The Fresno Bee

Ray Steele Jr. has been publisher and president of The Fresno Bee since 2001. He began as a reporter with The Fresno Bee in 1967 and held several positions in the newsroom. He was administrative director of The Sacramento Bee from 1982 to 1984 and publisher of its community publications from 1984 to 1986. He returned to The Fresno Bee in 1986 to become general manager, responsible for all business operations. From 1993 to 2001, Steele worked for the corporate office in several positions. Steele serves on the board of directors of the Fresno Business Council, the Fresno Metropolitan Museum and the Economic Development Corporation of Fresno County. He serves on the board of governors of the California State University, Fresno, Foundation and on the advisory council of the university's criminology department. Steele grew up in Fresno County and received a Bachelor of Arts from Fresno State College.

Jim Boren, a 35-year employee of The Fresno Bee, is the newspaper's editorial page editor, overseeing production of the opinion pages. He also writes a column that appears in the Vision section of Sunday's Bee. Boren covered politics for The Bee for 15 years prior to moving to the editorial pages in 1995. He has covered every level of politics, including city council elections, governor races and presidential campaigns. Boren's current column focuses on politics and government policy. One of his columns led to the creation of the annual Rose Ann Vuich Award for Ethical Leadership, which recognizes local elected officials who have met high ethical standards. A native of Fresno, Boren graduated from California State University, Fresno, with a degree in journalism.

Betty Linn joined the executive staff when The McClatchy Company purchased The Sierra Star in 2004. Her career began in 1978 at the Oakhurst Sierra Star as a sales associate, and she later was promoted to sales manager. In 1985 Lesher Communications promoted her to general manager of the Star. She progressed to publisher when USMedia Group purchased the newspaper in 1994. Linn serves on the board of directors of many local organizations, including the Oakhurst Area Chamber of Commerce, Sierra Sunrise Rotary, Yosemite Sierra Visitors Bureau, Oakhurst Advisory Council for Heartland Opportunity Center, Oakhurst Community Park Auction, Oakhurst Community Park Committee and Soroptimist of the Sierras.

Director of Bee newspaper information technology operations since 2002, Terry Geiger is responsible for IT services provided to The Fresno Bee and other California newspapers owned by The McClatchy Company, including The Sacramento Bee, The Modesto Bee and The Merced Sun-Star. He is a member of several technology based organizations and a past president of the Unisys Newspapers Systems Users Group for North America. In a career that has spanned 22 years with The Fresno Bee and McClatchy newspapers, he has served in various technical and managerial positions. Geiger received his Associate of Sciences degree in business data processing from Fresno City College.

Barbara Anderson, 46, has worked at The Fresno Bee for three years. She reports on health issues and social services. A native of Madera, she worked at the Reno Gazette-Journal from 1985-99. She can be reached at banderson@fresnobee.com.

Steve Echeverria Jr. ... 33-year-old hip-hop and reggae head from California. I say 'dude' and 'man' a lot. I like talking to people. I?m a chill dude who happens to do his Clark Kent thing at the Herald-Tribune during the day and my? well, you know when the sun goes down. I?m an old cat. Hanging out is a young man?s game unless you sit in your favorite bar at 1:30 p.m. on a Tuesday. But I?ve been doing this for a while. I feel like this is kinda like my first column. But this is different. More attitude and less wordiness. By day I?m the entertainment and lifestyle reporter for the Herald-Tribune?s Ticket and Florida West sections. At night, I smoke, drink, and eat local entertainment and pop culture. You wont find me tearing up the club or at some swanky martini bar every weekend. Not my style. I started doing my ?Clark Kent? thing about 10 years ago on the West Coast, first as a student at California State University Fresno, then as a reporter for The Fresno Bee and Stockton Record. Since coming to sunny, mellow Sarasota, I?ve covered everything from beach renourishment to mallrats? cell-phone use to senior center parties. Now I cover nightlife.

Genevieve Choate rejoined The Fresno Bee in 2005, but has been with the McClatchy Company and working online since The Bee began its foray in that medium over 10 years ago. Among the many awards to her credit, Genevieve was also a 2006 Newspaper Association of America New Media Fellow. Her mad skills as a Web designer and her in-depth knowledge and experience with McClatchy Interactive make her an invaluable asset to our team. Genevieve enjoys cooking, blogging, and frightening her dogs while playing Sing Star.

Jared Hardy has B.A. in Graphic Design from CSU Fresno. Jared designs, builds, and maintains awesome Web sites for the Online Operations team. He also creates and designs online advertisements. He is a firm believer in Web standards, clean coding, and Web accessibility. Jared enjoys reading, playing guitar, watching movies and hanging out with his dachshunds.

Mark Grossi, 49, joined The Fresno Bee in 1986, working five years as an editor before becoming a staff writer to cover natural resource issues. He is a former Knight Science Journalism Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He can be reached at mgrossi@fresnobee.com.

Nancy Ramirez has been Head Librarian since December 2005. She joined the editorial library in 1990 as an Editorial Librarian. She has worked at The Bee since 1978.