A Message to All IRE Members From: James V. Grimaldi, IRE Board President
On behalf of the IRE Board of Directors, I am writing today with good news: The board offered the job of IRE executive director to Mark Horvit, projects editor of Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas, and he has accepted. As I'll explain, Mark's offer and acceptance are conditional, but if the process goes as we expect, he will be on the job in January.
An accomplished investigative reporter and editor, Mark is passionate about IRE and watchdog journalism. He is a smart, quick, enthusiastic and energetic investigative journalist whose creative spirit is just the spark IRE needs right now.
Mark is someone who intuitively gets IRE, our members and investigative journalism. He has worked as a reporter and/or editor at The News Herald (Panama City, Fla.), Corpus Christi (Texas) Caller-Times, The Houston Post, Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune and The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer before joining the Star-Telegram, where he has worked both as a reporter and an editor.
You'll recall that our search began in the spring when we wrote to tell you that our longtime executive director, Brant Houston, decided to leave IRE to be the Knight Chair in Investigative Journalism at the University of Illinois. We're fortunate that as Brant has taken on that new role this fall, he has remained with IRE as acting executive director to help in the transition.
(Mark and Brant have collaborated before when Mark arranged for IRE training at the Columbia Daily Tribune. Mark also attended Brant's class in computer-assisted reporting at the University of Missouri.)
In early summer, we formed a Search and Transition Committee and asked for your help in finding great candidates. Your suggestions helped significantly . Our search committee, chaired by David Boardman of The Seattle Times, developed a strong list of candidates. In addition to fellow board member Renee Ferguson of WMAQ and me, the other committee members were Chuck Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity; Neal Shapiro of WNET Channel 13 in New York; Shawn McIntosh of The Atlanta Journal Constitution; and Jan Colbert of the Missouri School of Journalism.
This group fanned out to recruit candidates. We approached dozens of people, many at the annual conference in June. We placed ads on fraternal journalism sites, including NAHJ, AAJA, NAJA and Poynter. Our committee of very busy professionals rose to the occasion and sorted through the candidates, conducted dozens of interviews and ultimately recommended stellar finalists, all of whom could have become executive director. Mark was selected by the Board after interviews during a weekend retreat in Kansas City, Mo., earlier this month.
The next step in Mark's hiring process is his appointment to the University of Missouri faculty so that he can teach a class there as part of our longstanding arrangement with the University. We fully expect that Mark will get that formal approval given the strong support he already has received from a number of MU journalism faculty members. We will have an official announcement when that occurs, but wanted to let you know what was developing as soon as we could.
The executive director supervises 12 full-time staff members; runs IRE's renowned professional programs, publications and Web site; and oversees the $1.4 million budget, fund-raising campaigns and the $3 million-plus endowment fund.
Mark, 43, is married to Beverly Horvit, who was a reporter and copy editor before earning her PhD at the University of Missouri. She is a journalism professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. The Horvits have two children, Elena, 13, and Nate, 11. We hope that you will join the IRE Board in welcoming Mark to the position of executive director. If you want to contact Mark and welcome him, he can be reached at mhorvit@IRE.org.
