MIAMI – Senior Communications Officer Larry Meyer, a national leader in strategic communications for U.S. foundations, will retire Feb. 1 after 14 years as a communications executive and officer with the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

“In a time of profound changes in media, Bud Meyer helped make sure that Knight stayed true to the timeless journalism values we inherited from our founders, the Knight brothers” said Alberto Ibargüen, the foundation’s President and CEO. “He deserves credit for strategic advances, such as building communications into Knight Foundation’s grant-making process, and for innovations, such as employing reporters to evaluate grantees, and creating Knight’s first Web site.”

Bud Meyer joined Knight Foundation in November 1995 as director of communications. He became vice president of communications in 2002, and vice president and secretary in 2004. He supervised the foundation’s communications department, media and public relations efforts, publications and web sites.

Prior to work at Knight, Meyer worked at The Miami Herald from 1981 to 1995, serving as executive assistant to the publisher his last four years. He also worked as a reporter and editor at The Fort Myers News-Press, The Columbia Missourian and the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post.

Meyer is board chairman of the Communications Network, a national nonprofit with 324 members dedicated to promoting strategic communications in U.S. philanthropy. He has represented Knight on the board of directors of the Florida Philanthropic Network. He has served as chairman of the Council on Foundations’ Constituent Communications Committee and as a member of the Council’s Marketing and Communications Committee. He also served on the Independent Sector’s Marketing and Communications Task Force.

He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and holds a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of the U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects with the potential to create transformational change.

For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org or for a high-resolution photo please visit this link.