By Kevin McCauley
National Public Radio, which has been rocked by scandal and the ouster of its CEO, has named Sesame Workshop Street CEO Gary Knell as its CEO effective Dec. 1. He replaces Joyce Slocum, general counsel and interim head, since the forced resignation of Vivian Schiller.
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The 57-year-old Knell wants to "calm the waters" and "depoliticize" the network. David Edwards, NPR chairman, noted that the Sesame chief "led a large, complex organization through a tumultuous media environment." Knell "has the skills, experience, talent and vision to lead NPR into an even more dynamic future," said Edwards in a statement.
Knell joined Sesame in 1989 and took over the top spot in 2000. Earlier he was managing director of Manager Media International, multimedia company that operates in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok; senior counsel at WNET/Channel 13 in New York and counsel to the Senate’s Judiciary and Government Affairs Committee.
NPR used Spencer Stuart to assist for the search for Knell, a director at Herrick & Struggles, an executive recruiter competitor to SS.
More than 27M listeners turn in to NPR each year. The network suffered a string of PR black eyes during the past year including the firing of news analyst Juan Williams and an undercover sting operation by conservative operator James O’Keefe.
Those mishaps intensified Republican calls on Capitol Hill to "defund" NPR.
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