our leaders

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conan Gallaty

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Tampa Bay Times/Times Publishing Company

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Conan Gallaty is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Times Publishing Company. He oversees all business operations of the company, including advertising, circulation and operations.

Prior to his current role, Conan was the Company’s president. He also has served as its chief digital officer, responsible for digital strategy and business development as well as all technical operations for the Times. Before coming to the Times, he was President of Digital for WEHCO Media, an Arkansas-based company with newspapers, digital agencies and cable systems across six states. Before joining WEHCO, Conan was the Director of Online Strategy and Operations for Herald-Tribune Media Group in Sarasota, then a division of the New York Times Regional Media Group as well as Online Director for The Augusta Chronicle, a Morris Communications newspaper located in Augusta, Georgia.

In more than 20 years working in digital media, Conan has received numerous awards for his work in news coverage, design, advertising innovation and development of new digital businesses.

Conan began his career as a journalist, starting in the newsroom of the News-Tribune in his hometown of Rome, Georgia. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia with degrees in Journalism and Business.

News

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Mark Katches

Vice President/ Editor

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Mark Katches is the vice president and editor of the Tampa Bay Times. He assumed the role as the top editor of Florida’s largest newsroom in August 2018. He previously served for four years as editor and vice president of content at The Oregonian/OregonLive in Portland, where his newsroom grew its digital audience by more than 70 percent while winning numerous national journalism awards for investigative reporting, breaking news coverage and narrative writing.

Before moving to Portland, Mark was editorial director of the Center for Investigative Reporting, where he helped launch a start-up investigative website focusing on accountability reporting in the state of California. He helped grow the center’s newsroom from a team of about a dozen watchdog journalists into what was at the time the largest investigative reporting newsroom in the country with about 50 journalists. Mark also built investigative reporting teams at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the OrangeCounty Register, and he directly edited Pulitzer winning projects in local reporting in 2008 and 2010. He served as a consulting editor on a third Pulitzer winner, in the public service category, in 2015. Stories he directed have been named finalists for the Pulitzer five times.

A California native who earned his journalism degree at San Jose State University, Mark has taught journalism as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California, U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and Stanford University. He completed the year-long Punch Sulzberger Executive Leadership Program at Columbia University in 2013. Mark served on the board of directors at Investigative Reporters and Editors, where he oversaw the organization’s mentorship program for six years. He is a member of the Kaiser Health News advisory board.

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Carolyn Fox

Managing Editor

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E-mail: cfox@tampabay.com
Twitter: @carolynpfox

Carolyn Fox is managing editor for the Tampa Bay Times.

She oversees breaking news, criminal justice, business, health, environment, culture, sports and visual (photo and video) coverage. Fox is tasked with overall newsroom digital strategy and manages the team that runs tampabay.com and related digital products, such as social media.

Fox started her journalism career at USA Today as an editorial assistant for the editorial page. She began working for the National Geographic Society in 2007. Over almost eight years, Fox rose from digital producer to director of content initiatives, managing the National Geographic Travel digital team and working with editors and publishers across the company on editorial projects.

From 2014 to 2015, Fox worked as director of entertainment for Advance Local, overseeing content strategy and market communication for entertainment and living channels at 11 news sites in the United States. From there, she moved to New Orleans to become the managing editor of NOLA.com | The Times Picayune, where she managed the news, entertainment, social media, video and photography teams.

In August 2019, Fox joined the Tampa Bay Times leadership team. She previously served as senior deputy editor.

Fox was named to the board of directors of Times Publishing Company, which owns the Tampa Bay Times, in November 2023.

A native of San Diego, with a Canadian passport, Fox graduated from Emerson College in Boston and has a graduate degree in journalism from American University in Washington, D.C. She lives in Saint Petersburg with her husband, daughter and two rescue dogs. 

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Graham Brink

Editor of Editorials

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Graham Brink is the Editor of Editorials for the Tampa Bay Times. He assumed the position in 2020, after having served as the Times’ business columnist and separately, as assistant managing editor of Metro/Business. In his previous editing role, Graham oversaw much of the Times’ local and state coverage, including the Tallahassee bureau.

Graham joined the Times in 1997 as an intern in the Pasco County bureau. He spent the next 10 years as a reporter, working out of Hernando and Hillsborough counties, before moving to a general assignment beat in St. Petersburg. He became an assistant metro editor in 2007. The next year, he moved to business, where he edited a series of stories about nuclear power plants that won a Gerald Loeb Award, one of only two the Times had received at that point. In 2014, he was promoted to metro editor. He was named assistant managing editor for Metro/Business in 2016.

