About the Director
Mark K. Updegrove

Mark K. Updegrove

Director, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum
2313 Red River Street, Austin, Texas 78705

512.721.0158

Description: L-R: Mark Updegrove, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pavel Palazchenko. Credit: LBJ Library photo by David Valdez. Date: 10/18/2011.

Biographical Note:

Mark K. Updegrove became Director of the LBJ Library & Museum in October 2009. He serves as the Library’s fourth Director since its opening in 1971. Called "one of the country's best historians" by CNN, Updegrove is an award-winning author with over two decades of leadership experience within top media organizations.

Updegrove has written two books relating to the American presidency: Baptism By Fire: Eight Presidents Who Took Office in Times of Crisis (2009) and Second Acts: Presidential Lives and Legacies After the White House (2006). His third book, Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency, will be published by Crown Publishers in March 2012.

A native of Philadelphia, Updegrove spent much of his career at TIME magazine, where he became Los Angeles manager, and president of TIME Canada, TIME's separate Canadian edition and operation, in Toronto. He then went to New York as publisher of Newsweek, and publisher of Nickelodeon magazine and MTV magazine for MTV Networks. Later he returned to Toronto as VP of sales, marketing and operations for Yahoo! Canada.

Updegrove has written for American Heritage, The Nation, National Geographic, TIME, and Worth, and appeared on ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News, and other national news outlets. While at Time, he conceived and co-developed “TIME and the Presidency,” a multi-media program that included features in the magazine and a museum exhibit that appeared at several presidential libraries, including the LBJ Library.

Updegrove is a graduate of the University of Maryland. He and his wife Evelyn have two children, Charlie and Tallie.