Neil Brown

President, The Poynter Institute

Neil Brown is the president of The Poynter Institute. He joined Poynter in September 2017, after serving as the editor and vice president of the Tampa Bay Times.

During Brown's tenure leading the Times news staff, the paper won more national and state awards than at any time in its history, including six Pulitzer Prizes in the last eight years. He also launched PolitiFact in 2007; the site won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for its coverage of the 2008 election.

Brown first joined Times Publishing in 1988, serving as managing editor in Washington, D.C., at Congressional Quarterly, a former Times affiliate company. He came to the Times in 1993 as world editor in charge of national and international news and then as managing editor and executive editor. 

A native of Chicago, Brown is a graduate of the University of Iowa, Phi Beta Kappa, with a bachelor's degree in political science and journalism. He began his newspaper career as a reporter and editor at the Miami Herald, covering government and politics in Miami and working in bureaus in Key West, Tallahassee and West Palm Beach.

In 2015, Brown was elected to the Pulitzer Prize Board. He previously served four years as a Pulitzer Prize nominating juror in journalism. He is past president of the Florida Society of News Editors and served six years on the Board of Directors of the American Society of News Editors. In 2010, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the University of Iowa School of Journalism.