileen Takeuchi
Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Eileen serves as the company’s top financial officer. She oversees a broad range of divisions within the department including cash management, customer accounting and credit, financial planning, budgeting, purchasing and real estate. Prior to The Seattle Times, she worked for AT&T Wireless in finance and customer service, managing call centers on the West Coast. She has worked for a high tech startup, a national healthcare company, a national law firm, an international CPA (certified public accountant) firm, and owned her own CPA practice. Eileen received a Master of Business Administration degree from Golden Gate University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington. She recently served on the Board of the American Red Cross serving King and Kitsap Counties, as a member of the Executive and Audit Committees, and as chair of their International Services Committee.


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William D. Yearous
Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Bill joined The Seattle Times in 2000 after playing the lead role in information technology for several companies, including a leading international consumer goods company. He is a graduate of the Colorado School of Mines and holds a Masters Degree of Business Administration from the University of the Pacific. In his current role, he is responsible for all technology systems for the company.


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