Biography

Mary Junck joined Lee in 1999 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. She became president in 2000, chief executive officer in 2001 and chairman of the board of directors in January 2002. She was executive chairman from 2016 to 2019 and is currently the chairman of the company.

She previously held senior executive positions at the former Times Mirror Company. As executive vice president of Times Mirror and president of Times Mirror Eastern Newspapers, she was responsible for all newspaper operations in the region, including Newsday, The Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant, The Morning Call, and Southern Connecticut Newspapers. She also had responsibility for Times Mirror magazines and StayWell, Times Mirror’s consumer health company. She held that position from 1997 until she left the company in 1999. From 1993 to 1997, Mary was publisher and chief executive officer of The Baltimore Sun. From 1990 to 1992, she was publisher and president of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, where she had served as president, general manager and senior vice president since 1985.

She began her career at the Charlotte Observer in 1972 as marketing research manager and advanced to retail advertising manager. In 1977, she joined the Miami Herald as advertising marketing manager, and later was promoted to assistant advertising director. She was appointed to the Knight Ridder corporate staff in 1982 and became assistant to the senior vice president of operations.

Before moving to Davenport in 1999, she was widely known in Baltimore civic circles, where she had been a member of several boards and the Greater Baltimore Alliance, a regional economic development group. She also served on the Johns Hopkins Medicine Board, Greater Baltimore Community Board, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Board, University of Maryland Baltimore County Visitors Board and Washington Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition.

While living in the Quad Cities, she served on various civic and non-profit boards including the Putnam Museum and Science Center, Founder’s Forum, Quad City Chamber of Commerce, QC Regional Opportunities Council, and Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. She co-founded and co-chaired the Women’s Leadership Council of the QC United Way and helped raise over $3 million for pre-school education.

She is a member of the board of directors of Postmedia, headquartered in Toronto, Canada.  She was a member of the board of directors of The Associated Press from 2004 to 2017 and was chairman from 2012 to 2017. 

She is a native of Ogden, Iowa. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Valparaiso University in Indiana and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She married to Ralph Gibson and now lives in St. Louis.  She has two adult children and five grandchildren.