NPR hires Ryan Merkley as COO

Ryan Merkley is NPR’s next COO, the network announced Monday.

Merkley, who most recently led the biotech nonprofit Conscience, started in the role Monday. Will Lee most recently served as COO until leaving in August 2023. 

“I believe deeply in collaboration — especially things we can only do together — and I’ve spent my career in organizations that do just that,” Merkley said in a press release. “Public media is a collective effort, beginning with communities and local stations across the country, and connecting across the network. … I’m so inspired by this team and our mission to ensure we protect and grow it.”

NPR’s Member Partnership, Network Growth, Technology Operations and Distribution, and Product and Audience Technology teams will report to Merkley. He will also be responsible for “institutional planning and performance” and NPR’s AI strategy, according to the release.

“This portfolio brings together the teams that are leading the way in how NPR builds a truly national public media network, and reaches and serves audiences into the future,” the release said.

Merkley was previously chief of staff at the Wikimedia Foundation from 2019–21, during NPR CEO Katherine Maher’s tenure as Wikimedia Foundation CEO. He was also CEO of Creative Commons for five years and was a senior technology fellow at the Aspen Institute.

“Throughout his career Ryan has demonstrated a commitment to the public trust, leading organizations that prioritize universal access to the common good,” Maher said in the release. “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. 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.”