Executive Staff

Publisher & President
William H. Fleet
publisher@fresnobee.com
(559) 441-6060

William H. Fleet was named publisher and president of The Fresno Bee in October 2008. In 2006, he was named president and publisher of McClatchy's Bradenton Herald after 19 years as a publisher for several Southern California Newspapers. From 2004 to 2006, he was group publisher for Times Community News and responsible for the operations of five Los Angeles Times-owned community newspapers. From 2001 to 2003, he was publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press, and from 1993 to 2001, he was publisher of The Signal in Santa Clarita. From 1987 to 1993, he was publisher of Los Angeles Independent Newspapers. He spent 16 years on the board of directors of California Newspaper Publishers Association, and served as president of the association in 2005-06.

Senior Vice President & Executive Editor
Betsy Lumbye
blumbye@fresnobee.com
(559) 441-6207

Betsy Lumbye was named senior vice president and executive editor in 2006. After coming to Fresno as assistant managing editor in 1997, she was promoted to managing editor the following year. She was managing editor at The Herald in Rock Hill, S.C.; was metro editor at The Record in Stockton; was a reporter, assistant city editor and city editor at The Knoxville (Tenn.) Journal; and was a reporter at The Colorado Springs Sun. She graduated from the University of Virginia, where she majored in English and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society.

Senior Vice President of Sales & Strategic Marketing
John Coakley
jcoakley@fresnobee.com
(559) 441-6143

John Coakley, vice president of sales and marketing, is responsible for advertising sales, direct marketing and research at The Fresno Bee and Vida en el Valle. John joined The Fresno Bee in 1991 after spending nine years with The Sacramento Bee. Coakley has a bachelor's degree in journalism from California State University, Fresno, with an emphasis in advertising.

Vice President of Circulation
Tom Cullinan
tcullinan@fresnobee.com
(559) 441-6290

Tom Cullinan was named vice president of circulation in 2000 after serving as director of circulation for nine years. He joined The Fresno Bee in 1984 as city circulation manager and has held a variety of other positions in circulation. While attending college, Cullinan started in the newspaper business at the Detroit Free Press in 1969 and spent 15 years there in the circulation division. A native of Detroit, Cullinan graduated from Wayne State (Mich.) University with a degree in business.

Editorial Page Editor and Vice President
Jim Boren
jboren@fresnobee.com
(559) 441-6307

Jim Boren, who has been an employee of The Fresno Bee for more than four decades, is the newspaper's editorial page editor, overseeing production of the opinion pages. He also writes a column that appears in the Opinion section of Sunday's Bee. Boren covered politics for The Bee for 15 years prior to moving to the editorial pages in 1995. He has covered every level of politics, including city council elections, governor races and presidential campaigns. He has won several journalism awards during his newspaper career. Boren's current column focuses on politics and government policy. One of his columns led to the creation of the Rose Ann Vuich Award for Ethical Leadership, which recognized local elected officials who have met high ethical standards. A native of Fresno, Boren graduated from California State University, Fresno, with a degree in journalism.

Vice President of Interactive Media
Stephen Dana
stephendana@fresnobee.com
(559) 441-6041

Stephen Dana joined The Fresno Bee in 2003 and oversees Internet sales. In 2003, the Newspaper Association of America's Presstime magazine named Dana one of its "20 Under 40" for outstanding achievement in the newspaper industry. As director of new media at the Ventura County (Calif.) Star, he won an NAA Digital Edge Award, an Editor & Publisher "Eppy" Award for Best Interactive Feature and an NAA Digital Edge Award for Best Regional Portal site and Best Classified Vertical site. Dana began his career in 1989 as a sports editor, designer and writer for the Star, and he also worked in digital media for Treasure Coast Newspapers. He graduated from University of California, Berkeley, with a bachelor's degree in economics and a minor in history.

Vice President of Operations
Jeff Gledhill
jgledhill@fresnobee.com
(559) 441-6076

Named vice president of operations in 2001, Jeff Gledhill is responsible for printing, insertion and distribution of all publications of The Fresno Bee. He came to The Bee in 1997 as prepress manager and was promoted to production manager in 2000. Prior to The Bee, Gledhill was assistant production manager at Dow Jones and Company. Gledhill graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a degree in newspaper operations management. He serves on the board of the local Crimestoppers organization.

Vice President of Custom Publications
Valerie Bender
vbender@fresnobee.com
(559) 441-6766

Valerie Bender is vice president for custom publications for all five of McClatchy’s California newspapers. She is responsible for working with each newspaper on creating, designing and production of all niche products. She is also the publisher of our bilingual newspaper, Vida en el Valle, which covers the Central Valley with five zoned editions. She also oversees all of The Fresno Bee's custom publications, including numerous weekly and monthly sections and annual sections and production of the Sierra Star. Bender also oversees the Bee’s Ad Creation and Design Center as well as the overall dummying of the newspaper and classified pagination. Prior to this position, Bender was an assistant managing editor in The Bee's newsroom, overseeing the features, photography and graphics departments, newsroom technology and newspaper design. With more than 30 years in the business, she has held numerous roles at newspapers across the country, including managing editor at the Wilmington (Del.) News Journal and deputy managing editor at the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. She holds a Bachelor of Science in journalism from the University of Florida.

Vice President of Human Resources
Laura Janigian
ljanigian@fresnobee.com
(559) 441-6243

Laura Janigian was named vice president of human resources in 2008. She is a nearly life-long Fresno resident who was graduated from California State University, Fresno, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with a human resources management emphasis. She started at The Bee in 1989 in the Finance Division and moved to Human Resources two months later where she has since held a number of positions, including Human Resources Manager. Janigian serves on the board of directors for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Fresno and Madera Counties whose mission is to recruit, train, and support citizen volunteers to advocate and speak for the best interests of abused and neglected children in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Court systems and is a graduate of the Leadership Fresno program. She also lends her time to the Human Resources Association of Central California (HRACC).

Publisher of The Sierra Star
Betty Linn
blinn@fresnobee.com
(559) 683-4464

Betty Linn joined the executive staff when The McClatchy Company purchased The Sierra Star in 2004. Her career began in 1978 at the Oakhurst Sierra Star as a sales associate, and she later was promoted to sales manager. In 1985 Lesher Communications promoted her to general manager of the Star. She progressed to publisher when USMedia Group purchased the newspaper in 1994. Linn serves on the board of directors of many local organizations, including the Oakhurst Area Chamber of Commerce, Sierra Sunrise Rotary, Yosemite Sierra Visitors Bureau, Oakhurst Advisory Council for Heartland Opportunity Center, Oakhurst Community Park Auction, Oakhurst Community Park Committee and Soroptimist of the Sierras.

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