Vice President and General Manager of WGN-TV Joins Other Leaders of Industry and Community

John J. Vitanovec, a local television executive, has been appointed to DePaul University’s Board of Trustees. Vitanovec, 45, is vice president and general manager for WGN Television, a Chicago-based superstation owned by Tribune Co. In the position, which he has held since 1999, he is responsible for all aspects of the station.

Previously, Vitanovec was vice president and director of operations for Tribune Broadcasting, where he oversaw engineering, creative services, TribNet (a broadcasting group news cooperative), traffic, business information systems and revenue-related activities. He also oversaw Tribune Co.’s West Central WB network station group.

His distinguished career in broadcasting includes two years as vice president and general manager of WLVI-TV in Boston, more than five years as station manager and four years as controller for WGN-TV, and two years as manager of planning for Tribune Broadcasting. He also spent five years at the accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand in various capacities.

Vitanovec holds a bachelor’s degree from DePaul’s College of Commerce and serves on the college’s advisory council. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.

Vitanovec is involved with several charitable and industry organizations, including a role as chairman for the annual Bozo Ball, which benefits The Off the Street Club and WGN-TV Children’s Charities. He is a member of the McCormick Tribune Foundation advisory committee, the United Way Chicago Council, the Association of Local Television Stations, the Executives’ Club and Northwestern University Media Management Center’s advisory board.

DePaul is the largest private university in Chicago and the largest Catholic university in the nation. A richly diverse population of 21,363 students attends classes on two city and six suburban campuses.

DePaul was founded in 1898 by the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers (the Congregation of the Mission), a Roman Catholic religious community which continues the mission and values of Vincent de Paul, the 17th century French saint known as the “Apostle of Charity.”