The Board of Governors of the OPC has appointed Patricia Kranz, a longtime overseas correspondent and editor, as its new Executive Director. Kranz will assume her new post upon the retirement of Executive Director Sonya Fry in May.
Kranz lived and worked in Moscow for almost a decade, first as a freelancer, then for BusinessWeek, covering the collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of a new democratic Russia. She subsequently worked as European editor and national editor for BusinessWeek, as a top business editor for The New York Times, as a vice president for investment bank Morgan Stanley and, most recently, as an editor for Reuters.
Kranz has a bachelor’s degree in European history and French from the University of Michigan and a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University. She also studied French language and civilization at the Sorbonne.
Kranz brings a rich background in overseas journalism to the OPC,” says OPC President Michael S. Serrill. “During her time at BusinessWeek, The Times and Reuters she demonstrated an ability to manage big projects with skill. The Board and I look forward to working with her.”
Serrill praised current Executive Director Fry as “the best thing that ever happened to the Overseas Press Club. She carried the Club forward for 20 years, through good and sometimes rocky times. After her many years at the helm, there are few prominent figures in international journalism who don’t know Sonya. Under her administration, our annual awards dinners were always carefully organized and impeccably elegant. We will miss her terribly, but wish her a very happy retirement.”
Kranz is a longtime OPC member and a familiar face at OPC programs. “I am thrilled to join the staff of an organization that helps international journalists do their jobs and honors those who do it best,” she says. Kranz says one of her goals will be to recruit more young overseas journalists to the OPC. “We need to engage them where they live, which is on social media,” she says. Kranz lives in New York City with her husband and seven-year-old son.