Corporate Governance

Steve Lacy is the Chairman of the Board of Meredith Corporation, the leading media and marketing company reaching more than 100 million American women monthly.

Since joining Meredith in 1998, Lacy has been instrumental in transforming it into the multiplatform company it is today. He oversaw the launch of the company's digital business and the aggressive expansion of its brand licensing activities. He conceived a strategy to greatly expand Meredith Xcelerated Marketing through the acquisition of digital marketing capabilities.

Most recently, Lacy has led the acquisition of many popular media brands —including Allrecipes, Martha Stewart Living, Every Day with Rachael Ray, FamilyFun, and EatingWell — as well as a significant expansion of Meredith's television footprint by adding stations in the Phoenix, St. Louis and Mobile markets.

Lacy was named Advertising Age's Publishing Executive of the Year in both 2003 and 2005. He was inducted into the Iowa Business Hall of Fame in 2013.

Lacy serves on the Boards of Hormel Foods Corporation, The Advertising Council, The Association of Magazine Media and The International Federation of the Periodical Press, and is past Chair of the Board of The Direct Marketing Association. He is a member of Financial Executives International and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Lacy is also deeply involved in the Des Moines community, currently serving in leadership roles with the Greater Des Moines Partnership, the Downtown Des Moines Redevelopment Corporation, the United Way of Central Iowa and the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation. He is a past recipient of Drake University's Community Leadership Award, the American Jewish Council's National Human Relations Award, and the Association of Fundraising Professionals' Outstanding Philanthropist Award.

Tom Harty is President and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to his current role, Harty served as President of Meredith’s National Media Group, a position he assumed in 2010. Harty has been a major contributor to the company’s success since joining Meredith in 2004.

Harty has played a key leadership role in the development and execution of Meredith’s strategic initiatives, helping Meredith increase its connection to the American consumer through growth in magazine audience, online traffic, brand licensing and marketing services. These initiatives include the acquisition of Allrecipes.com and subsequent launch of Allrecipes magazine, as well as adding the Martha Stewart Living, Rachael Ray Every Day, FamilyFun, Parenting, EatingWell and mywedding.com brands to the Meredith portfolio.

Additionally, under Harty’s leadership Meredith has expanded its advertising and digital revenue platforms, which led to Meredith being named the No. 1 rated Media Company by Advertiser Perceptions in 2010 and 2013.

Prior to his joining Meredith, Harty served as Senior Vice President, General Manager for The Golf Digest Companies, a division of Advance Magazines. His broad media company experience includes key leadership positions with TV Guide, where he served as Vice President and Publisher; and Reader’s Digest, where he was Advertising Director. In addition, Harty has held key business positions with The New York Times Company, Forbes and Gruner + Jahr USA.

Harty is currently a member of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the Association of Magazine Media. He holds an MBA from Iona College and a B.S. in Business Administration from Castleton University.

Don Berg is President of DCB Advisory Services, which provides consulting services to food and beverage companies ranging from start-up companies to multinational conglomerates.

Berg spent 26 years with Brown-Forman Corporation, a family-controlled NYSE listed global producer and marketer of fine quality beverage alcohol brands and one of the largest companies in the global wine and spirits industry, retiring as Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer in April 2014. During his career with Brown-Forman Berg held various domestic and international executive positions, including President of Brown-Forman Spirits Americas, the Company’s largest operating group; head of its corporate development and strategy functions; director of its mergers and acquisitions group; and was President of Advancing Markets which held responsibility for leading Brown-Forman in to the emerging markets (which led the Company’s globalization taking international sales from representing 15% of sales (1994) to over 60% of sales (2008).

Prior to joining Brown-Forman, Berg held various finance, sales and marketing roles with respected national and international consumer goods and pharmaceutical firms. He began his career as a Certified Public Accountant with Ernst & Whinney.

Currently, Berg is the non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Gildan Activewear Inc, a publicly-held dual listed Canadian global branded apparel company, after previously serving as Chair of the Compensation Human Resource Committee, and as a member of the Audit/Finance and the Governance/Social Responsibility Committees. Berg has been a director of Gildan since 2015. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Meredith Corporation (since 2012), a publicly-held media and marketing company, where he is Chair of the Audit Committee. Berg also recently joined the Board of Beam Suntory International (April 2019), one of the largest and privately-owned global spirits companies owned by Suntory Holdings in Tokyo Japan.

He also serves as Chairman of the Board of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville, and as a Trustee of Bellarmine University. He is a past Trustee of Augustana College.

Mr. Berg holds a Master of Business Administration degree from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1983) and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting and Business Administration from Augustana College, IL (1977).

Paula A. Kerger is President and Chief Executive Officer of PBS, the nation’s largest non-commercial media organization with nearly 350 member stations throughout the country. Having joined PBS in March 2006, Kerger is the longest-serving president and CEO in PBS history. Kerger also serves as president of the PBS Foundation, an independent organization that raises private sector funding — a significant source of revenue for new projects at PBS.

Kerger is regularly included in the Hollywood Reporter’s “Women in Entertainment Power 100,” an annual survey of the nation’s top women executives in media, as well as Washingtonian Magazine’s Most Powerful Women in Washington. She has been honored with the Woman of Achievement Award from Women in Development, New York, the National Education Association Friend of Education Award, and Promax/BDA, B&C and Multichannel News Brand Builder Award. In 2017 she received the Advancing American Democracy Award from the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site. Prior to joining PBS, Kerger served for more than a decade at Educational Broadcasting Corporation where her ultimate position was executive vice president and chief operating officer. Her tenure boasts many achievements, including WNET’s completion in 1997 of the largest successful endowment campaign ever undertaken by a public television station.

Kerger received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Baltimore, where she serves on the Merrick School of Business Dean’s Advisory Council. She has received honorary doctorates from Washington University in St. Louis, Grand Valley State University, Allegheny College and Northeastern University. She is a member of the Women’s Forum, director of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and chair of the board of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

Elizabeth E. Tallett joined the Meredith Corporation Board of Directors in August 2008. From 2002 to 2014, Tallett was Principal of Hunter Partners, LLC, a management company for early to mid-stage pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies. She continues to operate as a consultant to early stage pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.

Tallett has more than 35 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical and consumer industries. Her prior senior management experience includes serving as President and CEO of Transcell Technologies Inc.; President of Centocor Pharmaceuticals; member of the Parke-Davis Executive Committee; and Director of Worldwide Strategic Planning for Warner-Lambert Company.

Tallett was born and educated in England. She graduated from Nottingham University with two First Class Honors degrees in Mathematics and Economics.

Tallett also serves on the Board of Directors of the Principal Financial Group; Qiagen, N.V., the leading global provider of sample and assay technologies; and Anthem Inc., a health benefits company. Previously, she served on the Boards of Coventry Health Care, Inc.; Varian, Inc.; IntegraMed America, Inc.; Varian SemiConductor Equipment Associates Inc.; and Immunicon, Inc. She was a founding Board member of the Biotechnology Council of New Jersey, and is a Trustee of Solebury School in Pennsylvania.