Former Chicago Tribune Publisher named McCormick Foundation CEO

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: Former publisher of Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times, named McCormick Foundation CEO : David D. Hiller, a former publisher of Tribune Co.'s Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, has been appointed president and chief executive of the Chicago-based non-profit McCormick Foundation. : Hiller succeeds David L. Grange, a former U.S. general who is set to retire at the end of next month after a decade with the foundation. Grange has been its president and CEO for nearly four years. : A charitable trust formed in 1955 after the death of Robert R. McCormick, the long-time publisher and editor of the Chicago Tribune, the McCormick Foundation has long been entwined with Tribune Co., his other major legacy. : "The [Tribune] heritage is really strong in the DNA of the foundation," Hiller said Monday. "With the changes in the company, some of the connections are less direct, but the commitment to the legacy of service that the Colonel embodied when he created the foundation are as strong as ever." : The organization was known as the McCormick Tribune Foundation until last year, when it dropped the name of the media company. Once Tribune Co.'s largest shareholder, the foundation sold all its shares as part of the process that took the company private in 2007. : Former Tribune Co. executives Hiller, Dennis J. FitzSimons, James C. Dowdle, John W. Madigan and Scott C. Smith serve on its board. The charity will be moving its headquarters out of Tribune Tower at the end of June, relocating two block away at 205 N. Michigan Ave. : "David Hiller brings to this position both great leadership skills and a passion for the philanthropic work of the foundation," FitzSimons, chairman of the foundation's board and former chairman of Tribune Co., said in a statement. "David's successful career in law, media and journalism, as well as his familiarity with the foundation's guiding principles, make him an ideal choice to carry on the legacy of our founder Robert R. McCormick." : Hiller joined Tribune Co. in 1988 as general counsel, serving in a variety of capacities, including head of strategy and business development, president of Tribune Interactive, and senior vice president of Tribune Publishing. He was president, publisher and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Times from October 2006 to July 2008, having served in the same role with the Chicago Tribune Media Group for two years before that. : A one-time law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Malcolm Wilkey, Hiller was a partner in the Chicago law firm of Sidley & Austin and worked in the U. S. Department of Justice as special assistant to the attorney general and as associate deputy attorney general. : "With the changes that the news media are going through, a question of our focus is what role can the foundation play helpfully in the future of news and media," Hiller said. "Business as usual in terms of anything about the industry, including foundation support for the field, should be looked at. ... The challenge at the present time is not as much the education and training of professional journalists, it's the role of news and news media in the broader civic literacy of the population." : With more than $1 billion in assets, the McCormick Foundation is among the nation's wealthiest philanthropic organizations and awards grants totaling around $50 million annually. Its mission is to improve the nation's civic health. Areas of interest include journalism, education and community investment. : "You look at an area like early childhood education and you look at the work of the foundation and its partners in Illinois," Hiller said. "Grantees like the Ounce of Prevention Fund and the Erickson Institute are doing some of the most important work across the whole country in the field, and now [Secretary of Education] Arne Duncan is taking a lot of that experience with him to Washington. So there's an area where the wind is now catching in the sails and we need to look at what should be the next generation of support in that area." : Hiller is a native of Chicago, with a bachelor's degree from Harvard College and a law degree from Harvard Law School. : His predecessor, Grange, joined the foundation after 30 years of service in the U.S. Army with his final position as commanding general of the First Infantry Division, known as the "Big Red One," serving in Germany, Bosnia, Macedonia and Kosovo. : (Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)

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