Katherine Maher

President and CEO, National Public Radio (NPR)

At ISOJ 2025, Katherine is a keynote speaker for the session “More informed: The stakes and future for public media,” happening on Friday, March 28, at 9:00 a.m.

Katherine Maher is the president and CEO of National Public Radio. She’s an experienced executive leading public interest institutions through technological disruption and strategic transformation, recently in areas of information and media, good governance and democracy, civil and human rights, international development and foreign policy.

Prior to joining NPR, Maher was CEO of Web Summit and served on its Board of Directors. She also worked for five years as CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, responsible for the success of Wikipedia, one of the world’s most popular digital platforms. She led Wikipedia to its highest brand trust since its founding, navigating the misinformation crisis and global trust decline in media, while doubling the Foundation’s fundraising and raising Wikimedia’s first endowment. Before Wikimedia, Maher worked on rights, democracy, and innovation at Access Now, the World Bank, the National Democratic Institute and UNICEF.