Dan Barr has been elected as a director of Independent
Newsmedia Inc. USA, and Rhonda Bannard 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. 8-9 in Scottsdale.
Dan joins Alicia Wadas, Don Henninger, Richard Bricker and
Joe Smyth, expanding the board of directors from four members to five.
(Earlier, Candace Wiest had resigned as a director due to scheduling
conflicts.)
Rhonda replaces Chevy Humphrey, whose five-year term as a
non-profit trustee expired at the meeting.
Chevy was awarded Independent’s Distinguished Service Award “for her
years of trusteeship, inspiration and dedication to preserving a vigorous and
independent press as the bastion of a free society”. She is the president and CEO of the Arizona
Science Center.
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 Dan and Rhonda and thanked Chevy for her
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, non-partisan
civic-oriented journalism.
The five non-profit trustees are:
Lauren Hendeles is a content marketing
consultant with current clients spanning the real estate industry. Prior to
launching her own firm, Lauren served as the global director of corporate
communications at
IO, a
Phoenix-based technology company with presence throughout North America, the
United Kingdom and Singapore. Previous experiences also include communications
manager at
Sprouts Farmers Market;
associate editor at
The
Huffington Post; and editor for AOL’s
Patch.com.
Elected in 2015, Lauren is serving a five-year term that will expire at the
2020 annual meeting.
Abbie Fink is VP/GM at HMA Public Relations in
Phoenix and an adjunct faculty member at Arizona State University and Phoenix
College, teaching both public relations and social media strategies. Her specialties include marketing
communications, media relations, digital/social media relations, special event
management, community relations, issues management and marketing promotions for
the private and public sectors, as well as not-for-profit organizations. 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 a partner and chief advancement
officer for DMB Community Life, a company that provides developer services and
association management and is dedicated to creating special places where people
lead richer and more fulfilling lives.
Todd was elected at our 2018 annual meeting to serve a five-year term
that will expire at the 2023 annual meeting.
 |
| Rhonda Bannard |
Rhonda Bannard has
expertise in creative concepts, strategic planning, community relations,
Rhonda was elected at INI’s 2019
annual meeting to a term that will expire in 2024.
corporate social responsibility, marketing, communications, PR, events, facilitation,
board and leadership development, speech writing and training. From 2013-2018
she developed an innovative urban "third space" showcase for Phoenix
which won a City of Phoenix Request for Proposals and unanimous council
support, although the city later changed direction. She is a former board
chair of the Alliance for Arizona Nonprofits. Her first career was in TV
news.
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:
 |
| Dan Barr |
Dan Barr is
a law partner at Perkins/Coie, with more than 30 years of experience in
the area of civil litigation involving constitutional, employment, media
and political law issues. He represents several news media organizations,
including the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona and is the chair of the
Phoenix office's Pro Bono Committee. He
was a reporter at the Arizona Republic
before becoming a
lawyer.
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 executive vice president and chief operating officer at Lavidge, an
employee-owned full-service marketing communications firm. In 2018, Alicia was named COO of the Year,
received the inaugural AAF Women of Excellence award, and recognized for her
Meritorious Service with the rare Presidential Medal from the FBI National
Citizens Academy Alumni Association. She has a BA in communication from the
University of Colorado.
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, he stepped
down as CEO in 2014 but continued as board chair --- and the board named Ed Dulin
as CEO. Joe plans to step down as board
chair in 2020, with one of the other directors then becoming the non-executive
board chair.
