WGBH leadership biographies
Jonathan C. Abbott
President and Chief Executive Officer
Jon Abbott is President and CEO of WGBH Boston and a leading advocate for public service media nationwide. He joined WGBH as Vice President and General Manager in 1998, became Executive President and COO in 2004, and was named President and CEO in October 2007.
WGBH is a regional, national, and global public service media resource — creating award-winning documentaries and Web content in news and public affairs, science, history, arts and drama, children's programming, and more. WGBH is PBS’s single largest producer of content for television (prime-time and children’s programs) and the Web: Nova, Frontline, Masterpiece, Arthur, Curious George, and Antiques Roadshow are just a few of its signature productions. WGBH also is a major supplier of broadcast and Web content for public radio listeners, a pioneer in educational technologies for teachers and students, and a major provider of media access services for the 36 million Americans with hearing or vision loss.
Abbott oversees 11 public TV services and 3 public radio services serving southern New England.
Abbott has worked closely with PBS to extend public service media's reach, spearheading the launch of two new national digital services: Create (a syndicated lifestyle channel co created with WNET/New York featuring many WGBH productions) made its national debut in 2005; PBS World (a syndicated non fiction service co-created with WNET/NY showcasing science, history, nature, and news programming) followed in 2007.
During his tenure as president, Abbott has expanded WGBH's new media and educational efforts and partnerships, from Teachers' Domain (a multimedia online service for teachers and students)...to the experimental WGBH Lab (using the Web and rights-cleared "open content" to open doors to the next generation of media makers)...to We Shall Remain from American Experience, an ambitious multimedia and outreach project about Native history anchored by a groundbreaking five-part television documentary.
These efforts build on Abbott's early and longstanding interest in mining the capabilities of broadband and online social networks to distribute public service media's distinctive content across an expanding array of digital devices — making it easier for the public as well as educators and students to access WGBH's rich library of programming and information when and where they choose.
Before coming to WGBH, Abbott served as Senior Vice President for Development and Corporate Relations at PBS (1992-1998). Prior to that, he spent five years in senior management with San Francisco public station KQED. A long-time jazz enthusiast, Abbott got his start in broadcasting in 1981 at Columbia University station WKCR-FM.
He serves on numerous public media boards, including the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), American Public Television (APT), American Documentary/P.O.V., and public television's Major Market Group. He is a Trustee of the Boston Children's Museum and Arts Boston, and a board member of Project Healthy Children. And he is an Advisory Council Member for Harvard University's Master of Liberal Arts in Management Program.
Abbott holds a BA from Columbia University and an MBA from Stanford University.
David Bernstein
Vice President and General Manager for WGBH Enterprises
Co-President, PBS Distribution
David Bernstein directs WGBH's business activities, which include negotiation of partnerships with commercial and foreign co-producers; publishing; and licensing. David also is Co-President of PBSd, which is a separate entity wholly owned by PBS and WGBH. PBSd distributes PBS and WGBH programs to home video, foreign, and commercial markets. Prior to joining WGBH in 1992, Bernstein held positions as a senior consultant for Devonshire Consulting; Assistant Secretary of Administration and Finance and director of the Office of Management Information Systems for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; and Associate Commissioner of the Massachusetts Welfare Department.
Margaret Drain
Vice President for National Programming
Margaret Drain is WGBH's vice president for National Programming, with responsibility for overseeing WGBH's many celebrated series seen nationally on PBS, including Frontline, Nova, Antiques Roadshow, Masterpiece, American Experience, and PBS's most-watched program, Antiques Roadshow. She also supervises WGBH's national lifestyle, health, and performance programming.
Under Drain's leadership, WGBH has won multiple News and Documentary Emmys, duPont-Columbia Awards, and George Foster Peabody Awards for its national programming. Drain began her career at WGBH with American Experience, having served as senior producer from 1987 and as executive producer beginning in 1997.
Before moving to Boston, she was a producer at CBS in New York. Drain is a graduate of Columbia University School of Journalism and has a BA from Marquette University.
Benjamin Godley
Executive Vice President
Ben Godley oversees the WGBH departments that manage the organization's finance, budgeting, development, administration, legal and business affairs, human resources, policy and planning, and marketing and communications, as well as WGBH's media access efforts on behalf of the 36 million Americans with hearing or vision impairments. He joined WGBH in 2008.
Godley served in senior positions with Mitt Romney's presidential campaign after several years on the executive staff of the Massachusetts governor. Prior to his work in the political arena, he co-founded and was president and CEO of the award-winning agency CGN Marketing & Creative Services. He also has worked in marketing and management roles at IBM and at Hill and Knowlton and served on a number of local non-profit boards, including Big Brother Big Sister of Massachusetts Bay and the Massachusetts Children's Trust Fund.
