Victoria Harker is executive vice president and chief financial officer of TEGNA Inc. (NYSE: TGNA), formerly Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI), a global $10 billion media and digital communications company. Before joining Gannett in 2012, Harker served as CFO and president of global business services of the AES Corp. (NYSE: AES), a multinational power company. Prior to joining AES, Harker was CFO and treasurer of MCI from 2002 to 2006 and served as CFO of the MCI Group from 1998 to 2002. Harker also held several positions at MCI within the consumer and small business divisions in finance, information technology, and operations between 1990 and 1998.
Beyond her management experience, Harker holds leadership roles on several public company boards, including Huntington Ingalls (NYSE: HII) and Xylem Inc. (NYSE: XYL). At HII, the $12 billion builder of ships and submarines for the U.S. government, she serves as chair of the Compensation Committee and on the Finance Committee. At Xylem, the $13 billion global water infrastructure company, Harker has been Audit Committee chair since the company’s 2012 inception and a member of the Nominating and Governance Committee and Finance Committees. She also previously served on the Board of Directors of Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) from 2007-2014 and STRIDE (NYSE: LRN) from 2020–2022.
In the not-for-profit space, Harker also serves on several boards, primarily focused on education. She was appointed to the UVA Board of Visitors by Governor Robert McDonnell in 2012, where she chaired the Finance Committee and was a member of the Executive Committee, the Academic Affairs Committee, the Health System Board and the Presidential Search Committee. She remains a member of the UVA Health System Board, Chair of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy Board, and the Rare Book School Board. She is emeritus to the UVA Jefferson Trust, the College of Arts & Sciences Foundation and the Alumni Association Boards, which she chaired from 2010-2012.
In 2019, Harker was appointed by Governor Ralph Northam to the Board of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), responsible for the accreditation and financial oversight for Virginia’s school systems, where she chairs the Board’s Financial Resources and Planning Committee. She is also actively engaged in the Virginia Business Higher Education Council (VBHEC) Board, one of the nation’s leading public private partnerships, chartered to advance economic growth through the advancement of higher education. She serves as a trustee on the Board of the Virginia Historical Society, providing oversight for the $90 million bi-partisan endowment and Richmond’s Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
Harker received her bachelor’s degree in English, with a concentration in economics, from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in business administration, with a concentration in finance, from American University. A two-time ironman triathlete, marathon runner, long-distance swimmer, biker and golfer, she lives in McLean, Virginia, with her husband and three sons.