WILL general manager named
Mark Leonard, general manager for Central Washington of KCTS-TV in Seattle, has been named the new general manager of WILL AM-FM-TV-Online and director of broadcasting for the College of Communications at the UI. The UI Board of Trustees approved the appointment at its April 11 meeting. He succeeds Donald Mullally, who retired last year. Announcing the appointment, effective June 15, Ron Yates, dean of the College of Communications, said Leonard’s career spans more than 27 years in public broadcasting, including senior management positions in Seattle and Yakima, Wash., and at WXXI in Rochester, N.Y., where he was vice president for television. “He brings vision, energy and creativity to WILL and the Division of Broadcasting at a time when public broadcasting needs such qualities,” Yates said. As general manager for Central Washington at KCTS-TV, Leonard manages all station operations of KYVE, KCTS’ Yakima station. He was chief administrative officer at KCTS-TV from 2000-2003. Leonard said he is looking forward to leading WILL’s operation, in part because it’s a combined public media service with radio, television and new media. “It’s an opportunity to innovate with new models of service for public media,” he said. WILL is a station with a long history and great tradition that has already built a solid history of service to its local communities, Leonard said. His experience at other stations has reinforced his understanding that localism is an essential value of public broadcasting, he said. “With the overall consolidation of commercial media, localism is an increasingly rare but important asset. As a result, public broadcasting has a unique opportunity to build and expand upon local strengths,” said Leonard, who worked briefly in television production for WILL-TV in 1982. Leonard is a past president of the Washington State Public Broadcasters Association, where he successfully reversed declining state support for public television. He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, and participated in the Executive Development Program at the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Rochester.
