Edward F. O’Keefe named CEO of WNET Group
O’Keefe (Credit David Burnett)
Edward F. O’Keefe will be the next president and CEO of the WNET Group in New York.
O’Keefe will succeed Neal Shapiro, who announced in January that he would retire this year and move into a fundraising role as president emeritus. O’Keefe starts the job Sept. 21.
“Ed O’Keefe is the right leader for WNET due to his exceptional combination of nonprofit leadership, editorial excellence, digital innovation, and operational expertise,” said James Attwood, chair of the WNET board of trustees, in a news release. “He is uniquely qualified to lead our organization at a pivotal moment for public media. Ed brings the vision, energy, and strategic leadership needed to build on WNET’s extraordinary legacy while positioning the organization for the future.”
O’Keefe is currently CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, N.D., which opened this year under his leadership. He is also the author of The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women in the Arena.
Like Shapiro, O’Keefe worked for ABC News. From 2000–12 he held roles including EP of digital content. O’Keefe’s staff won a Peabody Award for coverage of the Sept. 11 attacks.
From 2012–14, he was editor-in-chief of NowThis, a media company that focuses on short-form videos targeting Gen Z and millennial viewers. O’Keefe was SVP of content development for CNN from 2014–19, where he won a Primetime Emmy Award for his work with Anthony Bourdain. He has also been an entrepreneurship fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.
“Returning to my roots to lead an institution as vital as WNET is a profound honor,” O’Keefe said in the news release. “Independent public media is uniquely insulated from the commercial pressures squeezing legacy media and streaming, giving us a rare opportunity to innovate and meet audiences wherever they are. Our mission is to tell the stories that need and deserve to be told. Neal Shapiro has built an extraordinary legacy, and I look forward to working closely with him for a smooth and successful transition.”
