Andrew Sherry, the founder and principal of Communications Partners, is the former vice president for communications at the Knight Foundation. An international journalist turned digital startup specialist, he has successfully built and led teams in news, technology, public policy and philanthropy, working from Hong Kong, Washington, DC, and Miami.

Andrew helped make Knight a model for using digital-first communications to advance philanthropic goals. During his 2012-21 tenure, he ran open calls that opened news and arts funding to all comers, created strategies to define Knight as a source of authoritative, nonpartisan research, and coordinated PR among institutions to elevate landmark events such as Nikole Hannah-Jones becoming a Knight Chair at Howard University and Detroit emerging from bankruptcy with strategic foundation support.

His firm champions organizations building a diverse future for local news nationwide, and supports the environment, arts, and inclusive economic growth in South Florida.

Previously, he led digital communications for the Center for American Progress, an influential DC think tank, an early adopter of social media and data visualization to increase the reach of policy research. By the time he left for Knight, CAP had grown from about 35 to more than 200 staff, and more than 5 million people a month were visiting its web properties.

The first half of Sherry’s career was in journalism; he has reported from China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Cyprus and France, first as a correspondent for Agence France-Presse then as regional editor of the Dow Jones-owned Far Eastern Economic Review. Stories he edited included the first interview with genocidal Cambodian dictator Pol Pot in 18 years. He started his career as a local newspaper reporter in Oswego, NY.

Andrew’s tech startup experience began in Hong Kong, where he joined the founders of a firm that wanted to serve business travelers by bringing broadband internet to hotel rooms. Two years later, I-Quest had installed 20,000 rooms in 14 cities in nine countries, created a successful business-travel website, and was approved to IPO on Hong Kong’s second board. A change in market conditions led to a private sale instead.

Returning to the U.S., Sherry was hired by USA TODAY to create an online travel vertical to meet demand from advertisers. Leveraging tech tools and editorial content, travel.usatoday.com was an immediate success, with travel advertising accounting for 40% of usatoday.com’s $20 million in revenue after one year. He also wrote the 9/11 story for USA TODAY’s website after other staff evacuated the building.

With his international background, Sherry thrives on multicultural teams and has repeatedly elevated the careers of talented people from diverse backgrounds.

Communications Partners draws from his extensive network to assemble professional teams with diverse skill sets to precisely match the needs of clients. Equity and inclusion are core values of the firm, informing its work in independent journalism, economic development, the arts and other fields that strengthen communities.

A native of Washington, D.C., Sherry is a graduate of Haverford College and served on the board of The Communications Network.