Bill Keller

Notable work and positions

The Marshall Project — Founding Editor-in-Chief (2014–2019); Board of Directors member
The New York Times — Executive Editor (July 2003–September 2011)
The New York Times — Moscow Bureau Chief (1986–1991); Johannesburg Bureau Chief (1992–1995)

Biography

Bill Keller, born January 18, 1949, is an American journalist who worked at The New York Times from 1984 to 2014 as a correspondent, editor, and op-ed columnist. He served as the paper's Moscow bureau chief from 1986 to 1991, covering the final years of Soviet Communist rule, for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. He later served as Johannesburg bureau chief from 1992 to 1995, covering the end of white minority rule in South Africa. Keller was executive editor of The New York Times from July 2003 to September 2011; during his tenure the paper won 18 Pulitzer Prizes, including one for its reporting on the National Security Agency's Terrorist Surveillance Program. He stepped down as executive editor in 2011 to become a full-time writer and columnist, and left the Times in 2014 to become founding editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system, co-founded with Neil Barsky. Under Keller, The Marshall Project won a Pulitzer Prize, a National Magazine Award, two George Polk Awards, and an Edward R. Murrow Award. He announced his retirement as editor-in-chief in November 2018, stepped down in 2019, and was succeeded by Susan Chira; he remained on the organization's board of directors. Keller is the author of Tree Shaker: The Story of Nelson Mandela (2008) and What's Prison For?: Punishment and Rehabilitation in the Age of Mass Incarceration (Columbia Global Reports, 2022).