MPBN president, CEO accepts job in Texas

LEWISTON – The head of Maine Public Broadcasting Network, three years after coming east from a similar position in North Dakota, has taken a new job in Texas.

The MPBN board of trustees has accepted, with regret, the resignation of Mary Anne Alhadeff, the organization’s president and CEO, the network indicated Wednesday in a press release.

Alhadeff, 52, has accepted the equivalent position at North Texas Public Broadcasting, also known by the call letters KERA, headquartered in Dallas. KERA’s public television and radio stations serve the seventh-largest market in the country.

Alhadeff will be leaving MPBN in early September, according to the statement. The MPBN board of trustees will be conducting a national search for her replacement.

After serving as president and CEO of Prairie Public Broadcasting in Fargo, N.D., Alhadeff came to Maine in 2002 to succeed Rob Gardiner as head of MPBN. Before working in the Midwest, she lived in Kittery and was director of broadcasting for New Hampshire Public Television.

Alhadeff has won an Emmy Award for her work in public television and also has received honors from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the New York Film Festival, American Women in Radio and Television and other organizations.

A French major in college, she also has held management and production positions at public television stations in Seattle, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn.

Though she called the top post at MPBN a “dream come true” in 2002, Alhadeff indicated in a written statement that the Texas job was too good to pass up.

“The KERA position is a rare leadership opportunity within the public broadcasting community,” Alhadeff said. “I have thoroughly enjoyed living in Maine and working with MPBN’s board of trustees, staff and the many supporters of the organization. The decision to take the position in Dallas was an exceptionally difficult one to make.”

Barry McCrum, chairman of MPBN’s board of trustees, in the same statement commended Alhadeff’s leadership.

“Mary Anne has done an excellent job for MPBN. She has achieved new heights of financial stability for the organization, has reinforced our commitment to education, and has increased MPBN’s services to people throughout all areas of Maine,” McCrum wrote. “The trustees and staff wish Mary Anne the very best in her new position.”

Alhadeff serves on the national Public Broadcasting Service board of directors, is a member of its executive committee and is chairwoman of the PBS Content Policy Committee.