Jonathan C. Abbott is an American media executive who was the president and CEO of

WGBH Educational Foundation The WGBH Educational Foundation (also known as GBH since August 2020) is an American public broadcasting group based in Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1951, it holds the licenses to all of the PBS member stations in Massachusetts, and op ...

from 2007 until his resignation in 2022.

Biography

Abbott grew up in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where his father, Forrest Abbott, was the treasurer and controller of

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

. His uncle, Edward C. Melby, Jr., was the dean of the

New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University The New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University is a college of veterinary medicine at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Founded in 1894, it is the first statutory college established by the State University of New York ...

. He attended

The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine is an independent, Episcopal, K-8 day school for girls and boys of all faiths located in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1901, it is located on the 13-acre campus of the Cath ...

and received his B.A. from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and M.B.A. from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He began his career in broadcasting in Columbia University's student-run radio station

WKCR-FM WKCR-FM (89.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to New York, New York, United States. The station is owned by Columbia University and serves the New York metropolitan area. Founded in 1941, the station traces its history back to 1908 with the fir ...

. He joined KQED in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

after graduating from Stanford, running the station's marketing and development, before moving to PBS in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

as senior vice president of development and corporate relations. Abbot joined

WGBH-TV WGBH-TV (channel 2), branded on-air as GBH or GBH 2 since 2020, is the primary PBS member television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship property of the WGBH Educational Foundation, which also owns Boston's sec ...

as vice president and General Manager in 1998 and was named president and CEO in 2007. During his 15 years in the position, he oversaw the development of new channels, expanded the station's presence over digital platforms, and helped GBH raise $215 million in the largest capital campaign by a public media outlet, and increased its endowment more than eightfold to nearly $525 million. He also merged GBH's western Massachusetts TV affiliate

WGBY WGBY-TV (channel 57) is a PBS member television station in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States. Owned by the Boston-based WGBH Educational Foundation, it is a sister station to that organization's flagship and namesake, WGBH-TV (channe ...

with

New England Public Radio WFCR (88.5 MHz) is a non-commercial FM radio station licensed to Amherst, Massachusetts. It serves as the National Public Radio (NPR) member station for Western Massachusetts, including Springfield. The station operates at 13,000 watts ERP fr ...

to form the multiplatform

New England Public Media New England Public Media is a non-profit organization that operates the public broadcasting outlets in Western Massachusetts, including the Springfield area. It operates the region's NPR member, Amherst-licensed WFCR (New England Public Radio) a ...

. In 2013, Abbott was elected a member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

. He is also a recipient of the

John Jay Award The John Jay Award is presented annually by Columbia College of Columbia University to its alumni for distinguished professional achievement. It is named for Founding Father of the United States John Jay, Columbia College Class of 1764. The first ...

from Columbia College. Abbot lives in

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is approximately west of downtown Boston. Newton resembles a patchwork of thirteen villages, without a city center. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of Ne ...

with his family. In February 2022, Abbott announced plans to step down at the end of the year, and was replaced in December by

Susan Goldberg Susan Goldberg is an American journalist and former editor in chief of ''National Geographic Magazine''. She was the first woman to edit the magazine since it was first published in 1888. Before joining ''National Geographic'', Goldberg worked a ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbott, Jon Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Mass media people from New York City Columbia College (New York) alumni Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni American chief executives