Advisory Board Member
Gary Pruitt is the President and CEO of the Associated Press. As the 13th president of AP, Pruitt manages the independent news cooperative headquartered in New York City, with teams in over 100 countries covering everything from breaking news to investigative reporting. Two years into his term, Pruitt received the Constitution Project’s 2014 Champion Award for his work defending the United States Constitution’s First Amendment. His work also earned him the First Amendment Award from the Radio Television Digital News Foundation.
Prior to AP, Pruitt was chairman, president and CEO of The McClatchy Company, the third-largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. During his tenure, McClatchy’s operations covered 30 daily newspapers, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee. A First Amendment lawyer by training, Pruitt steered McClatchy toward financial diversification and oversaw the robust growth of its digital revenue.
Long active in professional, business, and civic groups in the Central Valley and throughout the state, he is a former chairman of the Newspaper Association of America and James Irvine Foundation and serves on the board of the Mutual Insurance Company. He previously served on the Board of Directors of the Crocker Art Museum; Board of Visitors of the Columbia University School of Journalism; Board of Advisors of the University of California, Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy; the California Business Roundtable; and various committees for the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
A native of Florida, Pruitt holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida and received both a master’s degree in Public Policy and a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.