KQED president Boland stepping down next year

Bay Area PBS station taps COO Michael Isip to fill top role

KQED announced Thursday that president and CEO John Boland will retire next September and be succeeded by Michael Isip.

Isip is currently executive vice president and chief operating officer at the San Francisco-based media organization. As part of the succession plan, the KQED board of directors also named Isip to the position of president- elect.

Boland’s tenure as president and CEO at KQED began in March 2010. Under his leadership, KQED’s prioritized investment in local content and services, increasing the staff by 40 percent. KQED Public Radio has become the No. 1-rated station in Northern California and commands the largest audience among all public radio stations nationally.

KQED also claims to have the largest unit of science reporters on the West Coast, along with an expanded arts and culture team, and an education division that develops digital media tools and media literacy products for teachers and students.

“John’s legacy will be felt everywhere here at KQED,” said station board chair Chuck Kissner in a statement. “From the quality, breadth and growth of our news service to the impact of our digital products and relevancy of our programming, to our vastly increased membership and community support, John has helped make KQED an essential service in the lives of most people here in the Bay Area.”

Prior to his tenure as KQED president, Boland served for four years as the first chief content officer of the national Public Broadcasting Service. Previously, he served in several executive positions at KQED for more than a decade, including executive vice president and chief operating officer and chief content officer.

Boland began his career as a daily newspaper reporter and has worked as a newspaper and magazine editor and publisher.

Isip will serve as president- elect and chief operating officer until he takes over for Boland next year. His selection came after a lengthy national search, station officials said.

“Michael Isip earned this appointment not only through his stellar work as a KQED executive but also because he emerged as the best candidate nationally. We’re delighted that Michael will be expanding his leadership role and building upon his many accomplishments at KQED,” said Kissner.

Isip joined KQED in June 2001 as executive producer in TV productions and was promoted to a number of senior-level titles before being named senior vice president and chief content officer in 2014 and then executive vice president and chief operating officer in 2017. KQED was previously organized by platform — radio, TV and interactive. Together, Boland and Isip helped reorganize the station among four new content areas— news, science, arts and education, with multidisciplinary teams that produce for online, social and mobile, as well as for TV and radio.

Prior to coming to KQED, Isip led local production as an executive producer at KVIE public television in Sacramento. He started his career at WLS-TV, the ABC affiliate in Chicago. Overall, Isip has more than 20 years of media experience, with a decade in senior management. He is a senior fellow for the American Leadership Forum — Silicon Valley. He is also on the board of directors for Public Radio International, Pacific Islanders in Communications and American Documentary Inc., producers of the PBS documentary series “POV.”