Briggs Named Vice Chair at Knight Foundation

By: E&P Staff Robert W. Briggs has been named vice chair of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The chairman emeritus and former CEO of the law firm Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs in Akron, Ohio, Briggs succeeds Jill Ker Conway, former president of Smith College, who retired from Knight Foundation?s board this month after serving as a trustee for 14 years. Briggs became a Knight Foundation trustee in June 2002.

?Rob Briggs has demonstrated great wisdom and common sense as well as an outstanding commitment to the goals of Knight Foundation,? said Dr. W. Gerald Austen, chairman of the foundation?s board of trustees. ?He will be counted on as a leader in all of the foundation?s future efforts.?

Briggs received his bachelor?s degree from Duke University and his law degree from The Ohio State University?s College of Law. He lives near Akron with his wife, Joanne, who is a practicing ophthalmologist. They have a blended family of five children and two grandchildren.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities.