Earl J. Wilkinson is executive director and CEO of the International News Media Association (INMA), a global community of market-leading companies reinventing how they engage audiences and grow revenue in a multi-media environment.

During his career, Earl has written reports and books related to the future of media, marketing, and the strategic outlook for the news media industry.

The Texas native is the author of The Earl Blog at INMA.org, as well as a frequent speaker at media industry conferences worldwide. His views on where news media companies fit into the emerging landscape are sought after by the world's leading companies, and he is widely quoted in trade magazines, newspapers, industry Web sites, and more.

Earl joined the staff of INMA in 1990 as publications editor and was appointed executive director and CEO in 1992. During his nearly three decades with the Dallas-based INMA, he has helped transform the association into one of the world's fastest-growing and most influential press associations.

He has logged more than 4 million air miles visiting the leading media companies in 51 countries: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the South Pacific. His broad perspective is unique in the news media industry.

His mix of global trend-spotting with passion for journalism and a wry Texas wit make him one of the most popular and highest-ranked keynote speakers at conferences. Earl has spoken at more than 200 media industry conferences, as well as hundreds of corporate boards and town-hall meetings with media company employees and college campuses.

Earl was honoured for his work with the 2005 Silver Shovel Award for meritorious service to the global media industry, as well as the 2001 Golden Tie Award for contributions made to the European news media industry.

A native of the Northeast Texas city of Tyler, Earl's professional career began in 1982 as a reporter with the Smith County Weekly, a small community newspaper in East Texas. Between 1984 and 1988, he served as a reporter, editor, business editor, and political editor of the Tyler Morning Telegraph, a 50,000-circulation daily newspaper. A graduate of the University of Texas (Tyler) and the Institute on Political Journalism (Washington, D.C.), he later worked as press secretary and in communications capacities for the congressional campaign of Hampton Hodges (R-Texas) and the Washington, D.C.-based congressional staffs of U.S. Rep. Tom Tauke (R-Iowa) and U.S. Rep. Ralph M. Hall (D-Texas).

Earl's hobbies are reflective of his professional background which include an insatiable appetite for media studies, politics, history, and global travel. He is a collector of rare U.S. presidential biographies.