Jeanne M. Hopkins
Vice President, Communications and Government Relations
Jeanne Hopkins oversees institutional, community, and government relations for WGBH and is the liaison with WGBH's Community Advisory Board.
Hopkins joined WGBH in 1989 as Director of Media Relations. In 1991 she helped create WGBH's federal government relations initiatives, and later expanded local and community efforts. She was promoted to Vice President in 1994. She serves on the Boards of Brighton Main Streets, the Presentation School Foundation, and the Brighton Board of Trade.
Prior to joining WGBH, Hopkins spent 10 years in University Relations at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and was press secretary to a former US Congressman.
Joseph M. Igoe
Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
Joe Igoe oversees WGBH's technology strategy and infrastructure, with responsibility for the organization's broadcast operations, engineering, IT, and production services. He joined WGBH in 2008 from Fox Networks Engineering and Operations, where he spent eight years in operations management and post-production technology planning, most recently as Vice President, Post Production. Prior to that he held systems engineering positions with Disney/ABC and the Disney Channel and worked in system design and integration for National TeleConsultants. He began his career in educational television at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Igoe holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MBA from California State University, Northridge.
Susan L. Kantrowitz
Vice President and General Counsel
Sue Kantrowitz is responsible for all legal matters affecting the WGBH Educational Foundation, including all aspects of the production contracting process and the negotiation and administration of national collective bargaining agreements with actors, writers and musicians. She also oversees the WGBH Media Library and Archives.
Kantrowitz joined WGBH's legal department in 1981, becoming Director of Legal Affairs in 1984. She was named the station's first General Counsel in 1986. Kantrowitz came to WGBH from the public relations firm Bozell & Jacobs, where she was an account executive. Prior to that she was an associate producer at California station KOCE-TV.
Kantrowitz holds a JD from Boston College Law School and is a member of the American Bar Association, the Massachusetts Bar Association, and the Boston Bar Association.
Winifred Lenihan
Vice President for Development
A nationally respected development professional, Win Lenihan leads WGBH's major philanthropic fundraising, planned and high-level annual giving, and foundation development efforts as well as its board development activities and events management. Lenihan has played a strong hand in three WGBH capital campaigns, directing the last two, which set new marks for the organization. She began her development career in 1983 in WGBH's membership office.
Vinay Mehra
Chief Financial Officer, Vice President for Finance and Administration
Vinay Mehra leads WGBH's financial administration and strategy, assuring that the organization's accounting, budget, and physical plant systems and operations support and enhance WGBH's educational mission. He joined WGBH in 2008 after more than 15 years in senior financial management roles as CFO and Vice President of Finance at both publicly traded and privately held companies, including a Boston-area franchise management company, the Pittsburgh-based media technology company Mediasite Inc., and the San Jose technology company Selectica. Mehra began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, serving clients in the media, technology, and service industries.
Lance W. Ozier
Vice President for Planning and Policy
Lance Ozier works with WGBH's President and Vice Presidents to advance the organization's strategic planning and works with PBS to address those policies and operations that impact WGBH's success as public television's leading producer of prime-time television and Web content.
Ozier joined WGBH in 1990 as Director of National Underwriting, responsible for raising funds for national television and radio projects from national corporate and foundation sources. He was promoted to Vice President in 1998. Before joining WGBH, he was for six years the Vice President for Program Business Affairs at PBS's national headquarters. He began his public television career with the University of North Carolina television network in 1973. He served as Business Manager for WGBY 57 in Springfield, MA (a WGBH licensee) in 1977-78 and joined PBS in 1978, where he became Vice President in 1984.
Jamie Parker
Vice President for Marketing and Communications
Jamie Parker oversees the division that encompasses WGBH's corporate communications, local and national promotion and marketing, branding and visual communications, advertising and on-air promotion, audience research, and wgbh.org. She joined WGBH in 2006 from Arnold Worldwide, where she was Senior Vice President of Brand Communications, developing differentiated messaging and exploring new communications platforms based on the agency's creative campaigns. Prior to Arnold, Parker was with Weber Shandwick Worldwide for 10 years, five as President of Weber Shandwick Cambridge and The Technology Practice.
Parker began her career at The Computer Museum, Boston, as Director of Exhibitions and Archives. She spent 12 years in communications at Digital Equipment Corporation before moving to the agency world.
Parker's commitment to non-profit work has led her to serve as a consultant to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Museum of Science, the University of Massachusetts Boston, Hamilton College, and the Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care.
Russell J. Peotter
WGBH Vice President and General Manager for WGBY Springfield
Rus Peotter is responsible for the management of WGBY Springfield, the WGBH-affiliated public television station serving western Massachusetts, northern Connecticut and southern Vermont. He oversees all station functions including programming, production, development, engineering, and administration.