His work as a reporter won many awards, including in 2016 for a first place finish in the Society for Features Journalism contest for a story about becoming the second person ever to complete the official Florida Divide mountain bike race from Georgia to the Everglades. His writing about Morocco was selected for the 2003 edition of Best American Travel Writing.

Graham earned a bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University and master’s from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.

Before joining the Times, he eked out a meager living as a freelance photographer and ran a small lawn care company. The best decision he every made was asking his wife to marry him. They live in St. Petersburg with their son.

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Ellen E. Clarke

Assistant Managing Editor, Features, Visuals & Production

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Ellen E. Clarke is assistant managing editor for features, visuals and production. She leads the talented Life & Culture team of of reporters and editors who cover content ranging from arts, entertainment, food, history and local celebrity to trending topics. She also oversees our visual teams of photographers and videographers while steering the content, editing and design of the newspaper. Clarke came to the Times in 2000 as a copy editor and designer after graduating from Kent State University in Ohio. She has worked in news and features and spent 11 years in daily tbt*, the last few as editor of the formerly daily tabloid newspaper.

Clarke joined the Times masthead as a deputy editor in October of 2018 and became an assistant managing editor in August of 2022. She grew up in Pittsburgh and lives in St. Petersburg.

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Traci Johnson

Assistant Managing Editor, Sports

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Traci L. Johnson oversees all sports coverage, including the area’s professional teams: the Buccaneers, the Lightning, the Rays and the Rowdies.

She joined the Times 20 years ago as a summer intern. Throughout her tenure at the Times, Traci has held a variety of posts in the newsroom. Most recently, she was the editor in charge of directing coverage of high school and college sports and Sunday enterprise. She also was the assigning editor for all major non-beat sporting events such as the Grand Prix, Valspar and the Gasparilla Distance Classic.

A native of Alabama, Traci is the first woman to hold the position of sports editor at the Times.

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Michael Van Sickler

Assistant Managing Editor/News

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Michael Van Sickler is the assistant managing editor/news for the Tampa Bay Times. He oversees the coverage of breaking news, criminal justice, education, health, business, environment, politics and state and local government.

Van Sickler has been with the Times since 2003. As a reporter, he covered growth and development in Tampa and city hall in St. Petersburg. His reporting on mortgage fraud led to a federal indictment. From 2012 to 2015, he was a senior reporter in the Times’ shared Tallahassee bureau with the Miami Herald. His coverage of the statehouse was honored with a Green Eyeshade Award and the Integrity Florida Award for Public Corruption Reporting.

Van Sickler started editing in 2015, first as assistant metro editor, then as senior editor for politics. He was later promoted to metro editor.

An Ohio native, Van Sickler grew up outside Cleveland. He studied English and political science at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania and earned a master’s in mass communication at the University of Florida. He previously worked at the Palm Beach Post and the Lakeland Ledger.

He lives in St. Petersburg with his wife, son and rescue beagle.

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Claire McNeill

Senior Story Editor/Features

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Claire McNeill leads the enterprise team, home to a stellar roster of storytellers and a nationally syndicated columnist. The team’s award-winning work includes gripping narratives and features, deep dives into the news of the day and beyond.

McNeill, who grew up near Philadelphia (on the Jersey side), came to the Times in 2013 for a summer internship. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she returned in 2014 as a full-time Pasco County reporter, then a nightside news reporter, before covering higher education. After more than three years on the enterprise team, she became its editor in 2022. She is also the internship director.
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Rebecca Woolington

Senior Story Editor/Investigations

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Rebecca Woolington is the investigative editor at the Tampa Bay Times. She was previously an investigative and criminal justice reporter at The Oregonian, where she began her career. At the Times, her work has chronicled the rise and fall of a troubled small-town mayor, discrepancies in the state’s counting of coronavirus deaths and dangerous working conditions inside a Tampa lead factory. The latter earned her and her reporting partners, Corey G. Johnson and Eli Murray, the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting, a George Polk Award and several other national honors.

Rebecca grew up in Portland and attended Portland Community College before graduating from the University of Oregon. She joined the Times in 2018.

Business

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Joe DeLuca

President

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Joe DeLuca joined the Times in 2001. He is President of the Times Publishing Company.  He has overall responsibility for coordination and execution of the business strategy across the organization.In addition to those responsibilities, Joe’s current leadership portfolio also includes Consumer Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Operations and Distribution.

Joe has broad newspaper experience beginning his career as a sportswriter and general assignment reporter for Imprint Newspapers, where he later held the positions of Copy Editor, Circulation Manager and Operations Manager.
He spent five years as General Manager of Imprint Printing for Capital Cities/ABC in North Haven, Conn., responsible for production and distribution of 70 weekly newspapers and 50 monthly publications as well as catalogs and periodicals. Joe then spent several years as Production Director of the Hartford Courant, where he also managed the newspaper’s commercial printing division.

