Candace
Wiest has been elected as a director of Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA, and
Todd Hornback has been elected as one of the five trustees of the non-profit
journalistic trust that owns the company.
Both actions came at INI’s annual meeting, held on Feb. 2-3 in
Scottsdale.
Candace
joins Alicia Wadas, Don Henninger, Richard Bricker and Joe Smyth, expanding the
board of directors from four members to five.
Todd
replaces Chuck Matthews, whose five-year term as a non-profit trustee expired
at the meeting. Chuck was awarded
Independent’s Distinguished Service Award “for his years of trusteeship,
inspiration and dedication to preserving a vigorous and independent press as
the bastion of a free society”.
The
five INI non-profit trustees serve staggered five-year terms. They cannot serve
consecutive terms, so at least one member is replaced each year. Board
chair Joe Smyth, who in 1991 transferred 100% ownership of INI to the
non-profit he had created to keep the company mission-driven and perpetually
independent, welcomed Candace and Todd and thanked Chuck for his years of
service.
“It
is so gratifying that this little company has been able to attract so many
incredible people to support our service to our communities,” CEO Ed Dulin
said. “We may be small, but we make a huge difference in our
communities. The dedication begins with our local teams, but their work
is made possible --- and kept sustainable for the long haul --- by an equally dedicated
group of directors and non-profit trustees.”
INI
is unique because it is a normal tax-paying company that is owned by a
non-profit holding company. There are no stockholders and therefore no
dividends are paid. All after-tax profits are reinvested in the company’s
mission of community service through independent civic-oriented journalism.
The
five non-profit trustees are:
Chevy
Humphrey,
the president and CEO of the Arizona Science Center, which has a mission to
inspire, educate and entertain Arizonans about the wonders of science and
technology. In 2014 she was elected to a five-year term as a
non-profit trustee that will expire at the 2019 annual meeting.
Lauren
Hendeles,
a content marketing consultant with clients spanning retail, real estate and technology.
Elected in 2015, Lauren is serving a five-year term that will expire at the
2020 annual meeting.
Abbie
Fink,
the VP/GM at HMA Public Relations in Phoenix and an adjunct faculty member at
Arizona State University, teaching Public Relations for Special Events and
Social Media Strategies for Non-Profits. In 2016, she was elected
to a five-year term that will expire at the 2021 annual meeting.
Adam
Goodman
is the president of Goodman’s Interior Structures in Phoenix. Adam has a BBA from the University of Texas
at Austin, and worked for Gannett for several years before returning to Phoenix
to join the family business. He is a
member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), and the first non-journalist
board member of the Arizona Center for Investigative Journalism. Adam was elected in 2017 to serve a five-year
term that will expire at the 2022 annual meeting.
Todd Hornback is the chief advancement officer of DMB
Community Life, Inc., where he is responsible for setting vision and direction;
developing team/organizational systems, community affairs, community engagement
and community operations of DMB communities in the West Valley. He is also the president and owner of Todd
Hornback & Associates Consulting, which works with governments, nonprofit
organizations, faith-based institutions, and private companies on board
governance, fundraising, planning, and leadership. Elected at INI’s 2018 annual meeting, he
will serve a five-year term that will expire at the 2023 annual meeting.
The
non-profit members act as trustees of the company’s mission of community
service journalism, and pledge not to profit personally from their
involvement. They don’t have responsibility for managing the company, but
they elect the directors who bear that responsibility.
INI’s
board of directors serves at the pleasure of the non-profit trustees. The
directors are:
Candace Wiest is the President & CEO of West Valley
Bancorp, Inc, and West Valley National Bank, the only locally owned and
operated community bank in the West Valley in Arizona. The Bank has branches in Goodyear, Gila Bend,
and Phoenix AZ and an executive office in Riverside, CA. California. During her business career she has turned
around a restaurant, an insurance company and a bank. She is also active in community non-profit
organizations.
Richard
Bricker,
whose career has included being a lawyer, real estate industry executive,
banking industry executive, and business consultant. His consulting activity has ranged from advising
on workouts and capital restructuring, to acquisitions, dispositions, strategic
planning and specialized negotiation.
Don
Henninger
is executive director and founder of the Scottsdale Coalition of Today &
Tomorrow, a group of business and civic leaders working on issues
important to that city. He started his
career in journalism as a reporter at the Daily
Courier in Connellsville, Pa, later served as managing editor of the
Arizona Republic and then as publisher of the Phoenix Business Journal.
Alicia
Wadas is
the chief operating officer at Lavidge, a full-service advertising, public
relations, communications, consulting and interactive marketing agency.
Joe
Smyth
has chaired INI’s board of directors for more than 40 years and presided over the
company’s printing, publishing and digital media expansion in Arizona,
Delaware, Florida and Maryland. He is the author of Newsroom Guidelines
for Independent Newspapers and Fixing America’s Broken Politics. In
a planned succession, Joe stepped down as CEO in 2014 but continued as board
chair --- and the board named Ed Dulin as the new CEO.
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| Joe Smyth and Chuck Matthews |
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| Candace Wiest |
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| Todd Hornback |
