Born: 1937

During nearly four decades at The New York Times, Joseph Lelyveld helped define the highest principles of American journalism. Mr Lelyveld began at The New York Times as a copy boy in 1962. His distinguished reporting included years as a foreign correspondent in London, New Delhi, Hong Kong, and Johannesburg. His 1985 book, Move Your Shadow, based on his reporting on South Africa under apartheid, won several major awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. Other honours for his reporting have included the George Polk Memorial Award and a Guggenheim fellowship.

Mr Lelyveld moved from foreign correspondent to foreign editor in 1987, then he became managing editor and finally executive editor of The New York Times from 1994 until his retirement  from The New York Times in 2001.  In 2003, he was called back as interim executive editor for a brief period.

In an interview during his tenure as executive editor, Mr Lelyveld said that communities need a "free and rambunctious press" in order to create "a place where issues can be defined, redefined and debated."
Since leaving The Times, Mr Lelyveld has written for The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker.  A book about his childhood and family, "Omaha Blues, A Memory Loop" was published in 2005. 

Appointed a Reuters Trustee on 25 March 2004.