MIAMI – The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has promoted Mayur Patel to serve as assistant to the foundation’s president, Alberto Ibargüen. Patel will also continue in his role as director of strategic assessment and impact.
In addition to being responsible for assessing the foundation’s impact, Patel will now also focus on helping develop the foundation’s overall strategy. His new position reflects Knights’ increased emphasis on evaluation as a tool for learning, planning and improvement. He reports directly to Knight Foundation President and CEO Alberto Ibargüen.
“Over the last year and a half, Knight Foundation has undergone a deep review of our mission and goals, seeking to remain true to our donors’ intent and focused on their twin passions of journalism and communities,” Ibargüen said. “At every step along the way, Mayur displayed insight and understanding of our mission and of our leadership opportunity in a changing and increasingly digital society. His tenacity, diplomacy and creativity helped craft our ultimate focus on informed and engaged communities, earning him this greater role in the general management of Knight Foundation.”
Patel joined the foundation in 2009. He was formerly a project associate with the Global Economic Governance Programme at the University of Oxford, involved in research on international institutions and economic affairs. He also was a doctoral fellow with the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva.
He has served as a consultant to Oxfam’s offices in the United Kingdom and in Kenya, and as a policy adviser on trade and investment to Realizing Rights, a New York-based non-governmental organization. He previously worked with the United Nations Development Program in his native Zimbabwe on issues of government accountability and civic participation in parliamentary affairs.
Patel is completing his doctorate in development studies at the University of Oxford, from which he also earned a master’s degree.