Peotter came to WGBY in 2001 from Maine Public Broadcasting, where he was in charge of the station's fundraising, promotion, outreach, and audience service efforts since 1992. He has served on numerous PBS national committees, helping senior PBS management develop policies and services in support of stations across the country.
Marita Rivero
Vice President and General Manager for Radio and Television
Marita Rivero oversees the programming, marketing, and administration of WGBH's TV and radio stations. On the radio side, this includes WGBH 89.7 in Boston (heard in Back Bay/Beacon Hill on 96.3 and on Nantucket on WNCK 89.5); WGBH's Cape and Islands NPR station WCAI (heard on 90.1, 91.1, 94.3, and 89.7 HD3); and All-Classical WGBH (heard on 89.7 HD2). WGBH's television services include WGBH 2/HD, WGBH 44, WGBH World, WGBH Create, 'GBH Kids, WGBH On Demand, and Boston Kids & Family TV. Rivero also oversees WGBH's national radio production activity and its local television production unit, Boston Media Productions.
Rivero was named manager of WGBH Radio in 1988. Award-winning radio productions developed under her leadership include the daily global news program The World, the Marketplace Health Desk, Sound & Spirit, the international music service Art of the States, and The Takeaway, a national morning news program in collaboration with BBC World Service and The New York Times. She also served as Executive-in-Charge of WGBH's Peabody Award-winning multimedia project Africans in America. Rivero has developed the WGBH Forum Network; new satellite radio services; and a substantial community partnership program with media, arts, and education partners.
Rivero began her broadcast career at WGBH in 1970 as a producer of public affairs television, including Say Brother (now Basic Black, one of the nation's oldest weekly series by, for, and about African Americans). She served as general manager of WPFW, Washington, DC's Pacifica radio station, from 1981 to 1988. Rivero has been honored with numerous awards for her achievements, among them, a 2007 Pinnacle Award from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce for Achievement in Arts and Education; the first Image Award for Vision and Excellence from Women in Film and Video/New England; and induction into the YWCA's Academy of Women Achievers. She serves on the NPR Board as Member Station Manager, and she is Chair of the National Black Programming Consortium Board.
Rivero holds a BS from Tufts University and has participated in post-graduate training at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education and the Stanford and Wharton schools of business.
Brigid Sullivan
Vice President for Children's, Educational, and Interactive Programming
Brigid Sullivan is WGBH's vice president for Children's, Educational, and Interactive Programming. Under her leadership, WGBH has won every major award for children's television, educational programming, and new-media content. Sullivan joined WGBH in 1978 and was appointed Vice President in 1980.
WGBH is the single largest source of children's programs seen nationally on PBS, and Sullivan is responsible for the creation of such award-winning productions as Curious George, Arthur, Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman, Martha Speaks, Between the Lions, Design Squad, Postcards from Buster, Peep and the Big Wide World, and Zoom. She has overseen the production of the most popular telecourses of all time (French in Action, Destinos, Misunderstood Minds) and serves as executive producer of Justice: A Journey for Moral Reasoning (bringing author Michael Sandel's hugely popular Harvard University course to public television and the Web) and Poetry Everywhere with Garrison Keillor (an innovative effort to bring poetry to a wider audience, both online and on TV).
WGBH is the largest supplier of content to pbs.org, one of the most popular dot-orgs in the world. Sullivan launched the department that creates these deep and rich sites, which extend the impact and longevity of WGBH's TV productions. She also initiated Teachers' Domain, a free online digital library of media resources from the best in public television, correlated to state and national standards.
Formerly also charged with overseeing WGBH's media access activities, Sullivan dramatically expanded WGBH's commitment to ensuring that the 36 million Americans with hearing or vision impairments have access to popular media on public and commercial television, on the Web, in movie theaters, and more.
Sullivan holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BA from Thomas More College of Fordham University.
Suzanne Zellner
Vice President, Corporate Sponsorship
Suzanne Zellner oversees WGBH's national and regional corporate development activities, supervising the staff that secures sponsors for WGBH and handles marketing, client services, and sponsor research.
Zellner joined WGBH in 2003 to direct the Sponsorship Group for Public Television (SGPTV), which secures national corporate sponsors for signature PBS programs, including WGBH's own productions. She was promoted two years later to supervise a newly consolidated department that unifies WGBH's national sales, marketing, client services, and sponsor research operations with the regional sponsorship sales team for WGBH's TV and radio broadcasts, Web site, and events.
Zellner came to WGBH with more than 20 years of sales, account management, and product management at Ziff Communications and CMP Media. She also has CEO and COO experience at three Internet start-up companies. She is the founding executive director of MassWIT (Women, Insights, Technology), a professional women's networking organization.
