Robert Decherd (born 1951) is an American businessman. From 1987 to 2013, he served as the Chairman of the Board, President, and

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

A. H. Belo Corporation DallasNews Corporation, formerly A. H. Belo Corporation (), is a Dallas-based media holding company of The Dallas Morning News and Belo + Company. The current corporation was formed when Belo Corporation separated its broadcasting and publi ...

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, which owns newspapers in North Texas, most notably ''

The Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''The Galves ...

Career

Decherd graduated from

St. Mark's School of Texas The St. Mark's School of Texas is a nonsectarian preparatory day school for boys in grades 1–12 in Dallas, Texas, United States, accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest. History St. Mark's traces its origins to the T ...

, where he was editor of the school newspaper. He then attended Harvard, where he became President of ''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...

'' and Orator of his class Decherd became Belo's chairman and chief executive officer in January 1987. He became President of Belo in January 1994; he had previously served as President from January 1985 through December 1986. From January 1984 through December 1986, he served as Chief Operating Officer. In these roles, he oversaw Belo's listing as a public company with the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

in 1983, as well as the biggest transaction in the company's history, Belo's acquisition of The Providence Journal Company in 1997. Decherd retired from Belo in 2013, after having started in the newspaper business upon his graduation from college forty years earlier. Decherd's great-grandfather was

George Dealey George Bannerman Dealey (September 18, 1859 – February 26, 1946) was a Dallas, Texas, businessman. Dealey was the long-time publisher of ''The Dallas Morning News'' and owner of the A. H. Belo Corporation. A plaza in Dallas is named in h ...

, the

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

of ''The'' ''Dallas Morning News'' and namesake of

Dealey Plaza Dealey Plaza is a city park in the West End Historic District of downtown Dallas, Texas. It is sometimes called the "birthplace of Dallas". It was also the location of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963; 30 minutes after the shooting ...

. His father, H. Ben Decherd, had also been the CEO of Belo. Decherd is a member of the board of directors, lead director, and chairman of the Executive Committee of

Kimberly-Clark Corporation Kimberly-Clark Corporation is an American multinational personal care corporation that produces mostly paper-based consumer products. The company manufactures sanitary paper products and surgical & medical instruments. Kimberly-Clark brand na ...

. He also serves on the Advisory Council for Harvard University's Center for Ethics and the Professions. He was a member of the Media Security and Reliability Council, which was part of President Bush's

Homeland Security Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" t ...

initiative. Decherd received the Media Institute's 1998 Freedom of Speech Award.

Career

See also

References

Further reading