Rick Schneider

rschneider@mainepublic.org

Rick Schneider serves as president and CEO of Maine Public, the public media company operating statewide networks for Maine Public Radio (NPR), Maine Public Television (PBS), and the Maine Public Classical radio network. His background included positions in broadcast journalism, philanthropy, and public media leadership before joining Maine Public in 2021.

Schneider started his career as a television news reporter and anchor in Florida and served as a Washington bureau correspondent for Post-Newsweek Stations, owned by the Washington Post Company, before moving to news director and then station manager of WUFT-TV in his hometown of Gainesville, Florida.

His public media leadership experience began in 1998 when he was named president and CEO of KNPB in Reno, where he led the capital campaign for the transition to digital television.

In 2004, he became president and CEO of WPBT in Miami, serving South Florida from the Treasure Coast to the Florida Keys. WPBT produced the news program Nightly Business Report for national broadcast on public television stations.

Schneider served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of WETA, the PBS station and classical music radio station serving Washington, DC, from 2013 to 2017. He helped implement WETA’s acquisition of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions and served as the first president of NewsHour Productions LLC, the WETA affiliate with oversight of PBS NewsHour.

He worked at the National Center for Family Philanthropy, a DC-based nonprofit serving family foundations nationwide, before returning to public media at Maine Public.

Schneider has served on the board of directors of PBS and chaired the boards of the Public Television Major Market Group, Florida Public Media, and the Pacific Mountain Network.

He holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida, where he was named to the College of Journalism and Communications Hall of Fame as an Alumnus of Distinction. He and his wife reside in Maine. They have two adult children.