Joe is currently a member of the regional board of directors for the Junior Achievement of Tampa Bay. He has been a classroom instructor for Junior Achievement’s public high school Success Skills and Financial Literacy programs.

He also is a member of the Tampa Downtown Partnership’s board of directors and the board of directors for the Tampa Bay Times Fund. In addition, he is a member of the Florida Press Association board of directors, where he is a past board chair.

Joe attended the University of Hartford and is a 2005 graduate of the Media Management Program at Northwestern University.

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Bruce Faulmann

Vice President of Advertising and Marketing

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Bruce Faulmann is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Tampa Bay Times and a member of the Times Publishing Company’s board of directors. He served as Publisher of Florida Trend, a Times affiliate publication, from November 2008 to October 2009.

Before joining the Times Publishing Company, Bruce spent 24 years in the daily newspaper business. He is a member of many nonprofit boards, including Greater Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce, Tampa Hillsborough EDC and the Hillsborough Education Foundation. He was also a member of the Leadership Tampa class of 2003.

Bruce is a graduate of the University of Florida, earning a B.S. degree in Advertising.

Portrait of Stephanie Bonnell, director of finance at Tampa Bay Times, Wednesday, June 28, 2023 in St. Petersburg.

Stephanie Bonnell

Finance Director

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Stephanie Bonnell is the Finance Director of the Tampa Bay Times.

She began her appointment in June 2023.

Portrait of Sebastian Dorch

Sebastian Dortch

Human Resources Director

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Sebastian Dortch has enjoyed a wide-ranging career at the Tampa Bay Times, having served as a newsroom editor before joining the business side as Human Resources Director. He was appointed as a director for Times Publishing Company in 2016 and named to the company’s editorial board in 2020. He graduated from Tennessee State University with a bachelor’s in speech communication theater, completed Northwestern University’s Advanced Executive Program, and is working toward a Master of Arts in Leadership, Theology & Society at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. Sebastian and his wife, Sibyl, have seven children and three grandchildren. His interests include reading, chess, and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

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Michael Hyer

Information Technology Director

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Michael Hyer is the IT Director for the Tampa Bay Times. He assumed this role in 2020 after working at the Times for four years.

Hyer began his career at the Times as an intern in the IT department and eventually became the Development Manager. In his tenure at the Times, he has helped the company through multiple website migrations as well as major changes in core technology.

A Florida native, he attended the University of Central Florida and received a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology.

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Sherri Day

Communications Director

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Sherri Day is the Communications Director of the Tampa Bay Times. She is responsible for all internal, external, executive and strategic and crisis communications for the Company. She also is a member of the Board of Directors for Times Publishing Company, where she is corporate secretary.

Sherri joined the Tampa Bay Times in 2004. Based in Tampa, she covered South and Central Tampa for City Times. She later became the paper’s metropolitan religion reporter and was named Brandon bureau chief in 2009. She became an assistant metro editor in Tampa in 2011 and was responsible for overseeing coverage of law enforcement, courts and breaking news. Sherri joined the editorial board in 2013. Prior to joining the Times, Sherri spent four years reporting at the New York Times, where she started as a summer intern.

In 1998, Sherri graduated magna cum laude from Clark Atlanta University with a degree in mass media arts/journalism. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Sherri is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., a public service sorority; the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists and the Bible-Based Fellowship Church in Carrollwood.

She is married to Marcus Phillips. They live in Tampa and have three children.

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Kerry O'Reilly

Marketing Director

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Kerry O’Reilly was named Marketing Director for the Tampa Bay Times and tampabay.com in December 2010. He leads the marketing creative, research and special publications teams.

He joined the Times in 2000 as the marketing communication manager and later was promoted to deputy marketing director. During his newspaper career, he has been involved in more than 30 award-winning campaigns and led many marketing efforts at the Times, such as “How do you take your Times,” “In the know, in the Times,” “One Bay, One Buy” and “Preferred 2 – to – 1” campaigns.

In 2005, O’Reilly was tapped to help lead the growth of tbt* — a free daily publication of the Tampa Bay Times tailored to 25- to 39-year-olds – and served as both general manager and brand manager.

Prior to joining the Times, O’Reilly was the marketing manager at The Tennessean. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and received an M.B.A. in 2004 from the University of Phoenix.

O’Reilly has served as President of the Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture and the Arts, Kids Voting Tampa Bay the Newspaper Association of America’s Marketing Federation and the Ronald McDonald House of Tampa Bay. He serves on the Board of Governors for the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and the Board of Trustees for the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.