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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Michael R. Fancher
Senior Vice President/Editor at Large
Mike joined The Seattle Times as a reporter in 1978, and served as the Executive Editor from 1986 until his promotion to Editor at Large in 2006. Prior to joining the newspaper, he worked for the Kansas City Star. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon and holds both a Masters Degree of Science and a Masters Degree of Business Administration. He serves on numerous boards related to journalism and is a frequent speaker at industry gatherings and in the community media. Mike has twice served as a judge for the prestigious Pulitzer prizes. Under his leadership, The Seattle Times has received many top honors from journalism's most well recognized organizations.


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Charles C. Cochrane
Senior Vice President/Affiliate Newspapers
Chuck joined the company in 1975 as general manager of the company's Walla Walla (WA) Union-Bulletin affiliate newspaper. He became publisher of the Union-Bulletin in 1979. He assumed the publisher's position at the Yakima (WA) Herald-Republic, another affiliate newspaper, in 1996. When The Seattle Times Company purchased Blethen Maine Newspapers in November 1998, Chuck was named publisher and CEO. In addition to this role, he has corporate responsibility for all affiliate newspapers. Chuck, a graduate of Lake Erie College, has held numerous community volunteer board positions and over the years has been active in regional and national newspaper organizations.


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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Chris Biencourt
Vice President/Labor Relations
Prior to joining The Seattle Times in 1998, Chris held a position as in-house labor counsel at a leading wood products company. Prior to that, he was an attorney in private practice. Chris is responsible for labor relations and workplace safety. He is a graduate of Willamette University, and received his law degree from the University of Washington.


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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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Phyllis A. Mayo
Director/Diversity and Inclusion Strategy
Phyllis has been with The Seattle Times since 1992, when she was hired as the training and development manager. The following year, she was promoted into her current role. Phyllis is responsible for training, employee relations, employee services, internal communications, diversity in the workplace and affirmative action. Prior to joining The Seattle Times, Phyllis had an extensive career in human resources with major corporations and also her own consulting practice. She has extensive expertise in the areas of organizational change and effectiveness. Phyllis is a graduate of the University of Maine and holds a Masters Degree in Organizational Development from Harvard University. She has served on numerous boards in the fields of education, health care, and service to youth.


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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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James F. Vesely
Editorial Page Editor
Jim joined The Seattle Times in 1991 and has served as Editorial Page Editor since 2001. Before joining The Seattle Times, he spent much of his career in the Midwest, plus a stint as an editor in Anchorage, Alaska. Vesely was a Journalism Fellow of Stanford University and is a member of the National Conference of Editorial Writers. At The Seattle Times, Jim writes a column of commentary and opinion focused on Seattle's Eastside communities and growth management issues, as well as editorials on the Pacific Rim, its economy and trade. Jim has made frequent reporting trips to Asia and was a member of the U.S.-Japan Editor's Conference. He first visited China in 1984 as a visiting editor with the People's Daily, Beijing. He also covered a wide range of national and international events - political conventions, presidential campaigns and changes in Eastern Europe. He lives on Mercer Island. Jim and his wife, Jean, have two adult daughters.


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